(单词翻译:单击)
Canada and the United States share the longest, straightest, possibly boringest border in the world. But, look closer, and there's plenty of bizarreness to be found.
加拿大和美国共享世界上最长、最直、可能最无聊的边界。但是，仔细观察，你会发现很多奇怪的事情。
While these sister nations get along fairly well, they both want to make it really clear whose side of the continent is whose.
虽然这两个姐妹国家相处得相当好，但他们都想明确表明这片大陆的哪一边是属于谁的。
And they've done this by carving a 20-foot wide space along the border. All five and a half thousand miles of it.
他们通过在边界上划出一个20英尺宽的空间来做到这一点。整个边界长达五千五百英里。
With the exception of the rare New England town that predates national borders or the odd airport that needed extending,
除了罕见的早于国家边界的新英格兰小镇或需要扩建的奇怪机场外，
this space is the no-touching-zone between the countries and they're super serious about keeping it clear.
这个空间是两国之间的禁区，他们非常认真地保持这个区域畅通。
It matters not if the no-touching-zone runs through hundreds of miles of virtually uninhabited Alaskan/Yukon wilderness. Those border trees, will not stand.
即使禁区穿过数百英里几乎无人居住的阿拉斯加育空荒野，也无关紧要。那些边界树，不会矗立在那里。
Which might make you think this must be the longest, straightest deforested place in the world, but it isn't. Deforested: yes, but straight? Not at all.
这可能会让你觉得这一定是世界上最长、最直的森林砍伐地，但事实并非如此。是森林砍伐地，但一点也不笔直。
Sure it looks straight and on a map, and the treaties establishing the line say it's straight.
当然，它在地图上看起来是笔直的，建立这条线的条约也说它是笔直的。
But in the real world the official border is 900 lines that zig-zags from the horizontal by as much as several hundred feet. How did this happen?
但在现实世界中，官方边界是900条线，与水平线呈之字形弯曲，弯曲程度多达数百英尺。这是怎么发生的？
Well, imagine you're back in North America in the 1800s -- The 49th parallel (one of those horizontal lines you see on a globe) has just been set as the national boundary and it's your job to make it real.
想象一下你回到19世纪的北美——北纬49度（你在地球仪上看到的一条水平线）刚刚被设定为国界，你的工作就是让它成为现实。
You're handed a compass and a ball of string and told to carefully mark off the next 2/3rds of a continent.
有人给你一个指南针和一团绳子，并要求你仔细标记出接下来的2/3大陆。
Don't mind that uncharted wilderness in the way: just keep the line straight. Yeah. Good luck. With that.
不要介意路上有未知的荒野：只要保持这条线笔直就行了。是的。祝你好运。就这样。
The men who surveyed the land did the best they could and built over 900 monuments.
测量土地的人尽了最大努力，建造了900多座纪念碑。
They're in about as straight as you could expect a pre-GPS civilization to make, but it's not the kind of spherical/planar intersection that would bring a mathematician joy.
它们就像你期望的GPS出现之前的文明那样笔直，但这并不是那种能让数学家感到快乐的球面/平面相交。
Nonetheless these monuments define the border and the no-touching-zone plays connect-the-dots with them.
尽管如此，这些纪念碑定义了边界，而禁区则与它们起着连接点的作用。
Oh, and while there are about 900 markers along this section of the border, there are about 8,000 in total that define the shape of the nations.
虽然这段边界上有大约900个标记，但总共有大约8000个标记定义了国家的形状。
Despite this massive project Canada and the United States still have disputed territory.
尽管有这个庞大的项目，加拿大和美国仍然有领土争议。
There is a series of islands in the Atlantic that the United States claims are part of Maine and Canada claims are part of New Brunswick.
大西洋上有一系列岛屿，美国声称这些岛屿是缅因州的一部分，加拿大声称这些岛屿是新不伦瑞克省的一部分。
Canada, assuming the islands are hers built a lighthouse on one of them, and the United States, assuming the islands are hers pretends the lighthouse doesn't exist.
加拿大认为这些岛屿是她的，并在其中一个岛屿上建造了一座灯塔，而美国认为这些岛屿是她的，并假装灯塔不存在。
It's not a huge problem as the argument is mostly over tourists who want to see puffins and fishermen who want to catch lobsters,
这不是什么大问题，因为争论主要是关于想看海鹦的游客和想捕龙虾的渔民，
but let's hope the disagreement gets resolved before someone finds oil under that lighthouse.
