Biggest City by Island

I was born on Long Island and lived there for 25 years. New York City is not contained on Long Island. Only two of its five boroughs (Brooklyn and Queens) are located there, and the people who actually inhabit those boroughs would never identify as Long Islanders. No one, from either NYC or Long Island, would ever claim that New York City is the biggest city on Long Island. Long Beach and Glen Cove are the only cities on Long Island; Long Beach is bigger.

The quiz doesn't say biggest city contained by the island. Just the biggest city on the island. Though I understand your point, I found it odd, too. But isn't it odd that we find it odd? I mean Brooklyn and Queens together are much larger than Manhattan and The Bronx. A much larger percentage of New York City is on Long Island than anywhere else, and yet that part of the city is only considered the periphery. Odd. At least they didn't incorrectly count Manhattan as an island again as they did on the most populous islands quiz...

Also curious as to why Manhattan isn't an island. Sure, the borough of Manhattan includes the mainland area of Marble Hill*, but the island of Manhattan is surrounded by the Hudson, Harlem and East rivers (the latter two actually are straits, not rivers, but that's perhaps overly pedantic).

*Marble Hill used to be on Manhattan island, until they dug the ship channel and redirected the Harlem strait to the south of Marble Hill, thus cutting it off from Manhattan island, and ultimately reconnecting it to the mainland.

Kalba...you gotta zoom in bro...

I think when I made this comment I didn't know that some of these were straits, not actually rivers, as plats pointed out. Whatever, I was wrong.

I thought the East River was an estuary.

Yes, Manhattan is still an island, but this discussion sparked my curiosity as to the difference between strait and estuary and which category the NYC rivers fall into - Wikipedia let me down. It says the East River is an estuary - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_River. It also says the Harlem River is a tidal strait connecting the Hudson and East Rivers, then the same article goes on to say that the Harlem River is actually an estuary which connects to the East River which itself is not a river but a "salt water tidal strait". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_River. I'm so confused. Are straits and estuaries the same thing?

According to Google, an estuary is where the tide meets the stream. I remembering learning that it's where saltwater meets freshwater. Because of the mixing of the salt- and freshwater, it supports marine wildlife and stuff, I believe. So, it's possible to be both an estuary and a river or a strait or a bay or anything else. That's my understanding.

I was expecting this quiz to ask for Brooklyn or Queens, whichever has more people these days. Asking for NYC overall just seems wrong.

agreed

Im sorry, but living in NYC all my life, NYC is not on Long Island. The boroughs of Queens & Brooklyn are(Brooklyn being the large containing 2.5 million people). When addressing any mailings, you would specify Brooklyn, NY (City, State). Colloquially speaking, when addressing New York City many people are referring to Manhattan.

That's confusing to this non-New Yorker. If Brooklyn and Queens aren't part of New York City, why are they listed as one of the five boroughs of NYC? I understand colloquial use, but I mean, it shouldn't go both ways. Either they are a part of New York City in which case a portion of NYC is officially located on Long Island, or they are not part of NYC and therefore should be called a city unto themselves, and not one of the boroughs of NYC. Am I the only one confused by this?

No it's not just you. I think it seems counter-intuitive because when people think of New York City they automatically think of Manhattan. But... the city on Long Island is still New York City.

Again, it doesn't say that the entire city is on the island. If New York City is not the largest city on Long Island, then what city on Long Island is bigger?

You're thinking about it this way:

Q: Where is New York City?

A: Long Island

which does make it seem like a wrong answer. But you're just thinking of it wrong. You should be thinking like this:

Q: Which city is on Long Island?

A: New York City

This way it's obviously right. There is no other city on Long Island aside from New York.

I almost didn't get Copenhagen. And I live there. Facepalm!!

Yeah, I was trying all these Dutch cities before it occurred to me that they call Sjælland Zealand for some reason. @_@

That reason would be that this is an English-language website.

But it's confusing that English uses the name "Zealand" for Sjælland, because it makes it seem like New Zealand was named after it, while it was actually named after the Dutch province of Zeeland (whose English spelling used to be Zealand). Although the latter isn't an island, so it should be clear which one the quiz is asking about.

Zeeland as a whole is not an island, but it is made up of islands (and former islands), apart from the lower region which borders Belgium, "Zeeuws Vlaanderen" (zeelandic flanders). Which contains 3 of the 13 subdivisions.

Yay, I live on one of these islands! ^_^ (Tasmania)

I took this quiz in Honolulu.

why should misspelling be permitted? if you can't spell the answer correctly, too bad!

Same here, I put in 'Densapar' instead of Densapar.

Try again

Dammit, kept trying "Las Palmas" and things, confusing the Balearic with the Canaries one.

Same!

Spelling really let me down on this one

@fitheach That's just confusing.

People should start copywriting their geographic names ;) (toponym/geonym)

Cool idea, thanks

Please accept Leukosia and Lefkosia for Nicosia, it's the local name

That’s like saying accept København for Copenhagen coz “that’s what they call it in Denmark” This is an English quiz not Cypriot

Our Dutch Zeeland is not an island though...even though it contains some islands :)

Darn it. I tried herkalion but not heraklion. oops

Bruh chill. There are many others like you.

Pretty sure the stats only count first attempts though...

my home city- the largest city in Crete

Bizarre that more people know Palma than Copenhagen! Shows where people go on holiday I suppose.

I kept trying Vancouver for Vancouver Island

YAY i got them all