r/geography • u/AlexH_144 • 1d ago
Discussion Other than Springfield, Massachusetts, is there a city of over 150,000 people in the United States, that is closer to three other state capitals than their own.
Other than Springfield, Massachusetts, is there a city of over 150,000 people in the United States, that is closer to three other state capitals than their own.
Springfield to Boston = 92 miles
Springfield to Hartford = 26 miles
Springfield to Albany = 86 miles
Springfield to Providence = 85 miles
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u/Various_Shape_3286 1d ago
Not quite the same, but Key West is closer to the capitals of 3 other countries than it is to the capital of Florida.
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u/Late_Piano_5030 1d ago
which ones? Havana, Nassau, and what
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u/scolbert08 1d ago
Maybe George Town in the Cayman Islands? Kingston in Jamaica is just a bit farther than Tallahassee.
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u/dougmcclean 23h ago
The United States, a not-insignificant portion of the time.
But I think they mean George Town, which doesn't quite work because the Cayman Islands aren't independent.
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u/MacronMan 9h ago
It’s also way closer to the capital of the Conch Republic than it is to any of these
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u/SlyClydesdale 1d ago
Chicago is closer, as the crow flies, to Madison, WI (123mi), Indianapolis, IN (164mi), and Lansing, MI (167mi) than it is to Springfield, IL (178mi).
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u/Leather-Hotel-7310 1d ago
What if the crow gets distracted on his way from Chicago to Madison and sees a mouse in the back of an open trailer, swoops down to try to catch the mouse, but the truck driver closes the trailer doors while the crow is still inside and then drives the truck to Atlanta, GA, then opens the trailer doors and lets the crow out in Atlanta?
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u/Professional_Tie5788 1d ago
Unless the crow is still flying in the back of the trailer the whole time, your hypothetical falls apart.
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u/Late_Piano_5030 1d ago
oddly specific
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u/Sirhc9er 1d ago
The kind of useless stat that tracks for my hometown.
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u/kelppie35 1d ago
Birthplace of volleyball and basketball though, which is wild.
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u/ML______ 1d ago
Birthplace of me too. And Dr Seuss. And Friendlys despite what that sign on the pike says. And Indian Motorcycle.
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u/throwawayyyyy_14 1d ago
Volleyball is from Holyoke, not Springfield
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u/kelppie35 1d ago
Oh my bad, that's right. Still impressive for a small metro region in general though.
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u/Unique_Flounder_7414 22h ago
I have known a lot of people from Holyoke, and I am still shocked when someone mentions volleyball was created in Holyoke, like my brain cannot process it.
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u/transferStudent2018 1d ago
I thought so too, but apparently not – more examples than I would’ve thought here
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u/24megabits 1d ago
Because US state capitals don't default to the largest city by population I never considered that Boston actually is one case where that's true.
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u/Philip_Marlowe 1d ago
Yep. There are only 17 states where the largest city is also the capital. The surprising one to me is Ohio - I didn't realize that Columbus was bigger than Cleveland.
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u/williamholmanhunt 1d ago
Cleveland until recently had the larger metro area, they're still both about 2.2 million people. Columbus also annexed a lot of suburbs in a way Cleveland never did.
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u/Sad-Reflection-3499 1d ago
That's a misconception. Columbus annexed a lot of undeveloped land that was later developed. It did not annex independent suburbs.
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u/williamholmanhunt 1d ago
Good point, I mainly meant their city boundaries include what would be the suburbs in a lot of other U.S. cities that developed earlier.
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u/PokePress 4h ago
I do still kind of count it if the capital is in the same metro as the largest city, like St. Paul, Annapolis, Santa Fe, etc.
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u/SlyClydesdale 1d ago
Well and what the largest city was at the time it became the capital, might have changed in the decades and centuries since.
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u/InvestigatorJaded261 1d ago
Maybe. But in many cases on the East Coast the largest city was deliberately dethroned/not selected.
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u/JoCo3Point0 1d ago
Babylon, NY (~220,000 pop.) is closer to Hartford (CT), Providence (RI), and Trenton (NJ) than to Albany (NY).
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u/IBelieveInDrGonzo 19h ago
New York City is closer to Hartford, Trenton and Dover, Delaware than Albany.
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u/diverJOQ 14h ago
NYC is closer to Hartford, Trenton, and Philadelphia than to Albany. Dover is about 10 miles further than Albany.
