# US States' capitals



## TalB (Jun 8, 2005)

Rockmont said:


> Pretty spectacular display of capitols, or capitals. "O" or "A" or whatever. Except the second shot of what was supposed to be Bismarck, is actually Spokane Washington, and it isn't even the capital of its respective state. Nice shot though.


Now that I realize that, I did manage to find an actuall shot of Bismarck, though this is the best I could get for a skyline.


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## hauntedheadnc (Aug 18, 2003)

Pegasusbsb27 said:


> One of the most interesting threads I've seen on Skyscrapercity. Too many of the outsiders think that California's capital is Los Angeles, or New York's capital is NYC or Florida's capital is Miami. In fact, too many Brazilians think that the US capital is New York City   Compared to some of the US great cities, the states capitals are so "smallviles"...


Most US state capital cities were chosen expressly to disperse the balance of power around the state, and to avoid having a single city overwhelm the entire state. This didn't always work, of course. States with a single superlative city such as Illinois with Chicago or New York with New York City, still are dwarfed by that one city. In states with more than one major city such as California, Texas, and Florida, power is more evenly spread. That, and some state capitals grew up to be the biggest city in the state anyway, such as Indianapolis in Indiana and Atlanta, in Georgia.

Fun fact: Raleigh was built from the ground up for the sole purpose of being the capital city of North Carolina, after the state government spent decades bouncing around from town to town along the coast. Legend says that Raleigh is where it is because the surveyors out looking for the perfect town site convened at a tavern, the tavern owner got them drunk, and then changed their maps. When they sobered up, their maps showed that the most perfect spot for the new capital would be -- surprise! -- right about where the tavern stood.


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## Rockmont (Feb 28, 2006)

TalB said:


> Now that I realize that, I did manage to find an actuall shot of Bismarck, though this is the best I could get for a skyline.




Bismarck has a very nice capitol for its state. I like the Depression era skyscraper in the small city. The first shot showed the downtown area, which has some nice 5 to 6 story buildings too. Both fine shots.


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## Pegasusbsb27 (Sep 5, 2005)

hauntedheadnc said:


> Most US state capital cities were chosen expressly to disperse the balance of power around the state, and to avoid having a single city overwhelm the entire state. This didn't always work, of course. States with a single superlative city such as Illinois with Chicago or New York with New York City, still are dwarfed by that one city. In states with more than one major city such as California, Texas, and Florida, power is more evenly spread. That, and some state capitals grew up to be the biggest city in the state anyway, such as Indianapolis in Indiana and Atlanta, in Georgia.
> 
> Fun fact: Raleigh was built from the ground up for the sole purpose of being the capital city of North Carolina, after the state government spent decades bouncing around from town to town along the coast. Legend says that Raleigh is where it is because the surveyors out looking for the perfect town site convened at a tavern, the tavern owner got them drunk, and then changed their maps. When they sobered up, their maps showed that the most perfect spot for the new capital would be -- surprise! -- right about where the tavern stood.


:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: That's the good thing about the cities: not just their buildings, houses, transportation systems, but their people, their history!!! Thanks for the fun information about Raleigh. It was great!!! ...By the way, If I am not wrong, Brazil has only one state in what the capital is not the largest city: Santa Catarina, in Southern Brazil, where Joinville is the biggest city and Florianopolis is the state capital and the second largest


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## TEBC (Dec 26, 2004)

Thank you all!! I loved all pics!!

Is Augusta the smalles capital in US with 9000 habs?


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## MDguy (Dec 16, 2006)

Montpelier, Vermont is with 8,035


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## jessemh431 (Apr 5, 2007)

madison, wisconsin is beautiful.


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## TalB (Jun 8, 2005)

hauntedheadnc said:


> Most US state capital cities were chosen expressly to disperse the balance of power around the state, and to avoid having a single city overwhelm the entire state. This didn't always work, of course. States with a single superlative city such as Illinois with Chicago or New York with New York City, still are dwarfed by that one city. In states with more than one major city such as California, Texas, and Florida, power is more evenly spread. That, and some state capitals grew up to be the biggest city in the state anyway, such as Indianapolis in Indiana and Atlanta, in Georgia.


Basically, most of the current state capitols were planned. For some states, the reason was to create a city that didn't exist when they were under colonization by the British, French, or Spanish. Other states just wanted to create a city that was more in the center so that they would accessible by people all over the state. I will not argue that state capitals like Dover, Montpelier, Concord, Bismarck, Pierre, Salem, Santa Fe, and Helena don't have skylines let alone that many skyscrapers, but they weren't aimed to have them from the beginning.


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## TEBC (Dec 26, 2004)

One funny thing that i dont get it, is why there is so many large cities in the states bourder, like Kansas City, Memphis, Chicago, min-st paul... How it works with law and other things...


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## zigzag (Feb 17, 2003)

Cool thread.


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## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

tadeu said:


> One funny thing that i dont get it, is why there is so many large cities in the states bourder, like Kansas City, Memphis, Chicago, min-st paul... How it works with law and other things...


Lots of states have borders that are based around natural and common sense physical features. Lakes, rivers. Many cities obviously grew up because of these same features.


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## jessemh431 (Apr 5, 2007)

Chicagoago said:


> Lots of states have borders that are based around natural and common sense physical features. Lakes, rivers. Many cities obviously grew up because of these same features.


Yep. Minneapolis/St. Paul is on the Mississippi River which is the MN/WI border.


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## Mussoda (Mar 10, 2007)

very interesting thread..


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## TalB (Jun 8, 2005)

We shouldn't forget Washington, DC, which is the nation's capital.


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## Chicagoago (Dec 2, 2005)

A few more of Des Moines, Iowa

This is Iowa:









Farms, small towns, some medium size cities (200,000 is about the largest). Des Moines has around 500,000 people in the urban area, and is growing nicely. I think it's a very impressive city for a state many Americans just see as backwards farmers who barely have running water and don't know what a "mall" or a "computer" are. Certainly isn't the case...


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## yerfdog (Dec 9, 2006)

tadeu said:


> One funny thing that i dont get it, is why there is so many large cities in the states bourder, like Kansas City, Memphis, Chicago, min-st paul... How it works with law and other things...


As was said earlier, the cities are there because of the bodies of water, which also made good borders. What happens is that the cities are administered as two separate cities.

For example, there is a Kansas City, Kansas, and its larger neighbor Kansas City, Missouri. They are really a single city, but they are legally two separate ones, one in each state.


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## JPBrazil (Mar 12, 2007)

Pegasusbsb27 said:


> One of the most interesting threads I've seen on Skyscrapercity. Too many of the outsiders think that California's capital is Los Angeles, or New York's capital is NYC or Florida's capital is Miami. In fact, too *many Brazilians think that the US capital is New York City *  Compared to some of the US great cities, the states capitals are so "smallviles"...


Only the ones who can't even point where Brazil is on the world map (about 50% of the population)


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## jessemh431 (Apr 5, 2007)

>


What part of town is that. It looks like somewhere I'd enjoy.


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## cheesy bob (Jan 14, 2007)

Boise ID but I dont have any pics


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## TalB (Jun 8, 2005)

Then google some of them.


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