Jurisdictions with artificial high points

[SIGSEGV]

The highest point in Illinois is the top of the Sears (Willis) Tower, which is significantly higher than the highest natural point (pitiful Charles Mound, more than a thousand feet lower than the antenna of the Sears tower, and 700 ft lower than the sky deck).

I wonder how common this is. Obviously this holds for Florida, since its high point is only 341 and there must be hundreds of buildings higher than that in Florida. I thought it might be true for Delaware, but it doesn't seem to be.

[wwmiv]

The landfill is taller than the tallest hill in Austin:

https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2009-09-18/865021/

[PoshSteve]

The highest natural point in Ohio is Campbell Hill, 1550ft above sea level. Key Tower, in Cleveland it 947ft to the tip of the spire. Public Square, which Key Tower is located on, is ~656ft above sea level - making the top of Key Tower about 53ft higher than the highest natural point in the state.

[plinko]

Michigan:
https://k1025.com/mount-arvon-is-no-...ning-waste-is/

[Pedestrian]

Highest point in San Francisco is Sutro (TV) Tower on top of Mt. Sutro.


https://theculturetrip.com/north-ame...s-sutro-tower/

Its base on top of the "mountain" is at 834 ft and the tower itself rises 977 ft for a total height of 1811 ft above sea level.

The highest "point" in the state of California is natural; Mt. Whitney at 14,505 ft. There are at least 10 peaks in the state more than 14,000 ft.

[craigs]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

The highest point in Illinois is the top of the Sears (Willis) Tower, which is significantly higher than the highest natural point (pitiful Charles Mound, more than a thousand feet lower than the antenna of the Sears tower, and 700 ft lower than the sky deck).

I wonder how common this is. Obviously this holds for Florida, since its high point is only 341 and there must be hundreds of buildings higher than that in Florida. I thought it might be true for Delaware, but it doesn't seem to be.

The highest natural point in San Francisco is Mt. Davidson, at 934 ft. above sea level; Salesforce Tower tops out at 1,070 ft. and is situated essentially at sea level; Sutro Tower tops out at 1,811 ft. above sea level (the 977 ft. tower is situated on a hill at 834 ft. above sea level). Under optimal conditions, both Salesforce and Sutro are visible from several dozen miles out, but Mt. Davidson isn't as prominent.

Edit: I see Pedestrian beat me to it.

[Ifactwo]

Interesting posts, thank you for sharing.

[dimondpark]

This reminds of this old list I have on my computer....

Difference in Feet between the Lowest to Highest Elevation, Selected US Cities
Los Angeles, CA 5,074 ft
Honolulu, HI 4,020 ft
San Jose, CA 2,125 ft
Oakland, CA 1,754 ft
Phoenix, AZ 1,642 ft
Albuquerque, NM 1,174 ft
Portland, OR 1,073 ft
San Francisco 934 ft
San Diego, CA 823 ft
Nashville, TN 775 ft
Austin, TX 674 ft
Pittsburgh, PA 660 ft
Seattle, WA 520 ft
Denver, CO 340 ft

[xzmattzx]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

The highest point in Illinois is the top of the Sears (Willis) Tower, which is significantly higher than the highest natural point (pitiful Charles Mound, more than a thousand feet lower than the antenna of the Sears tower, and 700 ft lower than the sky deck).

I wonder how common this is. Obviously this holds for Florida, since its high point is only 341 and there must be hundreds of buildings higher than that in Florida. I thought it might be true for Delaware, but it doesn't seem to be.

It is and isn't true for Delaware. The tallest structure to the ground/sea in Delaware is the Delaware Memorial Bridge, at 440 feet from sea level. The highest point is Delaware is Ebright Azimuth, which is at 447 feet above sea level. However, Ebright Azimuth is the most unique highpoint in the US, since it's not really a hill, so it's easy to have something above it. There's a radio tower nearby the highpoint that obviously eclipses it. But there are subdivisions and a trailer park where the houses and mobile homes are technically higher than the highpoint, since the highpoint is just a slight rise along the road. In fact, people in the trailer park have piles of dirt in their yards that are technically higher than the natural highpoint, and for a while trailer park residents competed against each other to have the highest point in Delaware until the USGS stepped in and said that it didn't matter because only natural land would count.

[dave8721]

The highest natural point above sea level in Miami-Dade County is less than 30 feet so any 3 story building would qualify. There are "unnatural" higher points though (landfills, indian mounds...etc).

[IluvATX]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

This reminds of this old list I have on my computer....

