45th Parallel North - North America

North America

In North America, the 45th parallel roughly marks the border between the United States and Canada between the St. Lawrence and Connecticut rivers (the northern borders of the U.S. states of New York and Vermont with the Canadian province of Quebec), where the parallel is sometimes called the "Canada line". The actual boundary of Vermont lies approximately 1 kilometre (3,300 ft) north of the parallel due to an error in the 1772 survey. The boundary here intersects Lake Champlain, which is shared by the two nations, with most of the lake lying in the United States.

The 45th parallel makes up most of the boundary between Montana and Wyoming. It also passes through the U.S. states of Oregon, Idaho, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine and through the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

The parallel roughly bisects mainland Nova Scotia. Halifax is approximately 40 km (25 mi) south of the parallel.

All of mainland New Brunswick lies north of the 45th parallel. The southernmost point in mainland New Brunswick, just north of the 45th parallel, is Greens Point, approximately 90 kilometres (56 mi) west of Saint John. Approximately two-thirds of Deer Island, plus all of Campobello and Grand Manan islands, are south of the 45th parallel.

In Michigan, the Old Mission Peninsula in Grand Traverse Bay ends just shy of the 45th parallel. Many guidebooks and signs at the Mission Point Lighthouse describe it as being halfway between the equator and north pole. When the Grand Traverse Bay recedes below normal level, it is possible to walk out to the exact line.

Farther west, the line roughly bisects the metropolitan area of Minneapolis-St. Paul. In Minneapolis there is a marker in Theodore Wirth Park. The center line of east-west Broadway Avenue in Northeast Minneapolis was deliberately laid out by city planners to be coterminous to the 45th parallel (i.e., if you are standing in the middle of the street, you are literally standing on the parallel line). In the Western United States, the parallel passes through the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains, intersecting the Pacific coast in Oregon. Throughout the United States the parallel is marked in many places on highways by a sign proclaiming that the location is halfway between the North Pole and the Equator.