Comments by "Daniel Kelly" (@danielkelly2210) on "Why do countries build new capital cities?" video.

  1. Let's hope not. A new US capital city today would be an auto-oriented nightmare of stroads, surface parking lots and and cheap-looking low-slung buildings since our modern government can't agree to fund anything government-related.
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  2. Because at the time it was built anything more than about 400 km inland was “Indian Territory”. By the time Chicago became a large city Washington DC was long established. They also wanted it to be reasonably close to the water as in 1800 even railroads didn’t exist yet.
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  3. That’s true today, though at one time it was. I think the shift happened between the 1960s and 1980s. Southerners may balk at this but Maryland and Delaware haven’t been culturally southern for some time, and Virginia north of Fredericksburg less so all the time.
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  4. Doesn't the Mississippi have horrible flooding issues?
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  5. Sorry, but a new US capital built today in the middle of the country would be a bunch of stroads and 12-lane freeways with some ugly low-slung buildings here and there, no public transit, and acres of surface parking... surrounded by thousands of square miles of R1 suburbs. The US government likes to do stuff on the cheap; Republicans doubly so, so anything beyond a bare-bones functional space for government that panders to modern suburban expectations is not happening.
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  6. Why not just break away and form your own country, then?
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