Difference in Feet between the Lowest to Highest Elevation, Selected US Cities
Los Angeles, CA 5,074 ft
Honolulu, HI 4,020 ft
San Jose, CA 2,125 ft
Oakland, CA 1,754 ft
Phoenix, AZ 1,642 ft
Albuquerque, NM 1,174 ft
Portland, OR 1,073 ft
San Francisco 934 ft
San Diego, CA 823 ft
Nashville, TN 775 ft
Austin, TX 674 ft
Pittsburgh, PA 660 ft
Seattle, WA 520 ft
Denver, CO 340 ft

Anchorage, Alaska goes from sea level to 8,005 ft.(Bashful Peak)

[Boisebro]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

This reminds of this old list I have on my computer....

Difference in Feet between the Lowest to Highest Elevation, Selected US Cities
Los Angeles, CA 5,074 ft
Honolulu, HI 4,020 ft
San Jose, CA 2,125 ft
Oakland, CA 1,754 ft
Phoenix, AZ 1,642 ft
Albuquerque, NM 1,174 ft
Portland, OR 1,073 ft
San Francisco 934 ft
San Diego, CA 823 ft
Nashville, TN 775 ft
Austin, TX 674 ft
Pittsburgh, PA 660 ft
Seattle, WA 520 ft
Denver, CO 340 ft

This is interesting. Do you happen to have details on Boise?

I know Table Rock is about 900 feet above downtown, but there are houses above it and other parts of the city that are lower. I've always wondered what the elevation variance is.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

This reminds of this old list I have on my computer....

Difference in Feet between the Lowest to Highest Elevation, Selected US Cities
Los Angeles, CA 5,074 ft
Honolulu, HI 4,020 ft
San Jose, CA 2,125 ft
Oakland, CA 1,754 ft
Phoenix, AZ 1,642 ft
Albuquerque, NM 1,174 ft
Portland, OR 1,073 ft
San Francisco 934 ft
San Diego, CA 823 ft
Nashville, TN 775 ft
Austin, TX 674 ft
Pittsburgh, PA 660 ft
Seattle, WA 520 ft
Denver, CO 340 ft

The data for Austin is incorrect. Mount Bonnell - the point from which your data seems to measure - isn’t actually the highest point in the city, just the most visually prominent and locally most well known “hill”. In reality, the highest elevation above sea level is 1330 ft and the lowest is 289 feet, for a difference of 1041 feet (comparable to places like Portland and Albuquerque).

[SIGSEGV]

Reno has a lowest point of around 4400'. The city limits don't include any of the nearby mountains, the highest point I see is a bit over 6200' in the foothills of Mt. Rose. (Mt. Rose is 10,785', but outside city limits). Looking at the map of the city limits, I learned that much of what I thought was part of Reno near Mt. Rose is actually unincorporated...

Carson City on the other hand does include part of the Carson Range in its city limits, so it ranges in elevation of around 4600' to 9214' (Snow Valley Peak).

[dimondpark]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

The data for Austin is incorrect. Mount Bonnell - the point from which your data seems to measure - isn’t actually the highest point in the city, just the most visually prominent and locally most well known “hill”. In reality, the highest elevation above sea level is 1330 ft and the lowest is 289 feet, for a difference of 1041 feet (comparable to places like Portland and Albuquerque).

I just used this source:
https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/Elevations.../elvadist.html

Has Austin perhaps annexed adjacent areas since 1980? That could be the reason for the discrepancy.

[BG918]

Colorado Springs has parts of Cheyenne Mountain at 9570 ft in its city limits so that is about 3500 ft difference than the elevation downtown

[ChiSoxRox]

For states where the top of the highest skyscraper surpasses the highest hill in elevation: We have Florida, Illinois, and Ohio already, and Indiana and Louisiana make it as well.

Delaware seems to be within a few feet of the cutoff: 1260 North Market Street is 360 feet on a base around 80 feet while Ebright Azimuth is 447 feet.

Iowa, Mississippi, and a bit surprisingly Missouri seem to be within two hundred feet of that list.

[xzmattzx]

Here's the highest point in Delaware. The USGS disk in the ground marks the spot, and you can see the cutout in the sidewalk for it.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.8357...4!8i8192?hl=en

Zoom out and look around, and you can see that the house across the street is higher up than our highpoint, and you can see the radio tower next door is higher than the highpoint as well.

We are probably the only state where you can be down the street and look down on the state highpoint.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by dimondpark

I just used this source:
https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/Elevations.../elvadist.html

Has Austin perhaps annexed adjacent areas since 1980? That could be the reason for the discrepancy.

Oh yes, a LOT.

[ChiSoxRox]

Checking structures like radio towers, as well as all of the state highpoints that have lookouts and the like, it seems that if you allow any man-made structure, this list includes every state east of the Rockies except Maine, Vermont, and New York.

(Both Mt. Washington in New Hampshire and Black Elk Peak in South Dakota have structures at their summits.)