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Bristol - Places in the USA

Every time I did a search on the web for 'Bristol' I would get millions of hits (over 2 million in fact) lots of these were companies but a lot were from places named Bristol in the USA. I decided to take a break from the research for my history pages and investigate these other Bristols. I've always known there were places called Bristol in the US, but I thought there were about five of them, I managed to find 28 of them in North America and a few in other countries as well.

Places named Bristol in the USA

Places named Bristol in North America

The Bristols I've visited are marked in blue, the ones I've yet to see are those in red.

There are people who visit all of these Bristols. I hope to, but not all in one go. Here's the site of someone who did it.

Chuck Lamb of Bristol Mills, Maine - See America 2000

Bristols United is a site by a Bristolian about Bristols around the world

Suggested itinerary :-

Starting from New York, this is way I would plan the route. It's only a suggestion of course, but it seems a reasonable way to set about visiting all of them.

Start point Destination Time (Hours) Main roads Distance (Miles) Direction
New York Bristol, Connecticut 2 I 95 N / CT 8 N 109 NE
Bristol, Connecticut Bristol,
Rhode Island
2.5 I 95 N 132 E
Bristol,
Rhode Island
Taunton, Massachusetts (*1) 0.5 RI 24 N 30 N
Taunton, Massachusetts (*1) Bristol,
New Hampshire
2.5 I 93 N 142 N
Bristol,
New Hampshire
Bristol, Maine (*2) 4 I 95 N / US 1 N 191 NE
Bristol, Maine (*2) Bristol, Vermont 6 I 95 S / I 89 N 310 E
Bristol, Vermont Bristol,
New York (*3)
6.5 I 90 W 317 NW
Bristol,
New York (*3)
Bristol, Michigan 9 PR 402 W /
I 69 W
525 W
Bristol, Michigan Bristol, Indiana 3.5 US 131 S 183 S
Bristol, Indiana Bristol, Illinois 3 I 80 W 168 W
Bristol, Illinois Bristol, Wisconsin 2 I 88 E / I 294 /
I 94 W
95 N
Bristol, Wisconsin Bristol, Minnesota 6 I 90 W 313 NW
Bristol, Minnesota Bristol, Iowa 2.5 I 90 W 96 SW
Bristol, Iowa Bristol,
South Dakota
6.5 I 90 W / I 29 N 353 NW
Bristol,
South Dakota
Bristol, Washington 24.5 I 94 W / I 90 W 1,479 W
Bristol, Washington Bristol, Nevada 17.5 I 82 E / I 84 E / US 93 889 SE
Bristol, Nevada Bristol, Colorado 19 US 50 E 867 E
Bristol, Colorado Bristol, Kansas City, Missouri (*4) 10.5 I 35 N 498 E
Bristol, Kansas City, Missouri Bristol, Texas 10 I 35 S 585 S
Bristol, Colorado Bristol, Texas (*5) 14 US 270 / I 35 S 647 SE
Bristol, Texas Bristol, Louisiana 7 I 20 E / I 49 S 398 SE
Bristol, Louisiana Bristol, Florida 8.5 I 10 E 482 E
Bristol, Florida Bristol, Georgia 5.5 US 84 209 NE
Bristol, Georgia Bristol,
Tennessee / Virginia
10 US 1 / GA 15 441 N
Bristol,
Tennessee / Virginia
Bristol, Ohio 6 I 77 N 327 N
Bristol, Ohio Bristol,
West Virginia
2.5 I 77 S 111 SE
Bristol,
West Virginia
Bristol, Maryland 4.5 I 68 E 278 E
Bristol, Maryland Bristol, Pennsylvania 3 I 895 N / I 95 N 159 NE
Bristol, Pennsylvania Bristol, New Jersey 2 I 95 S / NJ 42 S 104 N
Bristol, New Jersey New York 2.5 US 9 N 148 NE

The total round trip would be just short of 10,000 miles and take at least 200 hours of driving. Taking the "side" trips to Canada would add around 4,000 miles. I used the MapQuest Road Trip Planner to help prepare the above table.

Notes :-

*1 - Taunton, Massachusetts is the County Town of Bristol County.

*2 - From Bristol, Maine you can continue into Canada to visit the Bristols in New Brunswick and Newfoundland & Labrador, but add about 3,000 miles to the round trip.

*3 - From Bristol, New York you can continue into Canada to visit Bristol, Quebec, but add another 600 miles to the round trip. Another problem with this stage is that to get from Bristol, New York to Bristol, Michigan you can either go south around the Great Lakes or cut through Canada, saving a couple of hundred miles off the trip. This trip assumes cutting through Canada, incidentally this way you go through London, Ontario.

*4 - This Bristol is a subdivision of Kansas City, Missouri.

*5 - Missing out Kansas City, Missouri, and 6.5 hours or 436 miles driving.

