RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> Commonwealth of Pennsylvania >> Franklin County >> Roadside >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Roadside, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Roadside 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 Roadside:
    • 39.763427, -77.531657
    • 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 Roadside
  • 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 Franklin County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Franklin County
    • Since Roadside is near Washington County and also Adams County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Washington County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Adams 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 Roadside

Communities Also Named Roadside ...

We found two communities that are also named Roadside.

Within Pennsylvania, the name Roadside is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Georgia
      • Upson 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 Georgia community of Roadside [Upson County].
    • Mississippi
      • Yazoo County
      • This Roadside is located in Yazoo County and lies 858 miles [1,380.8 km]<2> to the west southwest of the Roadside that is located in Franklin County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Yazoo County community of Roadside.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Roadside ...

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.

  • Beartown
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Beartown is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Beartown
  • Cascade
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Cascade is located in Washington County (MD)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cascade
  • Five Forks
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Five Forks is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Five Forks
  • Fountain Dale
    (5 miles [8 km] to the east)
    • Fountain Dale is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fountain Dale
  • Fox Hill
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Fox Hill is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fox Hill
  • Gladhill
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the east)
    • Gladhill is located in Adams County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gladhill
  • Highfield
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Highfield is located in Washington County (MD)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highfield
  • Highfield - Cascade
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Highfield - Cascade is located in Washington County (MD)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highfield - Cascade
  • Rocky Forge
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Rocky Forge is located in Washington County (MD)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rocky Forge
  • Slabtown
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the north)
    • Slabtown is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Slabtown
  • Tomstown
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Tomstown is located in Franklin County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Tomstown

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

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

  • Chambersburg, which is the Seat of Franklin County, lies 13 miles [20.9 km]<2> to the north northwest. If you could walk a straight line from Roadside to Chambersburg, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take 6 hours to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take four to five hours.
  • Harrisburg, which is the State Capital of Pennsylvania, lies 49 miles [78.9 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than an hour, a buggy would take most of two days and walking would take about three full days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 65 miles [104.6 km] to the south southeast (SSE). Driving would take less than an hour, a buggy would take about three full days and walking would take most of three days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,881 miles [9,464.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,591 miles [10,607.2 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,467 miles [7,188.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

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 Roadside 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>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- Roadside) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Roadside 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 Roadside. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 39.7634, Longitude: -77.5317       In this case, the coordinates for Roadside have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.128 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.843 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.59 degrees.