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I picked Denver because I want something central and away from the coasts/ports where ships and subs can easily sneak up on us (think Bay of Pigs), and it's already a capital city.
My personal preference that is not listed is Cairo, Illinois -- the epicenter of the U.S. in terms of being central to population and it's at the convergence of (nearly) 3 enormous rivers: the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri Rivers. The weather is (fairly) temperate -- with summers averaging in the upper 80's and low 90's and winters aren't cold enough for major snow/ice events or freezing, keeping the ports open -- so the city would never easily be shut down by a weather phenomenon, and the most plausible natural disaster for the area (besides tornadoes and flooding) are earthquakes. But I believe the risk for those are low, but am unsure on that. It has accessibility to transportation in almost every form, whether by rail, by road, by air (if an airport is built), or by sea/river. Lastly, just like D.C., it is at the nexus of not only North and South, but also East and West, my favorite aspect about Cairo!!
In the final location it was between Federal City NJ and DC today. Federal city was just North of Trenton NJ on the Delaware River. Basically would be DC in between what is NYC and Philly today, ugh could you imagine
I wonder if PA would have provided some land like Virginia did (originally). There's no way Virginia would have ever allowed a capital in NJ, but it's interesting.
I'd imagine DC would have never been burned. The British would have had to sail up the Delaware river, which would have been a lot trickier.
I love Atlanta but no way I think it should be the capital of America....confederacy yes.
I voted for Chicago only because Philly or Boston wasn't on the list. I think the Capital should be on the east coast simply because that is where the country started
Do you have a source for that? The movie "Wargames" does not count......
The Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, CO, a Denver suburb. Building 710, during the Cold War, was a bunker complex built to be able to house the essential employees of the complex in the event of a nuclear war. Building 710 contained all the supplies that the General Service Administration would need, meaning that basically all federal agencies could be run from the site. The Denver Federal Center was, and still is, the largest concentration of federal agencies outside of the Washington, D.C area.
Bare in mind, this was all Cold War stuff. Building 710 now houses regional offices for FEMA, and no longer serves the purpose of being a fallout shelter. That means that there's not really evidence indicating that today Denver would be any sort of "emergency captial." In fact, there's no evidence indicating it ever would have been able to house the legislative (a facility for that purpose, "Project Greek Island," existed in West Virginia) or judicial branches, just that it could operate various federal departments and agencies like the FBI and FEMA. Building 710 was added to the National Registrar of Historic Places for its significance as Cold War-era architecture.
Neither of them would ever stand a chance of being capital, NYC would be a great capital and a lot of people from outside US think that NYC is the capital anyway lol
but from the list I would choose Chicago, the rest are not urban enough
IMO Denver is too isolated to be a good capital. You want a good portion of the population to be within a day's drive and Denver is kind of out there on its own.
Brasilia in Brazil is quite isolated from the rest of the country, but it's easy to access because of it's central location in the country. Denver while isolated, has a central location in the country. You'll notice when you visit Colorado in the summer you see plates from every state.
I think if DC wasn't the capitol, it would/should be either New York City, because it's the largest city and economic capital, or St.Louis, because of it's central location.
Location: Jefferson City 4 days a week, St. Louis 3 days a week
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Originally Posted by I'minformed2
KC is the closest of these to the center of population (which is in Missouri) and it is the only one that is really "without a region". It wouldn't be considered too "Eastern" by westerners (like Chicago or Atlanta might be and like DC often is considered by westerners right now)....nor would it be too far "Western" for easterners (Like Denver or Dallas, despite Dallas only being marginally further west than KC). Also it wouldn't be overly "Northern" for southerners (Chicago and possibly Omaha) or "Southern" for northerners (Dallas and Atlanta again). It would be the Goldilocks of capital regions.
But in all reality; the capital could never be anywhere but DC. It just has too much of the history and infrastructure built up. Sorry western US!
I'd have to disagree about not being too Northern for Southerners...KC has a Midwest flavor to it but has southern influence....and most of the North wouldn't consider KC the south either. But it is as geographically central and as culturally central to the middle of the country as the nation will get in terms of large cities.
Kansas City is in the center the USA and actually lookes like it could be the capital, if you ask me. Very classy looking city.
Denver seems to already be a center for government. Why not?
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