RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Alabama >> Lauderdale County >> Morningside Heights >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Morningside Heights, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Morningside Heights and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Morningside Heights:
    • 34.848975, -87.601693
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Morningside Heights
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Lauderdale County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lauderdale County
    • Since Morningside Heights is near Colbert County and also Lawrence County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Colbert County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Lawrence County
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Morningside Heights

Communities Also Named Morningside Heights ...

We found five communities that are also named Morningside Heights.

Within Alabama, the name Morningside Heights is unique.

Beyond Alabama, we know of five communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Florida
      • Hillsborough County
      • This Morningside Heights is located in Hillsborough County and lies 570 miles [917.3 km]<1> to the southeast of the Morningside Heights that is located in Lauderdale County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hillsborough County community of Morningside Heights.
    • Georgia
      • Hall County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Georgia community of Morningside Heights [Hall County].
    • Maryland
      • Baltimore County
      • This Morningside Heights is located in Baltimore County and lies 673 miles [1,083.1 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Morningside Heights that is located in Lauderdale County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Baltimore County community of Morningside Heights.
    • New York
      • New York County
      • This Morningside Heights is located in New York County and lies 848 miles [1,364.7 km]<1> to the east northeast of the Morningside Heights that is located in Lauderdale County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the New York County community of Morningside Heights.
    • South Carolina
      • Oconee County
      • This Morningside Heights is located in Oconee County and lies 269 miles [432.9 km]<1> to the east of the Morningside Heights that is located in Lauderdale County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Oconee County community of Morningside Heights.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Morningside Heights ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • Emerald Shores
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Emerald Shores is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Emerald Shores
  • Falconhead
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Falconhead is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Falconhead
  • Hideaway Hills
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Hideaway Hills is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hideaway Hills
  • Indian Springs
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Indian Springs is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Indian Springs
  • Lake Coves
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Lake Coves is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lake Coves
  • Lakeview
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Lakeview is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview
  • Lakeview Heights
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Lakeview Heights is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lakeview Heights
  • Lockland
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Lockland is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lockland
  • Sky Park
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Sky Park is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sky Park
  • Twin Brooks
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Twin Brooks is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Twin Brooks
  • Village Pines
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Village Pines is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Village Pines
  • Woodlawn
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Woodlawn is located in Lauderdale County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodlawn

How Far From Morningside Heights to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Morningside Heights to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Morningside Heights and extending to:

  • Florence, which is the Seat of Lauderdale County, lies just to the Southwest.
  • Montgomery, which is the State Capital of Alabama, lies 186 miles [299.3 km]<1> to the south southeast (SSE). If you could drive a straight line from Morningside Heights to Montgomery, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take a little over three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 11 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 8 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 646 miles [1,039.6 km] to the east northeast (ENE). Driving would take just over a day, a buggy would take 26 days and walking would take 37 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,520 miles [10,492.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 7,237 miles [11,646.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 5,112 miles [8,227 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' (or point-to-point) distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Morningside Heights) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Morningside Heights could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<3>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<4>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Morningside Heights to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Morningside Heights. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 34.8490, Longitude: -87.6017       In this case, the coordinates for Morningside Heights have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 314.241 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 310.124 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 310.338 degrees.