50 Fun Facts About Straits of the World

Which waterway, flanked by the ancient Pillars of Hercules, separates Spain from Morocco?

The Strait of Gibraltar is only about 14 km wide at its narrowest point. If it ever closed, the Mediterranean is estimated to lose most of its water to evaporation within a thousand years.

Which narrow strait splits Istanbul in two, leaving part of the city in Europe and part in Asia?

The Bosporus narrows to just 700 metres, making it the world's narrowest strait used for international shipping, with a city of millions spread along both banks.

Which waterway between Alaska and Russia holds two islands nicknamed Tomorrow Island and Yesterday Island?

In the Bering Strait, the two Diomede Islands sit on opposite sides of the International Date Line, so Russia's Big Diomede is almost a day ahead of America's Little Diomede.

Which waterway between Iran and Oman is the only sea route out of the oil-rich Persian Gulf?

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's most strategic chokepoints. Its shipping lanes are only two nautical miles wide in each direction.

Which artificial waterway did the giant container ship Ever Given block for six days in March 2021?

The Suez Canal was shut when the 400-metre Ever Given was caught by strong winds and wedged across the channel, its bow and stern stuck in opposite banks.

Which strait linking San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean got its name decades before a famous bridge crossed it?

The Golden Gate was named by the explorer John C. Frémont in 1846, before gold was even found in California. The bridge that shares its name did not open until 1937.

Which American city takes its name from the French word for strait, after the narrow river it stands on?

Detroit comes from détroit, because French settlers called the river there the strait of Lake Erie. The city began as a French fort founded by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac in 1701.

Which landform, the dry-land counterpart of a strait, does the Panama Canal cut across to link two oceans?

An isthmus is a narrow strip of land joining two larger areas, and its name comes from the ancient Greek word for neck.

Which waterway, formed when seas rose after the last ice age, separates Tasmania from mainland Australia?

Bass Strait is named after George Bass, the English explorer and physician who sailed across it in 1798–99 on a voyage right around Tasmania.

Which sheltered route through southern Chile was the main steamship link between oceans until the Panama Canal opened?

The Strait of Magellan is shorter and more sheltered than the open sea route around Cape Horn, which is beset by gale-force winds and icebergs.

Which narrow waterway between Sicily and mainland Italy is linked to the Greek legend of Scylla and Charybdis?

The Strait of Messina is about 3 km wide at its narrowest, and a natural whirlpool in its northern part has been tied to the legend's ship-swallowing monster.

Which New York waterway separating Manhattan from Brooklyn is, despite its name, a tidal strait?

The East River links Upper New York Bay with Long Island Sound, and the clashing tides of its narrow Hell Gate stretch caused a number of shipwrecks.

Which body of water between Cape Horn and Antarctica is feared by sailors for waves that top 12 metres?

The Drake Passage is named after Sir Francis Drake, whose ships were blown far south by a tempest in 1578 after they had entered the Pacific Ocean.

Which shipping lane between the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra is the main sea link between the Indian and Pacific oceans?

The Strait of Malacca is named after an old trading port, which legend says was itself named after a tree its founder rested under.

Which waterway between New Zealand's North and South Islands did Abel Tasman mistake for a closed bay in 1642?

Cook Strait is just 22 km wide at its narrowest, yet it is regarded as one of the most dangerous and unpredictable stretches of water in the world.

Which waterway off China's Fujian province, about 180 km wide, was once known as the Black Ditch?

The Taiwan Strait was long called the Formosa Strait as well, after a dated name for the island on its eastern shore.

Which country is linked to Malaysia by a causeway built across the Johor Strait in the 1920s?

Singapore's road and rail link to Johor Bahru also carries a water pipeline. Retreating Allied forces blew it up in two places in World War II to slow the Japanese advance.

Which arm of the Indian Ocean, about 1,700 km long, separates Madagascar from the African mainland?

The Mozambique Channel is more than 400 km across even at its narrowest point, and it plunges to depths of more than 3,000 metres.

Which Italian island lies just across the Strait of Bonifacio from the French island of Corsica?

Sardinia and Corsica are only 11 km apart at the narrowest point, yet no bridge joins them, so travellers rely on ferries through waters notorious for weather and shoals.

Which Norwegian explorer led the first voyage through the Northwest Passage, in a small sloop named Gjøa?

Roald Amundsen spent 1903 to 1906 working a former herring boat through the Arctic. Five years later he led the first party to reach the South Pole.

Which waterway, called the Hellespont by the ancient Greeks, was fought over in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915?

The Dardanelles is 61 km long but as little as 1.2 km wide, and it forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia.

Which strait in Washington's Puget Sound was spanned by Galloping Gertie, the bridge that tore itself apart in 1940?

The Tacoma Narrows bridge opened in July 1940 and collapsed that November in a 40-mph wind, after its deck twisted until it tore apart.

Which Canadian province is joined to the mainland by the Confederation Bridge across the Northumberland Strait?

Prince Edward Island got its 12.9-km fixed link in 1997. It is Canada's longest bridge and the longest in the world over water that freezes in winter.

Which Great Lake is joined to Lake Michigan by the Straits of Mackinac, making the two a single body of water?

Huron and Michigan are studied by hydrologists as one lake, Michigan–Huron. The bridge across the straits joins Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas.

Which island is separated from mainland Wales by the Menai Strait, which Thomas Telford bridged in 1826?

Anglesey's farmers once had to drive their cattle into the water and make them swim to reach mainland markets, before Telford's suspension bridge opened.

Which waterway between India and Sri Lanka is bounded by Ram Setu, the chain of shoals also called Adam's Bridge?

