I was looking at the Wikipedia listing of the largest cities in the U.S. and I ran across Mesa, Arizona. With a population of 463,552 it is the 39th largest city in the U.S. and by far the largest U.S. city I had never heard of. I am truly astounded that I was unaware of a city this size. Going by the Wikipedia list, what is the largest city in the U.S. that you have never heard of?
Link.
I guess that would be #50, Arlington, TX.
I had to go down to #95 Gilbert Arizona to find one. Hey if Phoenix would annex all those suburbs it’s bigger than Chicago.
For me, it’s #54, Santa Ana, California, population 339,130.
Seems to be in Orange County…I figured the largest I’d never heard of would be an overgrown suburb, and it looks like I was right. (on edit: Looked at its wikipedia page…maybe there’s more to it than just an outpost of LA. Hard to say. Interestingly, I’ve heard of a lot of the things that get there names from there (the Santa Ana winds, for example) but never heard of the town)
Santa Ana, Ca. #54. It’s bigger than Pittsburgh!
Simulpost!
List of US Cities by Population
I guess I’d tap out at number 12, Jacksonville. I’ve heard of something called, “Jacksonville”, but it’s the sort of name where I’d be thinking of some quaint town in Maryland, not a large city in Florida.
I got #117, Moreno Valley, California, before I said “bwuh?” Apparently it’s a suburb of Riverside which has grown to be larger than Little Rock, Arkansas. Go figure.
#90 Garland, TX.
Same here.
Well, the City of Phoenix is already larger than Los Angeles, with more than 400 square miles. In area, that is. It is the 5th largest in population.
#76, Chandler, Arizona.
for me it would be Mesa too ,never heard of it
but every thing I know about the US comes from exported Pop-culture, how would’ve I heard of Mesa?
76, 89, 92, & 143, but I knew all those in between and about two thirds after 143.
I travel a lot.
Well they do have Sheriff Crazy Joe Arpaio, who is pretty famous. Of course since he is a sheriff they talk about the county, Maricopa, more, and of course Phoenix, but there is occasional news about something he did in Mesa.
#141 Santa Clarita, CA. I may have heard of it, but I get all those L.A. suburb cities mixed up in my mind.
Santa Ana, CA. (I seem to have a lot of company.)
Me too for Santa Ana. Following that, Aurora, Colorado.
#58, Aurora, Colorado
Same here.
Edit: And after looking at the pictures of the top cities, I had no freakin’ idea you could easily see mountains and snow in LA! I guess I’ve always seen pictures of LA taken either towards the ocean, or looking along the coastline.
That was it for me also.