And like others have pointed out for other states, Columbia was a designed city meant to strike a balance between Charleston and Greenville, SC.
Contrast this with Atlanta, GA which is both the state capital and a large metropolitan area. Also the politics of Atlanta dominate the rest of the state, much to the shagrin of those of us who grew up in the rural southern part of the state.
Sac has been struggling to become hip and looks to Portland, Oregon for inspiration. Every now and then, I hear someone wonder why we don’t have anything cool like a riverwalk like San Antonio, TX.
One thing I don’t like about Sac is the lack of a sense of it being the capital. I’d like to see more state flags around town and more public monuments and references to things of statewide signifigance.
For examples, although not capitals, I love the public monuments in Savannah, GA, and I love the fact I couldn’t go anywhere in Charleston, SC without a picture of a palmetto in my face.
In Sac, I would love it if we could get statues of people like Leland Stanford, John Muir, John Fremont, Theodore Judah, Hiram Johnson, John Stockton, etc. around town and maybe a sprinkling of murals of Yosemite, Golden Gate, etc.
My big complaint about sacto is the sad sad public transportation system. I feel that in the capitol city, particularly in the capitol of California, you should be able to get around easily without a car. Other than downtown sacramento we aren’t even bicycle friendly as a means of transportation. Davis puts us to shame there.
“The California State Legislature named Sacramento as the permanent home of the state capital in 1854 by law, but the city did not physically hold that honor until January 1, 1855. Previously, the capital was located in Monterey, San Jose, Vallejo, and Benicia.” (from Wikipedia)
But in 1908, Berkeley (yeah, Berzerkely) made a serious play to become the capital of California, and went so far as to name streets in the most expensive part of town after all the counties in California (well, it’s the most expensive part now – I can’t say whether it was all that exclusive back in 1850). They obviously didn’t get it, but it had a serious effect on the city (and it’s fun to think about what might have been…)
Before Washington, D.C. was built in 1800, a number of big east-coast towns* served as the capital of the United States, including Philadelphia and New York City. I was going to say that it would be redundant to have both cities be the state and national capital, but I now see that both cities were the capital of their respective state at the time they were the capital of the nation. (Some politicians have suggested that New York City break away from the rest of New York and become its own state- which is unlikely, but plausible both in terms of the city’s size and population.)
Looking at the list of current state capitals, the only ones to me that seem like big cities are Phoenix, Denver, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Boston, Providence, and Salt Lake City. Juneau and Honolulu also seem like big cities to me, but that may be probably since they are the capitals and I don’t know as much about Alaska and Hawaii than I do of the other 48 states, other than the basic incorrect stereotypes (Alaska is cold and Eskimos live there, Hawaii is hot and people dance the hula while playing the ukulele, eating pineapples, and surfing).
*Of course, this early in the United States’s history, “east coast” is redundant- the United States only was an east coast, and the main non-Native American settlements on what is now the country’s western coast was mainly Spanish colonies.
Denver is the capital because it’s the biggest city. The original capital of Colorado Territory was Golden, but when Denver took off as a city and Golden didn’t, the capital was moved. Both cities are more or less centrally located in the state.
I’d add St. Paul to the list, especially if we can consider Minneapolis-St. Paul to be a single metropolitan area.
Nitpick to you-know-who-you-are: A capital is a city; a capitol is a building.
How’d I forget about St. Paul? An important city, indeed- part of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Twin Cities, and birthplace of “Sparky” Schulz.
What I came in here to say…
But Atlanta became the capital relatively late: until 1868, the captal was Milledgeville. Both cities were burned down during the Civil War, and it appears things were moved to Atlanta so that Union Troops could keep an eye on things during reconstruction (they had a garrison there).
Juneau has very few people living there, but is pretty big geographically. Anchorage is nearly nine times bigger in population.
Honolulu, however, is fairly large with ~377,000. The island/county of Oahu has ~900,000 of the state’s ~1,200,000 people.
Springfield is actually Illinois’ third capital, becoming that in 1837, in part due to Abraham Lincoln. Chicago didn’t become the largest city in Illinois until 1857.
To be fair, Davis, CA puts every other city to shame in terms of bike-friendliness.
As for centrally-located capitals, the Northwest Ordinance, the legislation under which several midwestern states were added to the Union, specifically required that the capital of a new state be located within some distance (I think it was 50 miles) from the surveyed geographical center of that state. Meanwhile, of course, various bodies of water (rivers, lakes, and oceans) often form the boundaries of states, and are also attractive sites for cities, so the biggest cities in a state are usually near the edges.
There was an additional, depressing reason for the move: Under Reconstruction, African Americans voted for the first time and won election to constitutional conventions and legislatures, and no hotel in Milledgeville would accommodate them. Atlanta, even then, was a little more cosmopolitan, and as you say it was easier of access for federal troops.
After Reconstruction ended, the white “redeemers” called a new convention to scrap the Reconstruction-era Constitution. The Convention proposed returning the capital to Milledgeville, but put the matter to a separate vote. To the surprise of the politicians, 64% of the reduced, mostly white electorate voted to keep the capital in Atlanta. Milledgeville was too rustic even for Nineteenth Century Georgians.
Louisiana, in contrast, moved its capital to New Orleans during Reconstruction, but moved it back to more segregated and less cosmopolitan Baton Rouge afterward, without calling a statewide vote.
Jefferson City was pretty much designed to be the capital, due to its central location and the Missouri River (Columbia got the state university as a consolation prize.)
But everyone in Missouri is pretty happy with it right now, because of its marvelous political balance:
It’s not St. Louis, which makes the people in Kansas City happy.
It’s not Kansas City, which makes the people in St. Louis happy.
It’s not either place, which makes the people in the rest of the state happy.
Which could lead to a different thread: in Colorado, the only reason Boulder got the state university was because Canon City won the battle for the state prison. I have never been able to envision what the People’s Republic of Boulder would be like had it got the prison.
Uh, yeah, that federal mint is a real must-see! Don’t get me wrong, I love the city – Razorette and I drive the two hours every month or so to go to the theater, shop, visit the art museum and so on. For us Coloradoans, Denver has lots of historic and cultrually significant points of interest, but it’s not exactly a dream vacation destination.
In addition to Golden, consideration was also given to Leadville as the Colorado state capital – in the 1880s, it had a population of more than 40,000 (mostly due to the silver mines in the area).
Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the country – it would’ve been pretty cool to have a state capital at an elevation of more than 10,000 feet (rather than Denver’s paltry 5,280).
In what sense are you meaning?
It used to offer tons of parties for members of the state legislature, and that is gone now, but that ended due to a combination of professionalization and the criminal convictions of some of the most notable party throwers (such as Artie Samish).
Montgomery, AL is a mess of uncontrolled suburban sprawl, dying downtown, and corrupt good ol’ boy cronyism. I love the place, and it has a spectacular history, but man, it needs a kick in the pants.