RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Fairfax County >> Spring Bank >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Spring Bank, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Spring Bank 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 Spring Bank:
    • 38.782058, -77.075533
    • 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 Spring Bank
  • 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 Fairfax County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Fairfax County
    • Since Spring Bank is near Alexandria City and also Prince George's County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Alexandria City
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Prince George's 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 Spring Bank

Communities Also Named Spring Bank ...

We found three communities that are also named Spring Bank.

Within Virginia, the name Spring Bank is unique.

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

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Arkansas
      • Miller County
      • This community is historic<1> and we have very little information. For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Arkansas community of Spring Bank [Miller County].
    • Nebraska
      • Dixon 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 Nebraska community of Spring Bank [Dixon County].
    • Pennsylvania
      • Centre County
      • This Spring Bank is located in Centre County and lies 149 miles [239.8 km]<3> to the north of the Spring Bank that is located in Fairfax County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Centre County community of Spring Bank.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Spring Bank ...

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.

  • Brad Lee
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Brad Lee is located in Alexandria City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Brad Lee
  • Cannon
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Cannon is located in Fairfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cannon
  • Chapel Hill
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Chapel Hill is located in Alexandria City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chapel Hill
  • Clover
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • Clover is located in Alexandria City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clover
  • College Park
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
    • College Park is located in Alexandria City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for College Park
  • Delta
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Delta is located in Alexandria City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Delta
  • Duke Gardens
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Duke Gardens is located in Alexandria City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Duke Gardens
  • Fair Haven
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Fair Haven is located in Fairfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fair Haven
  • Fort Hunt
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Fort Hunt is located in Fairfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Fort Hunt
  • Governors Grove
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Governors Grove is located in Fairfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Governors Grove
  • Gum Springs
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the south)
    • Gum Springs is located in Fairfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gum Springs
  • Hayfield
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the southwest)
    • Hayfield is located in Fairfax County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hayfield
  • Continue List   (12 more) ...
    • Kerby Hill
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
      • Kerby Hill is located in Prince George's County (MD)
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kerby Hill
    • Marlin Forest
      (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
      • Marlin Forest is located in Fairfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Marlin Forest
    • Memorial Heights
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Memorial Heights is located in Fairfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Memorial Heights
    • Piney Court
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Piney Court is located in Alexandria City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Piney Court
    • Ridgeview
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Ridgeview is located in Fairfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ridgeview
    • Riverside Gardens
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
      • Riverside Gardens is located in Fairfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Riverside Gardens
    • Rose Hill
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Rose Hill is located in Fairfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rose Hill
    • Seminary Valley
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Seminary Valley is located in Alexandria City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Seminary Valley
    • Silver Springs
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Silver Springs is located in Fairfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silver Springs
    • Sunnyview
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
      • Sunnyview is located in Fairfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunnyview
    • Varsity Park
      (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
      • Varsity Park is located in Alexandria City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Varsity Park
    • Virginia Hills
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Virginia Hills is located in Fairfax County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Virginia Hills

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

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

  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 87 miles [140 km]<3> to the south southwest (SSW). If you could drive a straight line from Spring Bank 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 just to the north northeast (NNE).
  • The shortest distance<5> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,904 miles [9,501.6 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,609 miles [10,636.2 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<7>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,486 miles [7,219.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<8>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Spring Bank, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<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 Spring Bank 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>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- Spring Bank) 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 Spring Bank 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 Spring Bank. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 38.7821, Longitude: -77.0755       In this case, the coordinates for Spring Bank have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 307.919 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.455 degrees.
<8>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 304.775 degrees.