Bristol - by age :-

State Founded
Rhode Island 1680
Pennsylvania 1681
Maine 1765
New York 1778
Connecticut 1785
Vermont 1789
Ohio 1804
Indiana 1834
Tennessee / Virginia 1850

Bristol - by population :-

State Population (1990) Population (2000)
Connecticut 60,640 60,062
Massachusetts 50,623 N/A
Tennessee / Virginia 41,847 42,188
Tennessee 23,421 24,821
Rhode Island 21,625 22,469
Virginia 18,426 17,367
Pennsylvania 10,405 9,923
Illinois 5,598 N/A
Wisconsin 1,850 4,538
Vermont 1,801 3,788
New Hampshire 1,483 3,033
Maine 825 2,644
New York 2,071 2,421
Indiana 1,133 1,382
Georgia 1,361 N/A
Florida 937 845
Minnesota 385 499
South Dakota 419 377
Iowa 258 202
Ohio 173 N/A

Population data from the US Census Bureau

Some of these places seem to be very small and only a few of them have any web presence at all. Although I haven't set out to systematically visit all of them the following pages contain photographs of the ones that I've been to. The first I managed to get to was the one in Indiana. In October 2000, Patty and I visited a friend in Chicago, on the way back to Terre Haute we stopped off to visit the town.

Patty's parents are "SnowBirds", that is they live in one part of the country, in this case Illinois, and move somewhere warmer in the winter. In their case it's southern Florida. In January 2002 we visited them in their winter home, on the way down we visited the Bristols in Tennessee/Virginia and Georgia and on the way back the one in Florida. Getting close to Bristol, Georgia I was going a bit fast and got stopped by the police. He asked for my ID and driving license when I gave him my British passport and UK driving license I think I surprised him a bit. He asked if my driving license was valid in the US, I said yes. I'm fairly certain it is, but don't know for sure. Luckily for me, after warning me that he could actually jail me while they check out my documents he let me go on my, much slower, way.

In July 2002 we visited Patty's brother in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On the way we went to the Bristol's in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. One day her brother and wife both had to work so we took a trip to Bristol, South Dakota. It was quite a daytrip as it's over 250 miles each way.

Bristol - Places in the USA

Connecticut - Official Site, Chamber of Commerce, Bristol Press, Bristol CT, Bristol Alive (Pop 2000 - 60,062)

Maine (Pop 2000 - 2,644)

Massachusetts - Bristol County, Census, Bristol County Visitors Bureau (Pop 1990 - 50,623)

Ohio Library (Pop 1990 - 173)

Pennsylvania - Township, Bucks County, Local newspapers (Pop 2000 - 9,923)

Rhode Island - 1790 Census, Main site, Bristol Phoenix, USA Drifter, First Queen of Bristol (Pop 2000 - 22,469)

Bristol, Rhode Island, was founded in 1680, by four wealthy Boston merchants: John Walley, Stephen Burton, Nathaniel Byfield and Nathaniel Oliver. Together they bought the Mount Hope Lands from the Plymouth Colony. These lands extended from Mount Hope on the east to Narragansett Bay on the west, and six miles to the north. This peninsula of 21 square miles cost them eleven hundred pounds.

At that time New England was a colony of England. It was Charles II of England who granted permission for the purchase of the Mount Hope Lands. The document was signed at Windsor Castle on June 12, 1677. The four owners of Bristol immediately set about to develop an urban plan. They traced perpendicular streets and avenues and divided the land into lots for houses, farms, schools, churches, parks, cemeteries and government buildings. Apart from the four founders lots were also purchased by Benjamin Church, the Indian fighter of the Plymouth Colony

Vermont, Virtual Vermont (Pop 2000 - 3,788)

Bristol - Colorado

Most of these places are named after Bristol, England but Derek Bailey who now lives in Colorado, USA emailed me to say that the Bristol there in Prowers County, Colorado, is named after a man named C. H. Bristol who was the Superintendent of the Santa Fe Railroad.

Bristol - Florida

Population (2000) - 845

A small, tidy community we visited in January 2002, on the way back from Florida to Indiana. The population, in 1990, was 937, quite a bit smaller than Bristol, England and its half million.

Central panhandle of Florida

The central panhandle of Florida

The distance between Tallahassee and Bristol is about 100km

Bristol, Florida

Bristol, Florida

Bristol. Florida

Bristol, Florida

Bristol, Florida

Bristol, Florida

Bristol - Georgia

Population (1990) - 1,361

We passed through this tiny little place on the way from Indiana to Florida in December 2001. It was, unfortunately, dark at the time and the only photo that I managed to take that came out properly was this one of an advertisement for the Thanksgiving service from November.

SE Georgia

Southeastern Georgia

It's about 100km between Brunswick and Waycross

Bristol, Georgia

Bristol, Georgia

Bristol, USA | Colorado | Florida | Georgia | Illinois | Indiana | Iowa | Minnesota | New York | South Dakota (Page 1), (Page 2) | Tennessee / Virginia | Wisconsin | Alaska

HomePage | Optical Illusions | War Stories | QBasic | Dads Navy Days | Bristol | Bristol, USA | Bristol, Canada | Terre Haute | Miscellany | Web Stuff | About Ray | Site Map | Site Search | Messages | Credits | Links | Web Rings

This page created 19th July 2002, last modified 26th January 2005


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