但我们希望在有人在灯塔下发现石油之前，分歧能得到解决。
Even the non-disputed territory has a few notably weird spots: such as this tick of the border upward into Canada.
即使是无争议的领土也有一些明显奇怪的地方：比如这条边界向上延伸到加拿大的线。
Zoom in and it gets stranger as the border isn't over solid land but runs through a lake to cut off a bit of Canada before diving back down to the US.
放大后，情况变得更加奇怪，因为边界不是在陆地上，而是穿过一个湖泊，切断了加拿大的一部分，然后再回到美国。
This spot is home to about 100 Americans and is a perfect example of how border irregularities are born:
这个地方是大约100名美国人的家园，是边界违规行为诞生的典例：
Back in 1783 when the victorious Americans were negotiating with the British who controlled what would one day be Canada, they needed a map, and this map was the best available at the time.
早在1783年，当胜利的美国人与控制着后来成为加拿大的英国人谈判时，他们需要一张地图，而这张地图是当时最好的地图。
While the East Coast looks pretty good, the wester it goes the sparser it gets. Under negotiation was the edge of what would one day be Minnesota and Manitoba.
虽然东海岸看起来不错，但越往西，人迹就越稀少。谈判的地点是后来成为明尼苏达州和马尼托巴省的边缘。
But unfortunately, that area was hidden underneath an inset on the map, so the Americans and British were bordering blind. Seriously.
但不幸的是，该区域隐藏在地图上的一个插图下面，因此美国和英国的边界是盲目的。
They guessed that the border should start from the northwestern part of this lake and go in a horizontal line until it crossed the Mississippi... somewhere.
他们猜测边界应该从这个湖的西北部开始，沿着一条水平线延伸，直到它穿过密西西比河……某个地方。
But somewhere, turned out to be nowhere as the mighty Mississippi stops short of that line, which left the border vague until 35 years later when a second round of negotiations established the aforementioned 49th parallel.
但结果却不是某个地方，因为浩瀚的密西西比河没有到达那条线，这使得边界变得模糊，直到35年后，第二轮谈判确定了上述北纬49度为边界线。
But there was still a problem as the lake mentioned earlier was both higher, and less circular than first though, putting its northwesterly point here,
但仍然存在一个问题，因为前面提到的湖比第一个湖更高，而且不那么圆，它的西北点在这里，
so the existing border had to jump up to meet it and then drop straight down to the 49th, awkwardly cutting off a bit of Canada, before heading west across the remainder of the continent.
所以现有的边界必须向上跳跃才能与它相遇，然后直接下降到49度，尴尬地切断了加拿大的一部分，然后向西穿过大陆的其余部分。
Turns out you just can't draw a straight(-ish) line for hundreds of miles without causing a few more problems.
事实证明，如果不引起更多问题，你就无法画出一条数百英里的直线。
One of which was luckily spotted in advance: Vancouver Island, which the 49th would have sliced through, but both sides agreed that would be dumb so the border swoops around the island.
幸运的是，其中一个边界被提前发现了：温哥华岛，第49军团本应从这里穿过，但双方都认为这样做很愚蠢，所以边界绕过了该岛。
However, next door to Vancouver Island is Point Roberts which went unnoticed as so today the border blithey cuts across.
然而，温哥华岛隔壁的罗伯茨角却无人在意，所以今天边界就这样横穿了过去。
It's a nice little town, home to over 1,000 Americans, but has only a primary school so its older kids have to cross international borders four times a day to go to school in their own state.
这是一个漂亮的小镇，有1000多名美国人，但只有一所小学，所以大一点的孩子每天必须跨越四次国际边界才能回到自己的州上学。
In a pleasing symetry, the East cost has the exact opposite situation with a Canadian Island whose only land route is a bridge to the United States.
所幸东海岸的情况与加拿大岛屿完全相反，加拿大岛屿唯一的陆路通道是通往美国的桥梁。
And these two aren't the only places where each country contains a bit of the other: there are several more, easily spotted in sattelite photos by the no-touching zone.
这两个国家并不是唯一一个互相包含对方的地方：还有更多地方，在禁区附近的卫星照片中很容易发现。
Regardless of if the land in question is just an uninhabited strip, in the middle of a lake, in the middle of nowhere, the border between these sister nations must remain clearly marked.
无论这片土地是一片无人居住的地带，还是位于湖中央，还是位于荒无人烟的地方，这两个姐妹国家之间的边界都必须清晰可见。
