If you ask a business owner why he or she chose to set up shop in the Princeton area, you will most likely hear the phrase “Halfway between New York and Philadelphia” in their answer. There’s no doubt that being between two major centers of commerce is an advantage — local real estate agents use it as a selling point all the time.
But just where is the halfway point between New York and Philadelphia, anyway? As any student of geometry knows, if you draw a line between two points, there is only one location that is exactly halfway between the two. Every Princeton address cannot actually be “halfway” between Philadelphia and New York. Technically, they must be closer to one or the other.
To find out, we located the geographic centers of the two cities, and drew a line between them. New York’s center is 376 Stockholm Street in Brooklyn. Philadelphia’s is at 6th and Erie.
Equidistant between the two points is a field along Friendship Road in South Brunswick. The closest business is Ehrich & Ehrich architects on Miller Road. They have the strongest claim to be halfway between the two cities.
That’s it: By distance, most of Princeton is closer to the city of Brotherly Love than the Big Apple. Of course, you could argue that one city or the other is closer by road, by travel time, or by culture. But determining that isn’t quite as simple as drawing a line on a map.
