RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of New York >> Queens County >> College Point >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in College Point, we use the following websites to find information relevant to College Point 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 College Point:
    • 40.787601, -73.845968
    • 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 College Point
  • 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 Queens County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Queens County
    • Since College Point is near Bronx County and also New York County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Bronx County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for New York 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 College Point

Communities Also Named College Point ...

We found one communities that are also named College Point.

Within New York, the name College Point is unique.

Beyond New York, there is another community also named College Point in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Florida
      • Bay County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Florida community of College Point [Bay County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near College Point ...

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.

  • Bird Grove
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • Bird Grove is located in Nassau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Bird Grove
  • City Island
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northeast)
    • City Island is located in Bronx County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for City Island
  • Esplanade Gardens
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • Esplanade Gardens is located in New York County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Esplanade Gardens
  • Flushing
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
  • Fresh Meadows
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
  • Fresh Pond
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Fresh Pond is located in Queens County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fresh Pond
  • Gracie Square
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Gracie Square is located in New York County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gracie Square
  • Great Neck
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
  • Harbor Hills
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Harbor Hills is located in Nassau County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harbor Hills
  • Harlem
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Harlem is located in New York County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harlem
  • High Bridge
    (5 miles [8 km] to the northwest)
    • High Bridge is located in Bronx County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for High Bridge
  • Hunts Point
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Hunts Point is located in Bronx County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hunts Point
  • Continue List   (10 more) ...
    • Locust Point
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Locust Point is located in Bronx County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Locust Point
    • Parsons Beach
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
      • Parsons Beach is located in Queens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Parsons Beach
    • Queens
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southeast)
    • Saddle Rock
      (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Silver Beach
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Silver Beach is located in Bronx County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Beach
    • Sunnyside
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Sunnyside Gardens
      (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
      • Sunnyside Gardens is located in Queens County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunnyside Gardens
    • Throggs Neck
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Throggs Neck is located in Bronx County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Throggs Neck
    • Unionport
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Unionport is located in Bronx County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Unionport
    • Woodside
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)

How Far From College Point 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 College Point to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance<3> beginning in College Point and extending to:

  • Jamaica, which is the Seat of Queens County, lies just to the South Southeast.
  • Albany, which is the State Capital of New York, lies 129 miles [207.6 km]<3> to the north (N). If you could drive a straight line from College Point to Albany, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 8 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 5 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 213 miles [342.8 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 9 days and walking would take 13 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,684 miles [9,147.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,390 miles [10,283.7 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,266 miles [6,865.5 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Mile's to see Pete ... Mile's 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 College Point 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.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- College Point) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<4>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.
<5>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 College Point 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 College Point. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 40.7876, Longitude: -73.8460       In this case, the coordinates for College Point have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 305.84 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 301.414 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 302.561 degrees.