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

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in New Britain, we use the following websites to find information relevant to New Britain 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 New Britain:
    • 42.456776, -73.494973
    • 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 New Britain
  • 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 Columbia County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Columbia County
    • Since New Britain is near Rensselaer County and also Berkshire County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Rensselaer County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Berkshire 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 New Britain

Communities Also Named New Britain ...

We found three communities that are also named New Britain.

Within New York, the name New Britain is unique.

Beyond New York, we know of three communities that are located in the United States and Canada. Of these three communities, .

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Connecticut
      • Hartford County
      • This New Britain is located in Hartford County and lies 65 miles [104.6 km]<1> to the southeast of the New Britain that is located in Columbia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Hartford County community of New Britain.
    • Nova Scotia
      • This New Britain lies 513 miles [825.6 km]<1> to the east northeast of the New Britain that is located in Columbia County.
    • Pennsylvania
      • Bucks County
      • This New Britain is located in Bucks County and lies 172 miles [276.8 km]<1> to the south southwest of the New Britain that is located in Columbia County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Bucks County community of New Britain.

Curious and Interesting Names Near New Britain ...

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.

How Far From New Britain to ...

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

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers and using the location of where the historic<3> community of New Britain once stood, the straight-line distance beginning in New Britain and extending to:

  • Hudson, which is the Seat of Columbia County, lies 20 miles [32.2 km]<1> to the southwest. If you could walk a straight line from New Britain to Hudson, with an average speed<4> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take just over a day to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of a day.
  • Albany, which is the State Capital of New York, lies 19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest (NW). The buggy would take 6 hours and walking would take just over a day.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 307 miles [494.1 km] to the southwest (SW). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take five to six hours, a buggy would take 12 days and walking would take 18 days.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,602 miles [9,015.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,314 miles [10,161.4 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,190 miles [6,743.2 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a '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- New Britain) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about New Britain, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 New Britain 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 New Britain. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 42.4568, Longitude: -73.4950       In this case, the coordinates for New Britain have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 305.432 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 301.226 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 301.628 degrees.