Palk Strait is named after Robert Palk, an 18th-century British governor of Madras. In the Ramayana, its shoals are the remains of a bridge built by Rama's army.

Which waterway between Java and Sumatra was reshaped when the volcano Krakatoa erupted in 1883?

The Sunda Strait takes its name from the Sunda Kingdom, which ruled the western part of Java for some nine centuries, until around 1579.

Which waterway between Australia's Cape York and New Guinea is dotted with islands that Queensland annexed in 1879?

The Torres Strait is named after Luís Vaz de Torres, the Spanish navigator who sailed through it in 1606, although a Scottish geographer chose the name much later.

Which small inland sea in Turkey sits between the two straits that connect the Black Sea to the Aegean?

The Sea of Marmara, the Propontis of the ancient Greeks, is named after Marmara Island, which is rich in marble.

Which Romantic poet swam the Hellespont strait in 1810, inspired by the myth of Leander's nightly crossing?

Lord Byron swam from Europe to Asia in May 1810, then worked the feat into his poetry, including The Bride of Abydos three years later.

Which chokepoint between Yemen and Djibouti links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden?

Bab-el-Mandeb means Gate of Grief in Arabic, a name said to come from the dangers of sailing through it.

Which waterway between Greenland and Iceland hides the world's largest known waterfall beneath its surface?

The Denmark Strait cataract is cold, dense water sinking along the seabed. It moves more than 3 million cubic metres a second, far more than the Amazon pours into the Atlantic.

Which strait between Copenhagen and the Swedish city of Malmö has carried a road and rail bridge since 2000?

The Øresund made Danish kings rich: from 1429 until 1857 passing ships had to pay the Sound Dues, for centuries the biggest earner the crown had.

Which waterway linking the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov did Russia span with the Crimean Bridge in 2018?

The Kerch Strait had been bridged once before: a Soviet railway bridge opened there in November 1944, and drifting ice floes destroyed it three months later.

Which waterway between Vancouver Island and Washington's Olympic Peninsula carries the US–Canada border?

The Strait of Juan de Fuca was named in 1787 after a Greek navigator who claimed to have found it on a Spanish voyage in 1592.

Which Caribbean waterway between Cuba and Haiti lies on the direct shipping route from the US East Coast to Panama?

The Windward Passage is about 80 km wide and links the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean Sea, with Navassa Island on its southern approach.

Which name do the French use for the English Channel, a name on record since at least the 17th century?

La Manche means the sleeve, which is usually said to describe the Channel's shape. The Romans called the same water Oceanus Britannicus, the Ocean of the Britons.

Which French aviator made the first aeroplane flight across the English Channel in 1909, winning a £1,000 prize?

Louis Blériot paid for his aircraft with the profits of a business making car headlamps. His rival Hubert Latham had ditched in the sea days earlier with engine trouble.

Which waterway at South America's southern tip is named after the ship that carried Charles Darwin around the world?

The Beagle Channel was named during the ship's first survey voyage of 1826 to 1830. Darwin saw his first glaciers there on the second voyage, in January 1833.

Which barren rock in the Nares Strait did Canadian and Danish visitors claim by leaving whisky and schnapps?

Hans Island was the prize in the so-called Whisky War, a friendly dispute that ended in 2022 when the two sides agreed to split it with a land border.

Which Japanese waterway's whirlpools inspired the pink spiral on a fishcake often served in ramen?

The Naruto Strait squeezes the tide between Awaji Island and Shikoku so hard that whirlpools up to 20 metres across form, and the fishcake narutomaki copies their swirl.

In the straits off which Greek island did Themistocles lure the Persian fleet to defeat in 480 BC?

Salamis lies close to Athens, and in the cramped water around it the Persians' greater numbers became a hindrance as their ships struggled to manoeuvre.

Which Persian king is said to have had the Hellespont strait whipped after a storm wrecked his bridges of boats?

Xerxes I is also said to have thrown fetters into the water and branded it with red-hot irons, before rebuilt bridges carried his army across into Europe.

In which waterway between Korea and Japan did Admiral Tōgō destroy a Russian fleet that had sailed from the Baltic?

The Tsushima Strait battle of May 1905 cost Russia all eleven of its battleships, at the end of a voyage that had lasted seven months and 18,000 nautical miles.

Which 1936 agreement governs how warships pass through the Turkish straits that lead to the Black Sea?

The Montreux Convention gives merchant ships free passage in peacetime, but warships from countries outside the Black Sea may stay in it for no more than 21 days.

Which waterway between Honshu and Hokkaido is crossed by the Seikan Tunnel, which runs beneath its seabed?

The Tsugaru Strait has an unusual gap in Japan's territorial waters, which reach only three nautical miles into it instead of the usual twelve.

Which deep channel east of Bali marks part of the Wallace Line between Asian and Australasian wildlife?

The Lombok Strait is at least 250 metres deep, so it stayed open water through the ice ages and kept Asia's land animals from walking any further east.

Which narrow strait near the Norwegian town of Bodø has one of the strongest tidal currents in the world?

Saltstraumen forces up to 400 million cubic metres of seawater through a gap 150 metres wide every six hours, spinning up whirlpools as much as 10 metres across.

Which waterway between southern Italy and Albania links the Adriatic Sea with the Ionian Sea?

The Strait of Otranto was blockaded by Allied navies in World War I, largely with lightly armed fishing boats called drifters, to pen in the Austro-Hungarian fleet.

Which large Russian island is separated from Japan's Hokkaido by the La Pérouse Strait?

Sakhalin lies only 42 km from Hokkaido across the strait, which is known in Japan as the Sōya Strait and connects the Sea of Japan with the Sea of Okhotsk.