# How many "twin cities" in the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 26, 2004, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869 "2004-07-26T00:58:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/1 "2004-07-26T00:58:43Z")
You know, cities that are “Joined at the hip”. I can think of three right off the bat: [ul] [li] Kansas City, KS and Kansas city, MO[/li][li]Fort Worth, TX and Dallas, TX[/li][li] Calexico, CA and Mexicali, Mexico (Ok, that’s cheating a little)[/li][li] Those two with the big arch. St Paul and St Louis?[/li][/ul] Texarcana? Help me out here. I know there are a lot more. Should this be in MPSIMS? Peace, mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/2 "2004-07-26T01:11:10Z")
How about Minneapolis and St. Paul? Texarkana and Texarkana? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/3 "2004-07-26T01:13:10Z")
Tampa St. Pete’s ---
**Author:** ![Vlad\_Igor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Vlad\_Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Igor)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/4 "2004-07-26T01:43:28Z")
Raleigh / Durham, NC? Champagne / Urbana, IL. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/5 "2004-07-26T01:46:59Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Those two with the big arch. St Paul and St Louis? I’m not sure what you’re thinking of here. St. Louis, Missouri has the big arch, but it doesn’t have a twin. **The** Twin Cities refers to Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota (hence their baseball team: the Twins). Here in Illinois we have Champaign-Urbana (with the University of Illinois extending into both) and Bloomington-Normal. ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/6 "2004-07-26T02:02:15Z")
Depends upon the definition and what you mean by “cities”. The whole Los Angeles metropolitan region and that of San Diego and San Franciso and San Jose are all filled with adjacent towns but I assume you don’t include that. To do so would take in the metropolitan area in the major cities of nearly every state. Alabama - Phoenix City (Columbus, GA) Arizona - Nogales (Nogales, Mexico) Arkansas - Texarcana (Texarcan, TX) California - Calexico (Mexicali, Mexico) Connecticut - New Haven, East Haven, West Haven Gerorgia - See Alabama Illinois - Rock Island, Moline (Davenport and Bettendorf, IA) Quad Cities. East St. Louis, (St. Louis, MO) Iowa - Sioux City (S. Sioux City, NE, N. Sioux City, SD), Council Bluffs (Omaha, NE) Kansas - Kansas City (Kansas City, MO) Kentucky - Covington (Cincinnati, OH) Michigan - Detroit (Windsor, ONT) Minnesota - Moorhead (Fargo, ND), Minneapolis, St. Paul Missouri - See Kansas and Illinois Nebraska - See Iowa New Jersey - Camden (Philadelphia, PA) Ohio - See Kentucky Oregon - Portland (Vancouver, WA) Pennsylvania - See New Jersey Texas - El Paso (Ciudad Juarez, Mexico), Laredo (Nuevo Laredo, Mexico) also See Arkansas Washington - See Oregon There are probably some I missed. Most of these aren’t though of as Twin Cities because one is much bigger than the other. Winnow them as you choose. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/7 "2004-07-26T03:55:33Z")
I’m thinking of cities which acknowledge twinship with each other. Dallas/Fort Worth and the Kansas Cities, for example. I wonder how these cities get along. I know that Dallas and Fort Worth seem to pick on each other a lot. Lake Tahoe is split north and south, gambling being allowed (for now, anyway) only on the Nevada side. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/8 "2004-07-26T04:23:09Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > I’m thinking of cities which acknowledge twinship with each other. It seems to me that you may want to set more a objective standard than that. Or at least it would make answering it a lot easier. How do we know that a given candidate pair of cities acknowledge twinship unless we happen to have lived there? Personally, I find it more interesting to find cities that are divided by a state or national border. That is, two cities that have the same name and are adjacent or nearly so, but are in two different states or provinces. Kansas City and Texarkana are two of the larger ones. Others are Bluefield VA/WV and Bristol TN/VA. On international borders are Niagara Falls NY/ON, Sault Ste. Marie MI/ON and Nogales AZ/Sonora. And within Canada is Lloydminster AB/SK. There’s a few more smaller ones as well, but I’m not going to bother listing them here. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/9 "2004-07-26T08:16:49Z")
Then there are tri cities: Kennewick, Pasco and Richland, Washington And quad cities: Moline & Rock Island, Illinois • Davenport & Bettendorf, Iowa ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/10 "2004-07-26T12:53:20Z")
