RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New Jersey >> Middlesex County >> Menlo Park >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Menlo Park, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Menlo Park 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 Menlo Park:
    • 40.565104, -74.337371
    • 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 Menlo Park
  • 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 Middlesex County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Middlesex County
    • Since Menlo Park is near Union County and also Richmond County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Union County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Richmond 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 Menlo Park

Communities Also Named Menlo Park ...

We found two communities that are also named Menlo Park.

Within New Jersey, the name Menlo Park is unique.

Beyond New Jersey, we know of two communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • California
      • San Mateo County
      • This Menlo Park is located in San Mateo County and lies 2,544 miles [4,094.2 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Menlo Park that is located in Middlesex County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the San Mateo County community of Menlo Park.
    • Washington
      • Pierce 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 Washington community of Menlo Park [Pierce County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Menlo Park ...

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.

  • Barber
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Barber is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Barber
  • Clara Barton
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Clara Barton is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clara Barton
  • Clark
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Clark is located in Union County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clark
  • Edgar
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Edgar is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edgar
  • Edison
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Edison is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Edison
  • Fords
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Fords is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fords
  • Hopelawn
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Hopelawn is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hopelawn
  • Lincoln Park
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Lincoln Park is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lincoln Park
  • Nixon
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Nixon is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Nixon
  • Oak Tree
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Oak Tree is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Oak Tree
  • Potters
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Potters is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Potters
  • Pumptown
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Pumptown is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Pumptown
  • Sand Hills
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Sand Hills is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sand Hills
  • Valentine
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Valentine is located in Middlesex County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Valentine

How Far From Menlo Park to ...

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

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

  • New Brunswick, which is the Seat of Middlesex County, lies just to the Southwest.
  • Trenton, which is the State Capital of New Jersey, lies 32 miles [51.5 km]<1> to the southwest (SW). If you could walk a straight line from Menlo Park to Trenton, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of two days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 183 miles [294.5 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 11 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,714 miles [9,195.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,420 miles [10,332 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,296 miles [6,913.7 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<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- Menlo Park) 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 Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird 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 Menlo Park 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 Menlo Park 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 Menlo Park. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.5651, Longitude: -74.3374       In this case, the coordinates for Menlo Park have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 306.155 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 301.734 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 302.873 degrees.