RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Prince William County >> The Heights >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in The Heights, we use the following websites to find information relevant to The 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 The Heights:
    • 38.675950, -77.289706
    • 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 The 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 Prince William County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Prince William County
    • Since The Heights is near Fairfax County and also Charles County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Fairfax County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Charles 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 The Heights

Communities Also Named The Heights ...

We found ten communities that are also named The Heights.

There is one other community in Virginia that is also named The Heights.

Beyond Virginia, we know of nine communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Located In Virginia ...
    • Petersburg City
      • This The Heights is located in Petersburg City and lies 101 miles [162.5 km]<1> to the south of the The Heights that is located in Prince William County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Petersburg City community of The Heights.
  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Kansas
      • Finney 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 Kansas community of The Heights [Finney County].
    • Michigan
      • Jackson County
      • This The Heights is located in Jackson County and lies 432 miles [695.2 km]<1> to the northwest of the The Heights that is located in Prince William County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Jackson County community of The Heights.
      • Roscommon 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 Michigan community of The Heights [Roscommon County].
    • Missouri
      • Saint Louis 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 Missouri community of The Heights [Saint Louis County].
    • Pennsylvania
      • Northampton 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 Pennsylvania community of The Heights [Northampton County].
    • Texas
      • Brazoria 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 Texas community of The Heights [Brazoria County].
      • Galveston County
      • This The Heights is located in Galveston County and lies 1,192 miles [1,918.3 km]<1> to the west southwest of the The Heights that is located in Prince William County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Galveston County community of The Heights.
    • West Virginia
      • Mason County
      • This The Heights is located in Mason County and lies 261 miles [420 km]<1> to the west of the The Heights that is located in Prince William County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Mason County community of The Heights.
    • Wisconsin
      • Marathon 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 Wisconsin community of The Heights [Marathon County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near The 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.

  • Cloverdale
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the southwest)
    • Cloverdale is located in Prince William County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cloverdale
  • Dale City
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
  • Featherstone
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southeast)
    • Featherstone is located in Prince William County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Featherstone
  • Forestdale
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Forestdale is located in Prince William County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Forestdale
  • Harbor View
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Harbor View is located in Fairfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Harbor View
  • Hillendale
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
    • Hillendale is located in Prince William County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hillendale
  • Kerrydale
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the west)
    • Kerrydale is located in Prince William County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kerrydale
  • Mapledale
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the west)
    • Mapledale is located in Prince William County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mapledale
  • Orangedale
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Orangedale is located in Prince William County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Orangedale
  • Princedale
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Princedale is located in Prince William County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Princedale
  • Ridgedale
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Ridgedale is located in Prince William County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ridgedale
  • Silverdale
    (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
    • Silverdale is located in Prince William County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silverdale
  • Terrapin Forest
    (5 miles [8 km] to the west)
    • Terrapin Forest is located in Prince William County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Terrapin Forest

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

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

  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 78 miles [125.5 km]<1> to the south (S). If you could drive a straight line from The Heights to Richmond, with an average speed<4>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than two hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 5 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take most of three days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 20 miles [32.2 km] to the northeast (NE). The buggy would take most of a day and walking would take just over a day.
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,918 miles [9,524.1 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,622 miles [10,657.1 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,499 miles [7,240.4 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

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 obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- The 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 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 The 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're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<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 The 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 The Heights. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.6760, Longitude: -77.2897       In this case, the coordinates for The Heights have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.052 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.589 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.905 degrees.