Panhandle

A panhandle or salient is an informal geographic term for an elongated tail-like protrusion of a geo-political entity, such as an administrative division or a sovereign state that extends into another such entity as a peninsula extends into the sea. The former "folksy" term derives from the analogous part of a cooking pan and its use is generally confined to the United States. A term used elsewhere is salient, derived from military salients. A panhandle is similar to a peninsula in shape, but unlike a peninsula it is not surrounded by water on three sides and connected to a geographical mainland, but is a land region surrounded on three sides by land regions not of the same jurisdiction. Instead, a panhandle is delimited by a land border on at least two sides and extends out from the larger geographical body of the administrative unit. The panhandle shape is the result of arbitrarily drawn international or subnational boundaries, although the location of some administrative borders takes into account other considerations such as economic ties or topography. In the United States, a protrusion with a less elongated shape is informally called a "bootheel".

*The six Northwest Cook County, Illinois townships.
*The Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway was often called "the Panhandle", as it crossed the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia.
* San Francisco, (California) Panhandle

Panhandles outside the United States

Outside of the United States, the term is not in common usage, with the arguable exception of the nearby New Brunswick Panhandle. Nonetheless, some people would describe the following characteristic territorial protrusions elsewhere as a "corridor" or an "arm" extending into an administratively different territory. Such shapes of territory can be a result of linguistic (or ethnic) lines, in addition to geographic features and other reasons.

*Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan
*Karakoram, Pakistan
*Misiones, Argentina
*Teknaf, Bangladesh
*Triângulo Mineiro, Brazil
*Maroua, Cameroon
*Tatshenshini-Alsek Park, British Columbia, Canada
*New Brunswick Panhandle, New Brunswick, Canada
*Enontekiö, Finland
*Western Thrace, Greece
*Petén, Guatemala
*Seven Sister States, India
*Donegal, Republic of Ireland
*Batken, Kyrgyzstan
*Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico
*Tenasserim, Myanmar
*Province of Trieste, Italy
*Antakya, Turkey
*Caprivi Strip, Namibia
*Limburg, the Netherlands
*Congo Pedicle, Democratic Republic of the Congo
*Polish Corridor, Poland
*North Hamgyŏng, South Hamgyŏng, and Ryanggang, together comprise the "panhandle" of North Korea.
*Southern Thailand, Thailand

See also

*Bootheel
*Gerrymandering
*Chicken's Neck
*Border
*Political geography
*Corridor
*Strip of land
*Enclave and exclave
*The Thumb
*Salients, re-entrants and pockets

References