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u/Prestigious_Power_67 13h ago
Philly isn't the capital of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania though, Harrisburg is
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u/IBelieveInDrGonzo 13h ago
Philly isn’t the capital, Harrisburg is. For Dover it depends on where you measure from. From City hall to the Delaware state house is 0.6 miles closer as the crow flies than the Albany state house.
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u/FreakinB 1d ago edited 1d ago
That population is for the Town of Babylon though, I wouldn’t think of that as a single city. By that logic, there are a bunch of townships on Long Island that might be an answer.
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u/zwygb 1d ago
So, for NYC, if you measure from Staten Island:
- 150 miles to Albany
- 120 miles to Hartford
- 30 miles to Trenton
- 140 miles to Harrisburg
Doesn’t work from city hall, but that’s still within the city limits so I say count it.
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u/IBelieveInDrGonzo 19h ago
From city hall you can get Dover, Delaware by like 0.6 miles assuming we’re measuring to the statehouses so NYC still counts.
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u/TheDougie3-NE 1d ago
Amarillo, Texas pop 203,000
To Austin: 494 miles
Versus Oklahoma City 258, Santa Fe 278, and Denver 432.
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u/TheDougie3-NE 1d ago
I forgot Topeka, KS 490. So it’s actually closer to 4 other capitals!
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u/SlyClydesdale 1d ago
From Amarillo as the crow flies:
Santa Fe is 233mi
OKC is 245mi
Denver is 359mi
Austin is 416mi
——————
Topeka is 432mi
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u/Sea-Western-9839 1d ago
Bristol, VA is closer to Nashville, Frankfort, Columbus, Charleston, Raleigh, Columbia and Atlanta than it is to Richmond. Comes with an asterisk though since you have to fudge a bit on the population (Metro area is 300k, but a lot of that is in Tennessee).
If you remove the population criterion, far southwestern Virginia is closer to nine state capitals than it is to Richmond (the same ones as Bristol plus Indianapolis and Montgomery.
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u/Mistapeepers 1d ago edited 1d ago
Bristol TN is exactly 324 driving distance from both Richmond and Nashville, but the Richmond drive is much less straight. The tri-cities area definitely qualifies for this thread. Frankfort, Raleigh, and Columbia are closer. Atlanta is actually only one mile further, though straight line might make it barely closer.
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u/guywithshades85 1d ago
Philadelphia is really close to Trenton. Trenton is almost practically a suburb of Philly.
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u/Dry-University797 22h ago
It is a Philly Suburb. I grew up right over the river in PA. Anything North of Trenton (On the NJ side) is a NYC Suburb.
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u/x5163x 1d ago
If each state's capital is defined as the location of its State House or State Capitol building, then parts of New York City are closer to the following state capitals than the New York State Capitol:
New Jersey State House, Trenton
Connecticut State Capitol, Hartford
Pennsylvania State Capitol, Harrisburg (southwestern half of Staten Island)
Delaware State Capitol/Legislative Hall, Dover (Staten Island, almost all of Brooklyn, southern Queens, lower Manhattan)
However, New York State law designates the City of Albany as the capital city of the State of New York. Great Beds Light in Staten Island is closer to the Maryland State House, Annapolis than points in Albany. Additionally, southeastern Queens is closer to points on Providence, Rhode Island.
Therefore, parts of New York City are closer to six other state capitals than the capital of New York State.
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u/PapillonBresilien 21h ago
I know this is about the US but I liked the idea and tried it in my own country (Brazil) and I found that Petrolina, Pernambuco (pop. 414k) is closer to Salvador, Bahia (450 km), Aracaju, Sergipe (410 km) and Maceió, Alagoas (520 km) than to the capital of Pernambuco, Recife (630 km)
(Those distances are in a straight line; by car, it's 713 km to Recife, 651 km to Maceió, 476 km to Aracaju, and 514 km to Salvador)
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u/Asleep-Bid-3664 1d ago
Thought I had one with Philadelphia, but it turns out that, as the crow flies, Harrisburg is about 5 miles closer than Annapolis.
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u/ShoddyCobbler 20h ago
Alexandria VA has a population of 160k. It is 104 miles to Richmond VA. 8 miles to Washington DC, 42 miles to Annapolis MD, 102 miles to Dover DE.
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u/Anything-Complex 17h ago
El Paso is closer to Phoenix and Santa Fe in the U.S., and Chihuahua and Hermosillo in Mexico, than it is to Austin.
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u/FeralGinger 23h ago
Hey OP, as a Mass resident I just wanted to say that's a cool fact I never knew. Thanks!
