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US State Borders Using Only Rivers & Mountains

Last Updated: February 27, 2025 2 Comments

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US State Borders Using Only Rivers & Mountains

Map created by reddit user Terratoria

The map above shows a reimagined United States where the borders are based on rivers and mountains rather than arbitrary state lines.

And the author explained that: “If anyone is wondering I had to stitch many rivers together since rivers don’t cut America into 100 pieces.”

And here is some more of the criticism the map received and his response:

It needs the Connecticut River cutting New England into two.

“I’m not cutting it into two is because the state that will result from that would be too small in my opinion”

West Virginia is very much the same looking, except that pesky panhandle

“It also gets a bit of Pennsylvanian land”

New York kept its shape. Roughly.

“Well, it loses New York City”

I can’t tell, is Long Island it’s own state now

“Nah I gave it to New England”

Is Staten Island still in the same state as Long Island

“Yes”

Bro, what happened to New Jersey? It’s west coast is already following the Delaware River, so why isn’t it in this?

“It would be too big”

State of Chicago

“The only reason why i made it into a state because if I try to combine it with another state then the borders look horrendous”

Rivers change over time so this wouldn’t work.

“A solution is every 30 years change the borders to be based on the rivers again”

I like that the sizes are more consistent lol

“Yes i tried VERY hard to make them consistent”

How many states is that?

“47”

What do you think of this new United States?

Filed Under: United States

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Comments

  1. Earl Goodman Jr says

    March 5, 2025 at 7:24 am

    For the U. S. state maps by rivers and mountains, did you use watershed divides for the mountains?

    Reply
    • Brilliant Maps says

      March 5, 2025 at 11:04 am

      I’m not 100% sure, as I’m not the original author although I do know he combined several rivers together in some places.

      Reply

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