Do Detroit and Windsor consider themselves twin cities? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/11 "2004-07-26T13:13:02Z")
The cities of Albany, Schenectady, Troy, and Saratoga in NY are grouped together as the Capital District. If you’re talking about International twin cities, there’s Niagara Falls, NY, and Niagara Falls, ON. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/12 "2004-07-26T13:20:57Z")
I skimmed – did anyone mention Neenah and Menasha, WI? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/13 "2004-07-26T14:24:50Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > I’m thinking of cities which acknowledge twinship with each other. Dallas/Fort Worth and the Kansas Cities, for example. I don’t know that Dallas and Fort Worth consider themselves twin cities. The two downtowns are about 30 miles apart and they developed separately. In fact, up until the early 1960s the airlines and railroads had separate service to Dallas or Fort Worth. It wasn’t until the eastern Fort Worth suburbs started bumping against the western Dallas suburbs (and then they opened the tollroad) that the two metro areas really started to merge. For a pair of cities to be “twin” I think there has to be a high degree of intertwinedness between them from the start. Kansas City and Texarkana certainly fit, but what about San Francisco and Oakland? El Paso and Juarez? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/14 "2004-07-26T14:36:21Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > [ul] > [li] Those two with the big arch. St Paul and St Louis?[/li][/ul] Great jumpin’ Jesus on a neon-scented pogo stick! That’s one big, freakin’ arch! Seeing as how these two towns are 600 miles apart… :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/15 "2004-07-26T15:35:55Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Great jumpin’ Jesus on a neon-scented pogo stick! That’s one big, freakin’ arch! > > Seeing as how these two towns are 600 miles apart… :dubious: [hijack]Funny that you mention that… There was an article in one of the local rags last year that talked about the Midway area of St Paul. (I-94 and Snelling to be precise). In the area where they tore down the transit station, there was the idea to build a “world-renowned” monument _like_ the St Louis Arch that would become the symbol for the Twin Cities. I couldn’t find it, so I called the Midway Chamber of Commerce. I spoke with a lady there that said that there were some plannings about it, but they’re tentative since the Met Council owns the land. The idea was to make the Midway a gateway to the Twin Cities. [/hijack] ---
**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:** [July 26, 2004, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/16 "2004-07-26T15:44:58Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Great jumpin’ Jesus on a neon-scented pogo stick! That’s one big, freakin’ arch! > > Seeing as how these two towns are 600 miles apart… :dubious: Ah, but imagine the spectacle of the space shuttle passing through it. (IIRC, when the arch was built, East St. Louis threatened to build a giant statue of a man with a croquet mallet.) ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/17 "2004-07-26T18:38:28Z")
Lewiston and Auburn, Maine. Raleigh and Durham are not really “twin cites”, but are two points in the Research Triangle, and the airport is smack dab in the middle, hence the RDU name. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/18 "2004-07-26T18:56:03Z")
What about the Bristols (Bristol, TN and Bristol, VA)? Not exactly gigantic population centers (except for one weekend in March and one in August) but they still fit the question. ---
**Author:** ![Hometownboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5e9695/32.png) [@Hometownboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hometownboy)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/19 "2004-07-26T19:52:18Z")
What with the bicentennial and all, don’t forget Lewiston, Idaho and Clarkston, Wash., just across the state line from each other. ---
**Author:** ![DaToad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@DaToad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaToad)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2004, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869/20 "2004-07-26T21:38:48Z")
Memphis, TN and West Memphis, AR St. Louis, MO and East St. Louis, IL. Davenport, IA and Rock Island, IL (I think there are actually four cities, but I can’t rememeber the other two.) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-twin-cities-in-the-us/256869.md?page=2)