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[–] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

In their defense, I have no idea what the capital of Kentucky or Virginia is :/

PS: I don't know it for most states 🙃 actually, I didn't know California's, New York's or Illinois'...this is starting to look like a conspiracy to make your largest city not the capital, lol

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    Kentucky is Frankfort. Yes its spelled differently from Germany's one.

    California is Sacramento, New York is Albany, and every once in a while the capital is the biggest or most important city like seriously, Philadelphia was nearly the nation's capital but fumbled even being the state capital.

    Oh and ohio is fun here because Columbus has slowly grown to be the biggest city in ohio. Cleveland and Cincinnati are more historically significant while Columbus was just a big city focused on the university and business. But as the great lakes manufacturing and ohio River manufacturing fell by the wayside and Columbus kept growing it beat them out.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    and yes it's spelled differently from Germanys one

    That's because it's not named after the German one. It's named after "Frank's Ford" which is part of a creek in the area.

    Some people say it's because there is a surprisingly large German population in the area, but it was already called Frankfort by the late 1700s when the large influx of German immigrants really started.

    Who really knows haha

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

    this is starting to look like a conspiracy to make your largest city not the capital, lol

    Usually this is because the capital doesn't generally change over time while the relative size of cities often does, especially on the scale of a century or more.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    That's completely wrong. Many states moved their capital away from population centers on the coast into more geographically central locations inland. Other states deliberately planned their capitals to be in central locations when it was already clear where the population centers were going to be.

    If anything the capital city only grows and becomes the population center. Population never drifts away from the capital.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Tell that to Albany, NY. Population is about 1.2% of NYC.

    Or to Sacramento, CA which is the fourth largest city in the state.

    Then there are states where the population doesn't really concentrate like that, like WV. Biggest city is the capital, but that's not saying much. That's largely a result of the geography, where most of the state is forested mountains, with people wherever there's a flat spot. It's beautiful, but wildly impractical for large population centers. The only reason Charleston is still the biggest city is the three-way interstate junction that meets at it, and that's thanks to Robert C Byrd using his influence to help his constituents.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I live in West Virginia and a recurring joke is that we should just give up and rename the state to Robert C Byrd. His name is on everything.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I do too, I'm in the greater Charleston area. And yeah, fucking everything is named for him, but to be fair much of the time it's because he secured the funding to make it happen. Man was corrupt as hell, but he did a lot of good for the state.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    What point of mine are you trying to refute here? Sacramento and Albany were never the population centers of their states as your theory suggests. They were selected because of their central geographic location as with the vast majority of US state capitals.

    Its like your hung up on me saying "population drifts towards the capital" because it generally does but rarely overcomes any major metropol on the coast.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Looking at China's provincial capitals and EU's capitals, they all look like they hoovered up all the population around them, why doesn't that happen in the US? Lemme guess...car culture?

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  • [–] 2 points 1 year ago

    No its just completely wrong theory. Population centers are usually on the edge of the state and capitals are deliberately kept in the geographic center of the state. If the population center isn't on the edge then its in the capitol.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    As an American, neither do i. I was taught them but unlike STEM courses i would never use that knowledge in my adult life.

    Meanwhile i knew there wasn't a tunnel between IE/UK.

    Some of us are more worldly i guess...

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