HN Explorer

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1996
> It was not intuitively clear to me how a place could be both isolated and centrally located, but, to be fair, if pretty much the entire rest of the world had perished, any settlement of living humans would have legitimate grounds to proclaim itself centrally located.

South Dakota is near the center of the US (cf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_center_of_the_conti...)

symplee
Also check out: The mean center of the United States population (over time)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_center_of_the_United_Stat...

fsagx
I've never seen this data before. It's really interesting that the population center was actually in or near D.C. in the early 1800s. I've never heard that this is a reason for it's location. Merely coincidence?
hammock
Population center is exactly why DC was selected... it's also why most state capitals were selected.
cafard
A southern capital was part of the deal on the assumption of state debts by the federal government. Washington doesn't seem that southern these days, but the District of Columbia was about 1/3 in Virginia, and Maryland was culturally speaking something of an annex of Virginia. That Mt. Vernon was nearby played a part in putting the capital there and not around (say) Port Deposit or Fredericksburg.
[dead] wschfdkbrmcdf
The content is interesting, but the bias is unremittingly rabid-leftist as expected for the Grauniad. Unreadable