Furthest your city's skyline can be seen from?

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by You Need A Thneed

You should be able to see the Vancouver skyline from Point Roberts, I would think.

You can't even see the Vancouver skyline in the southern half of the city proper, let alone the southern suburbs or Point Roberts. Right in the middle of Vancouver is a pretty major hill which blocks any views from south of it. There really aren't many vantage points for the skyline like there are in flatter places where you can see it from the majority of the metro area.

[MolsonExport]

One can barely see London's skyline from London. The downtown sits in a bowl.

[Pinion]

Coming back from the US and living in North Van I used to love seeing the Grouse Mountain ski resort lights guiding me home. But yeah you can't see the city.

I thought maybe you could see Vancouver from Mt Baker, WA, since the opposite is so easy but there doesn't seem to be any photos.

[flipv]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

One can barely see London's skyline from London. The downtown sits in a bowl.

I don't know why I find this so funny, but I do...

[leftimage]

I don't think any other Canadian city would be visible from as far away as Montreal, which has the perfect combination of extremely low-lying, flat surroundings and a 'wall' of perches for viewing 100kms away (Green mountains and maybe even parts of Adirondacks).
I would have figured Calgary was a good candidate, but haven't seen any super-far-away submissions.

Vancouver and surroundings too mountainous.

Toronto best possible distance is across the lake.

A few 100km + examples from elsewhere:

Chicago from 120KMs away in Warren dunes - amazing pic - apparently this is only possible because Chi's highrises are tall enough to 'peak through' the horizon.



Boston, sort of like Montreal, gets some extra distance thanks to the surrounding topography. Here it is from 105KMs away on Mount Monadnock !




Same for San Fran. (115KM away)



And Charlotte (130KM away)



And (125KMs away)

So far these 5 are the only North American cities where I've found reallllllly long-distance shots.

[Beedok]

Who's that last one? Atlanta or New York?

[le calmar]

That's Atlanta, but I think you can see New York from the Catskills, which would be 100+ km away.

[FrAnKs]

^ I think it's atlanta.

[GreatTallNorth2]

Originally Posted by flipv

I don't know why I find this so funny, but I do...

You can see London from 401/74 which is about 17 KM

[eemy]

You can see the Toronto skyline from many points on the Niagara Escarpment including Caledon, Milton area, Hamilton, and even, it seems, Niagara. Hamilton and Niagara are actually pretty close at about 58 km for Hamilton (from CN Tower) and 59 for Niagara.

I think the furtherest point I could track down with relative certainty was a view of Toronto from Lockport, NY, which is roughly 75 km away. I also found a picture claiming to be from Rochester (150km away), but I'm quite skeptical considering the source.

[MonkeyRonin]

Really cool collection there, leftimage. I wonder what some of these views would look like to the naked eye though - like that Vermont property boasting its "Montreal view".

As for Vancouver - what about from one of the peaks on Vancouver Island? It seems like there should be an unobstructed view somewhere there.

[Innsertnamehere]

Flat earth society, lol. I remember that site now, it's one where people go and try and one up each other on how stupid they can sound. It's a gigantic troll website from my understanding, full of people throwing out obvious lies for the giggles. I'm sure some people who genuinely believe it somehow get caught in it, but generally it's a place of the absurd.

[Klazu]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

As for Vancouver - what about from one of the peaks on Vancouver Island? It seems like there should be an unobstructed view somewhere there.

It's visible from there. It's actually not that great distance across the strait. Under 100km.

[dleung]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Really cool collection there, leftimage. I wonder what some of these views would look like to the naked eye though - like that Vermont property boasting its "Montreal view".

As for Vancouver - what about from one of the peaks on Vancouver Island? It seems like there should be an unobstructed view somewhere there.

You can see an unobstructed view of Vancouver's skyline from the mountains of Vancouver island up to 145km northwest of downtown. The Olympic mountains in Washington State are 150+km, but have a partly obscured view due to the hill that the city of Vancouver is located. But the 280km view from Mt Rainier to Metrotown is hands-down the winner.

Originally Posted by dleung

Someone needs to hike to the summit of Mt Rainier (>4300m) and take a photo of Burnaby's Metrotown (280km away). Precisely, they will see the top 5 or so floors of Sovereign and Metroplace (anything over 250m above sea level)

It has a good chance of being the furthest a highrise can be seen from any point on earth. Metrotown/Mt Rainier lucked out by having the horizon point from both ends over a body of water. I added the qualifier "highrise" because there are some villages in India and Bangladesh that are further than that but within the 330km horizon of Mount Everest. Everywhere else in the world, the are obstructions within that distance.

So I got curious and really nerded it up on AutoCAD.











In conclusion, from Mt Rainier, one can actually see any building taller than ~80m in Burnaby's Metrotown.


Mt Baker to the left

Unfortunately, any view of downtown Vancouver is blocked by a 400m mountain on Cypress Island, WA.

[Rusty van Reddick]

Originally Posted by leftimage

I don't think any other Canadian city would be visible from as far away as Montreal, which has the perfect combination of extremely low-lying, flat surroundings and a 'wall' of perches for viewing 100kms away (Green mountains and maybe even parts of Adirondacks).
I would have figured Calgary was a good candidate, but haven't seen any super-far-away submissions.

Go upthread. There's a shot from Chemist taken 83 km west of Calgary.

[Beedok]

So, who has the worse showing, London or Hamilton?

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Really cool collection there, leftimage. I wonder what some of these views would look like to the naked eye though - like that Vermont property boasting its "Montreal view".

As for Vancouver - what about from one of the peaks on Vancouver Island? It seems like there should be an unobstructed view somewhere there.

Montreal's skyline is clearly visible from Jay Peak on a clear day. And from a handful of other Mountaintops in New England. With the naked eye.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Beedok

So, who has the worse showing, London or Hamilton?

Kitchener as they haven't much of a skyline

[hipster duck]

I once was able to make out Vancouver's skyline from a clearing on top of Mount Maxwell, Salt Spring Island. That's about 60 km as the crow flies. I can't think of any other spot that would be closer that's in a place that humans could easily get to (i.e. not the top of Mt. Baker)

For Toronto, I know that you can see the skyline from Highway 115 near Kirby, which sits at the top of a rather cleared part of the Oak Ridges Moraine. That's about 65 km away as the crow flies, as well. I think it might be farther than the Niagara Escarpment near St. Catharines.

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by leftimage

...
I would have figured Calgary was a good candidate, but haven't seen any super-far-away submissions.

This one was posted 6 years ago ...

Originally Posted by The Chemist

Furthest away I've taken a picture of Calgary from - 84km

I have seen DT from a little further out, but not much more as the mtns themselves start to block the city. I would guess it would be hard to get beyond 100/110 kms ??