That's not how rivers work.
this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2026
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I know somebody who spent the better part of a year navigating the Great Loop.
A guy did it last summer in a Jon boat. https://www.boatblurb.com/post/new-great-loop-speed-record-set-using-16-foot-jon-boat-in-19-days-13-hours-1-minute
Fun to do leisurely or rapidly! Whatever floats your boat, as it were.
Wow, TIL the US is circumcised.
That Chicago waterway is artificial, isn't it?
So this is about as much of an island as Western Europe (Main-Donau Chanel), Africa (Suez Chanel) and North America (Panama Chanel)
If china can extend its territory by making islands, why not split continents by digging ditches 😉
And burning through the witches.
And slamming into the back of my dragula
Do it, baby!
I love you guys ❤️
Yes! Man created.
The Illinois & Michigan canal was in use until 1933 with the completion of the Illinois Waterway. The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal is what reversed the flow of the Chicago River as, as another notable change that reduced traffic on the I&M canal.
Now the I&M canal is a series of walking paths (locally called the “tow path” because that’s how they towed the barges on the river).
Remember that time they accidentally flooded downtown? Chicago has a fun history of architecture and city planning
Here is one of my bits of Chicago trivia. Ridge road is one of the oldest roads in Chicago. If you drive down it, you will notice there are a lot of cemeteries along the road. That is because the ridge it is named after is the beach dune from the old shoreline when the lake stretched further inland during the last glacial period. The cemeteries build along this road because it's easier digging graves in sand.
That is some FANTASTIC Chicago trivia
I actually don’t know about that! Cities are fascinating. Isn’t a chunk of the waterline built on debris? San Francisco is too. Push it into the water and build, it’s fine.
Another interesting thing about Chicago is how the stockyards emptied into “bubbly creek,” which is why it’s named that. There’s a few feet of animal fat still bubbling at the bottom.
Shame on me for having never read The Jungle, I had no idea this existed
Interesting to note that the rotting animal bits causing the bubbles are OVER A HUNDRED years old. Holy fucking hell they had to have dumped a lot in there
That sounds like some of that carbon might have been successfully sequestered.
I recently learned one of the reasons they dye the river once a year is to do leak testing.
People in several Canadian provinces may need an apology after that.
I'm from one of those provinces. I'm a 10th Generation Canadian whose family fled after the Revolutionary War because they supported the Brits, and we've lived in our small community since then. I am not, and have no intention to be an American.
But all the same, something like this doesn't need more than a simple apology. Maybe they used the US instead of 'Eastern North America' and didn't think anything of it. Maybe they're just bad at geography. But if it was intentional, that's when I get mad.
Unfortunately, we’re getting used to it. Reference Rick Mercier’s Talking To Americans series.
Or they could've cut through the Erie Canal and kept it all in the US.
New England, New Brunswick, far eastern New York, and southern Quebec are also an island. Lake Champlain straddles the border between northern Vermont and New York. The lake drains north via the Richelieu River, which connects to the Saint Lawerence River and the Atlantic Ocean. At the south end of Lake Champlain, there’s the Champlain Canal, which goes west to the Hudson River, which also drains to the Atlantic.
The Hudson also connects to the Erie Canal, which would make northern New York its own island.
It stills blows my mind that two navies have duked it out in Lake Champlain. Cannon fire battle, multi-day pursuits... that lake is looong!
Yes, of course, PEI is somehow part of a larger island
You are missing the New York canal. So two islands
I just realized New York isn't just the city, but also a state? And now I was about to write that I feel like I knew this in the back of my head, because that's probably then where New Jersey is, but nope, turns out that is also its own state. And it's kind of closer to New-York-the-city, because it and Connecticut apparently double-teamed New-York-the-state.
Also, there's a mountain range in New-York-the-state which is called "Catskill Mountains", which I'm totally not just bringing up to distract from my lack of geography knowledge. 🫠
I just realized New York isn't just the city, but also a state
As someone from New York State, that's been the bane of my existence. Want to search online for something specific to New York? Full of results for the city, where the answer is probably different. Everyone assumes you mean the city when you say where you're from (except New Yorkers).
By the way, people refer to it as New York State and New York City if they're being specific. Also, there's an area in New York State called Catskill. Just a fun fact I guess.
By the way, people refer to it as New York State and New York City if they’re being specific.
Yeah, I was being extra obtuse for comedic effect. 😅
But well, I'm somewhat glad that it's not just me then, who can't tell the two apart...
Serious question, has anyone ever circumnavigated that route?
Yes, it's called the Great Loop and it's for a whole culture around it just like Appalachian Trail Hikers. Call themselves Loopers
When they make a funny mistake, it’s a Looper Blooper.
I wish I knew the movie "Loopers" better to make a funny joke here
They are just Loopy.
Just wait until OP figures out that all of us humans are just tubes!
South America has a huge natural island in the North East. The Casiquiare Canal connects the Orinoco with the Rio Negro and the Amazon.
Big if true
I'm pretty sure it's biggest island is just to the left of that river which includes the great Alaskan peninsula.
It’s shaped like a whale shark because whale sharks are the best.