> Sea level to space is closer than Manhattan to Trenton.
"Closer" is a fuzzy concept. I've seen the same point made another way, that you can be closer to space than you are to the sea... even if you're in Japan, a long, narrow island.
But then again, imagine if whenever you tried to drive to Trenton from Manhattan, a tornado picked up your car and threw it back to Manhattan.
It's a great series about exploring Antartica, where the title came from the fact that it takes longer to reach Antartica than to reach space.