# Has a large US city ever just disappeared? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 24, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787 "2009-11-24T16:36:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/61 "2009-11-27T21:54:34Z")
[Fixed link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunwich). You needed an end-tag at the end. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/62 "2009-11-27T22:05:55Z")
Thanks **Chronos** ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/63 "2009-11-28T01:15:46Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Time magazine is a doing extensive reporting on Detroit, including buying a house and reporting from it for a year. One plan was to concentrate the population into a downtown and raze building in a ring around the city that would be turned into parkland. Here is a link [http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1925796,00.html](http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1925796,00.html) Good article, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/64 "2009-11-28T18:17:50Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > That’s really odd to me, since San Jose is much larger than SF and Oakland has its own identity and major sports teams. But I can’t be really be objective about it, as a (former) resident of SF. > > ::wondering if people really think that:: I suspect that many geographically challenged folks in the U.S. along with the majority of folks outside the U.S. simply are unaware of the actual sizes and relationships of the various cities. SF is older, more “romantic,” has lots of well-publicized history, and anchors one end of the Golden Gate bridge as well as sharing its name with the bay, itself. San Jose, (1,007,000 or 948,000, depending on who you believe), is still only a bit larger than SF, (808,000), although it is spread out over more land and was significantly smaller not that many years ago, (204,000 in 1960 and 460,000 in 1970). Oakland, with around 420,000 people, is quite a bit smaller. With only the single strand of the Bay bridges linking it to San Francisco, I can see the local folks recognizing it as separate, but to an outsider, it is going to look like just part of the region. ---
**Author:** ![Dandmb50](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ba9def/32.png) [@Dandmb50](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandmb50)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/65 "2009-11-28T19:33:46Z")
The point about cities forgetting to keep the downtown vibrant is interesting. Whenever I have driven through Detroit one thing I always remember was how dead the downtown area was. Empty buildings, no stores, no condos. It’s really sad. Here in [Toronto](http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j83/dandmb50/DSC_0068-1.jpg) the downtown for the past several years has undergone a complete facelift. Building that were closed have turned into condo’s and more malls are being built downtown in the city core. The city made another interesting rule that when developers come in to build they must build a certain amount of green space. We’ve done nothing but grow but we still complain. The other side of that is that the traffic gets very busy. We have about 3 million now and within 50 miles there are probably 10 million. By the way the world does not just centre around the USA there are other places than the USA. Daniel … Toronto, Canada ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/66 "2009-11-28T23:02:23Z")
So the person who posts the OP doesn’t have the right to specify that he is talking about a specific country? ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/67 "2009-11-28T23:10:11Z")
[quote] **morbo** : ::wondering if people really think that:: [quote] I’m a little old lady who has never been to California. I don’t think that I knew about the relationship of San Francisco and Oakland until the earthquake that happened during the World Series. Lots of people in S.F. were on their way to Oakland via the Bay Bridge. I can still remember a collapsed tier of the bridge with a car pointed nose down on the collapsed part. That was freaky! Where does the Golden Gate Bridge go to if not Oakland? ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/68 "2009-11-28T23:12:09Z")
**Superhal** , that is an amazing statistic!\*\*. Have you ever seen the film **Hawaii**? ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/69 "2009-11-28T23:13:17Z")
**Superhal** , that is an amazing statistic!. Have you ever seen the film **Hawaii**? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/70 "2009-11-28T23:24:34Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] I’m a little old lady who has never been to California. I don’t think that I knew about the relationship of San Francisco and Oakland until the earthquake that happened during the World Series. Lots of people in S.F. were on their way to Oakland via the Bay Bridge. I can still remember a collapsed tier of the bridge with a car pointed nose down on the collapsed part. That was freaky! Where does the Golden Gate Bridge go to if not Oakland? [/QUOTE] Marin county - Sausalito, Mill Valley, Tiburon, San Rafael, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/71 "2009-11-29T17:18:55Z")
Washington-on-the-Brazos in Texas. Once a thriving town, now a Texas state park. > [@](#): > > Washington-on-the-Brazos is known as “the birthplace of Texas”, a distinction it earned when on March 1, 1836 it became the meeting place of the Texas delegates who formally announced Texas’ intention to separate from Mexico and who drafted the constitution of the new Republic of Texas, organizing an interim government to serve until an officially elected government could be put in place.