For a few summers in high school I worked as a river raft guide in West Virginia. Lately I’ve been a technical writer for a medical devices company in Switzerland. Both are land-locked, mountainous regions. How else do they compare? I know you’ve been wondering about this for a long, long time.
| What | West Virginia | Switzerland |
|---|---|---|
| Area | 62,755 km.2 (24,230 mi.2) | 41,285 km.2 (15,940 mi.2) |
| Railroad | 3540 km. (2200 miles) | 5323 km. (3307 miles) |
| Population | 1,805,832 | 8,570,146 |
| Capital | Charleston | Bern |
| Political parties1 | Democratic Libertarian Mountain Republican |
Swiss People’s Social Democratic Free Democratic Christian Democratic People’s |
| Largest city | Charleston | Zurich |
| Flag | A farmer, a miner, some rifles, tools, and barrels of moonshine | Plus sign |
| Language(s) | English | German, French, Italian, Romansch |
| Established | 1863 | 1291 |
| Motto | Montani semper liberi Mountaineers are always free |
Unus pro omnibus, omnes pro uno One for all, all for one |
| Highest point | Spruce Knob 1482m/ 4863ft. |
Monte Rosa 4634m/15203ft. |
| Income | Median household income: $43,469 (wikipedia) | GDP per capita: $69,385 (OECD) |
| Climate2 | Humid sub-tropical | Temperate |
| Rivers | Cheat, Gauley, Greenbrier, New, Ohio, Potomac, Shenandoah3 | Rhein, Rhone, Le Doubs, Aare, Inn |
| River drainage | Chesapeake Bay, Gulf of Mexico | North Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Adriatic Sea, Black Sea |
| Borders | Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky | Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, France |
| Song | Country Roads | Jodeln ist cool |
| If it were a movie | O Brother Where Art Thou? | Pleasantville |
| Unusual town name | Nitro | Reckingen-Gluringen Mümliswil-Ramiswi |
| Feud | Hatfields and McCoys | Migros and Coop |
| Unintelligible dialect | Southern | Swiss German |
| Family reunions are… | A chance to find a spouse | A chance to find a spouse |
| Notables | Pearl Buck and Chuck Yeager | Paul Klee and Hermann Hesse |
| Resort | The Homestead | St. Moritz |
| Cuisine/eats | Biscuits and gravy | Rösti and raclette |
| Please don’t confuse with someone from… | Virginia | Germany |
| Venemous snake | Copperhead | European adder |
| Something unexpected | Dolly Sods Wilderness4 | Palm trees in Ticino |
| Our man at work 1977/2020 |  |
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Notes
- There are about twenty active political parties in Switzerland, represented at the local, cantonal, and federal level.
- Köppen climate classification
- Translated as River of Death/Daughter of the Stars.
- The end of program solo for an Outward Bound-type program I did was here. Wonderful.