The Delaware Wedge

The Wedge is a one-square-mile triangle in the far northwest corner of Delaware that, for well over a century, no one could say for certain belonged to anyone. It was a leftover of colonial surveying. The Mason–Dixon line, the north–south line separating Delaware from Maryland, and the arc of the Twelve-Mile Circle around New Castle should have met neatly, but they did not, leaving a narrow gap claimed at various times by Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

With no clear authority in charge, the Wedge gained a reputation as a place where duels, prizefights and other pursuits outlawed nearby could carry on undisturbed, a reputation that may owe as much to legend as to fact. A federal survey in 1892 marked a new line across the top of the Wedge, and in 1921 Delaware and Pennsylvania both accepted it, placing the whole area in Delaware. Today Delaware Routes 273 and 896 meet inside it at the crossroads of Mechanicsville.

• Maryland
  The Old Line State, wrapped around Chesapeake Bay borders
• Pennsylvania
  The Keystone State, ridge-and-valley heart of Appalachia borders
• The Twelve-Mile Circle
  The curved border that shapes the top of Delaware formed by
• Delaware
  The First State, a low coastal sliver on the Atlantic located in