The 49th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 49 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean.
The city of Paris is about 15 km south of the 49th parallel and is the largest city between the 48th and 49th parallels.
The Canada – United States border was intended to follow the 49th parallel from British Columbia to Manitoba on the Canadian side and from Washington to Minnesota on the U.S. side, or from the Strait of Georgia to the Lake of the Woods. Its use as the international border is a result of the Anglo-American Convention of 1818 and the Oregon Treaty of 1846.
From a point on the ground at this latitude, the sun is above the horizon for 16 hours, 12 minutes during the summer solstice and 8 hours, 14 minutes during the winter solstice.
Read more about 49th Parallel North: Around The World, Monuments On The Parallel, Ordnance Survey of Great Britain
Famous quotes containing the words parallel and/or north:
“One writes of scars healed, a loose parallel to the pathology of the skin, but there is no such thing in the life of an individual. There are open wounds, shrunk sometimes to the size of a pin-prick but wounds still. The marks of suffering are more comparable to the loss of a finger, or the sight of an eye. We may not miss them, either, for one minute in a year, but if we should there is nothing to be done about it.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“Come see the north wind’s masonry.
Out of an unseen quarry evermore
Furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
Curves his white bastions with projected roof”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)