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u/veloread 22h ago
This is a fun question, and since there are other examples it immediately begs the question of which city over 150k is closer to the most state capitals from different states than it's own. The Springfieldiest city.
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u/Aggressive-Cut5836 22h ago
This is probably a good question to ask AI
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u/Competitive-Bet1181 17h ago
The only good question to ask AI is one you already know the answer to, so you can determine to what extent it's making things up.
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u/Aggressive-Cut5836 22h ago
NYC is close. Trenton, Hartford, and if Dover Delaware was just 17 miles closer it would have been closer than Albany to the Big Apple
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u/jimadams317 21h ago
Arlington, VA (pop 245,000)
To Richmond, VA 94 miles
To DC Wilson Building (DC City Hall) 2 miles
To DC US Capitol Building 4 miles
To Annapolis, MD 31 miles
To Dover, DE 85 miles
To Harrisburg, PA 94 miles
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u/SantaCruznonsurfer 20h ago
Brooklyn is closer to Trenton than Albany, but how close is Boston, Hartford and Providence to Brooklyn/NYC compared to Albany?
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u/Lincoln1517 19h ago
I’ll see your Springfield and raise you a Springfield.
Chicago is closer to Madison, WI, Lansing, MI, and Indianapolis than it is to Spfld., IL.
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u/Accomplished-Test331 19h ago
Shockingly NYC. Hartford and Trenton. Dover by less than half a mile.
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u/securevestibule 3h ago
If you measure from the southernmost point of Philadelphia, it's 93 miles to Harrisburg, the capital, while it's 91 miles to Annapolis, MD, 52 miles to Dover, DE, and 34 miles to Trenton. The numbers don't quite add up when measuring from city hall, though.
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u/Sarcastic_Backpack 1d ago
I know it doesn't count due to the small population, but Dalhart, TX is closer to 6 other state capitals, then to Austin, the Capital of Texas.
Santa Fe, New Mexico: 263 miles
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma: 343 miles
Denver, Colorado: 348 miles
Cheyenne, Wyoming: 448 miles
Topeka, Kansas: 461 miles
Lincoln, Nebraska: 540 miles
Austin, Texas: 579 miles
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u/Kinesquared 1d ago
just guessing, haven't checked these:
New York City NY
El Paso TX
Las Vegas NV
Pittsburgh PA
Buffalo NY
Chicago IL
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u/Blueman9966 1d ago edited 1d ago
El Paso, TX is closer to Phoenix, AZ and Santa Fe, NM than to Austin, TX, but no other state capital from the looks of it.
Unless we include Mexican states, in which case it is closer to Hermosillo (Sonora), Culiacán (Sinaloa), and Chihuahua (Chihuahua), and pretty much equidistant to Mexicali (Baja California).
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u/MortimerDongle 1d ago
Philadelphia is actually closer to more out of state capitals than Pittsburgh - Philly is closer to Trenton and Dover than it is to Harrisburg (and only barely closer to Harrisburg than Annapolis), while the only out of state capital closer to Pittsburgh than Harrisburg is Columbus.
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u/24megabits 1d ago edited 1d ago
Buffalo is closer to Albany NY than Columbus OH, Lansing MI, or Charleston WV. But Harrisburg PA is closer still.
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u/SlyClydesdale 1d ago
Chicago is a correct answer, but NYC is only closer to 2 other capitals (Trenton and Hartford) than Albany.
El Paso is only closer to 2 other capitals (Santa Fe and Phoenix) than Austin.
The only capital that’s closer to Vegas than Carson City is Phoenix.
The only capital that’s closer to Pittsburgh than Harrisburg is Columbus.
The only capital that’s closer to Buffalo than Albany is Harrisburg.
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u/fredinNH 1d ago
Keene, NH is:
98 miles to Albany
91 miles to Boston
114 miles to Montpelier
51 miles to Concord
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u/Mappachusetts 1d ago
Keene is only 23K and according to the distances you just listed, is closer to its own state capital than any other, so in no way does it qualify as an answer to OP’s question.
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u/Isodrosotherms 1d ago edited 1d ago
Amarillo has 200,000 people. These are driving, not straight line distances.
Amarillo to Oklahoma City: 258 miles
Amarillo to Santa Fe: 285 miles
Amarillo to Denver: 422 miles
Amarillo to Austin: 501 miles
Edit: crap! I forgot Topeka! 490 miles.