[1] > Replica of the building at Washington-on-the-Brazos where the Texas Declaration was signed. An inscription reads: “Here a Nation was born”. > > The delegates declared independence on March 2, 1836. Their constitution was adopted on March 16. The delegates worked until March 17, when they had to flee, along with the people of Washington, to escape the advancing Mexican Army. The townspeople returned after the Mexican Army was defeated at San Jacinto on April 21. Town leaders lobbied for Washington’s designation as the permanent capital of the Republic of Texas, but leaders of the Republic passed over Washington in favor of Waterloo, which later was renamed Austin. > > Washington County was created by the legislature of the Republic of Texas in 1836 and organized in 1837 and Washington-on-the-Brazos became the county seat. Although the county seat moved to Brenham in 1844, the town continued to thrive as a center for the cotton trade until the mid-1850s, when the railroad bypassed it. The strife of the Civil War took another toll on the town, and by the turn of the century it was virtually abandoned. > **[Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington-on-the-Brazos,_Texas)** > > Washington-on-the-Brazos, also known simply as Washington, is an unincorporated community along the Brazos River in Washington County, Texas, United States. The town is best known for being the site of the Convention of 1836 and the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence. > The town is named for Washington, Georgia, itself named for George Washington. It is officially known as just "Washington," but after the Civil War came to be known as "Washington-on-the-Brazos" to distinguish the ... ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/72 "2009-11-29T18:47:32Z")
The “old down” section of Gary, Indiana has been abandoned for about three decades. > **[Gary, Indiana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary,_Indiana)** > > Gary (/ˈɡæri/ GARR-ee) is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the southern shore of Lake Michigan about 25 miles (40 km) southeast of downtown Chicago, Illinois. The city is adjacent to the Indiana Dunes National Park, and is within the Chicago metropolitan area. > Gary was named after lawyer Elbert Henry ... ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/73 "2009-11-30T01:10:11Z")
W/r/t the San Jose hijack, how big is the downtown in SJ? I live in Palm Bay which is adjacent to the similarly sized Melbourne, FL, and I always think of it as a suburb of Melbourne because Melbourne was there first, and more importantly, has a real downtown (albeit not any bigger than that of many large villages/small cities in upstate NY.) So if the part of SJ that is considered ‘downtown’ is a lot smaller than Sf’s downtown, then that might be a reason it is considered part of SF. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/74 "2009-11-30T02:35:15Z")
[Indianola](http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianola,_Texas) was the second largest port in Texas (after Galveston). Population was 5,000 in 1875, when it was almost destroyed by a hurricane. They rebuilt–but a hurricane in 1886 convinced everybody to give up. Most of the site is under water now. Yeah, 5,000 isn’t that “large”–but, for Texas in the 19th century it was pretty sizeable. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/75 "2009-11-30T23:46:28Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > Where does the Golden Gate Bridge go to if not Oakland? Nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/76 "2009-12-01T00:40:39Z")
> [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](#): > > Nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. Really? So what happens to the 40,000 or so cars that cross it every day? ---
**Author:** ![janeslogin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@janeslogin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janeslogin)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/77 "2009-12-01T22:17:22Z")
What percentage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki disappeared with the bombings? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/78 "2009-12-01T23:13:02Z")
> [@janeslogin](#): > > What percentage of Hiroshima and Nagasaki disappeared with the bombings? About 25% of the population at Hiroshima. Slightly less than the percentage of prisoners of war that died in Japan’s Bataan Death March. Or as my uncle, who suffered as a Japanese POW said, “not nearly enough”. But that wasn’t a US city, like the OP asked for. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/79 "2009-12-02T00:03:15Z")
> [@Yarster](#): > > Driving back from Austin, TX to San Diego, CA in 1998, we ALMOST stopped in a town called Sierra Blanca, TX that is apparently the site of one of the largest sewage dumps in the U.S. - part of some kind of deal where a company dumped large quantities of waste from New York in the West Texas desert. Sierra Blanca is also filled with ghost subdivisions. https://maps.google.com/maps?q=sierra+blanca+texas&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Sierra+Blanca,+Hudspeth,+Texas&gl=us&ei=oqwVS5j8KcnklAft9JS9BQ&ved=0CAsQ8gEwAA&ll=31.17778,-105.342493&spn=0.03165,0.07699&t=h&z=14 https://maps.google.com/maps?q=sierra+blanca+texas&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Sierra+Blanca,+Hudspeth,+Texas&gl=us&ei=oqwVS5j8KcnklAft9JS9BQ&ved=0CAsQ8gEwAA&ll=31.271215,-105.415664&spn=0.015809,0.038495&t=h&z=15 ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2009, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787/80 "2009-12-02T17:25:24Z")
Memphis, TN, went away for a few years: > [@](#): > > In the 1870s, a series of yellow fever epidemics hit the city. The worst outbreak, in 1878, reduced the population by nearly 75% as many people died or fled the city permanently. Property tax revenues collapsed, and the city could not make payments on its municipal debts. As a result, Memphis lost its city charter and became a taxing district, operating thus from 1878-1893 and was rechartered in 1893. > **[Memphis, Tennessee | 19th century](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memphis,_Tennessee#19th_century)** > > At the beginning of the century, as recognized by the United States in 1786 Treaty of Hopewell, the land still belonged to the Chickasaw Nation. In the Treaty of Tuscaloosa, signed in October 1818 and ratified by Congress on January 7, 1819, the Chickasaw ceded their territory in Western Tennessee to the United States. The city of Memphis was founded less than five months after the U.S. takeover of the territory, on May 22, 1819 (incorporated December 19, 1826), by John Overton, James Winchester ... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-large-us-city-ever-just-disappeared/518787.md?page=5)