A person cannot see the true massiveness of Lake Tahoe standing near the water's edge. Even from a plane, the scale of the lake is hard to judge.


Which is a greater distance: The English Channel separating Europe from the British Isles or Lake Tahoe measured from north to south? How does the east to west distance across Lake Tahoe compare to the width of Cook Strait that separates the North and South Islands of New Zealand...or of the Strait of Gibraltar, which today covers a land bridge that once connected Spain (Europe) to Morocco in No. Africa?

What dimensions does the famous Strait of Magellan, which links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at the bottom of South America, have in common with Lake Tahoe?

Believe it or not, in terms of primary dimensions, Lake Tahoe is larger than each of the important waterways above.

English Channel
This channel separates the British Isles from northern France and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. The Strait of Dover is 21 miles across; Lake Tahoe is 22 miles from north to south! A French woman standing in Calais looks across at the White Cliffs of Dover on the south flank of the United Kingdom. We can stand on the North Shore, look south, and see the ski runs at Heavenly Valley. It's the same distance.

Cook Strait
This waterway is named after Captain James Cook, the first European to sail thought it (1770) on one of his voyages of discovery. The Strait separates the North and South islands of New Zealand, and it is known for rough water, heavy swells, and strong winds that sweep in from the roaring 40s circling the bottom of the world. Cook Strait is about the same distance south from the equator as Lake Tahoe is north (39 degrees N). The distance across Cook Strait is 12 miles, the same as Lake Tahoe's width, east to west, from Mc Kinney Bay to Secret Harbor.

Strait of Gibraltar
This famous passage separates Europe from Africa and the Mediterranean Sea from the Atlantic. It was once a land bridge and the Mediterranean was a dry marsh. There have been numerous schemes to build a tunnel beneath the Strait or a bridge across it. The strait is nine miles in width, the distance from Sugar Pine Point on the West Shore to Glenbrook on the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.

Strait of Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese sailing for Spain, found this winding channel near the bottom of South America in 1520 on his way to be the first commander to circumnavigate the world. It was the "short" way from the Atlantic to the Pacific until the Panama Canal was completed in 1914. Infamous Cape Horn at the very bottom of South America, is approximately 200 miles farther south than the Strait. "Rounding the Horn" is a more difficult voyage for ships for it takes place on the open sea where the Atlantic and Pacific meet.

The 350-mile long Strait of Magellan ranges in width from 2 to 20 miles, common distances within the 72-mile perimeter of Lake Tahoe.


One last note: The Bering Strait that separates Asia (Russia) from North America (Alaska) is 58 miles wide, about three times the long dimension of Lake Tahoe. Like all of the other water passages listed above, compared to Lake Tahoe the Bearing Strait is relatively shallow at 100-165 feet. The English Channel averages 75 feet in depth; Lake Tahoe probably averages over 600 feet in depth, with its deepest point at 1645 feet.