Cities that belong in other states

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by cabasse

i used to work for a consulting firm based in milwaukee, and i recall some of my colleagues in chicago mentioning taking the hiawatha occasionally when they needed to be in the office for something. (i wonder if that's fairly common or would be considered too expensive)

Yeah, if you want to get from Chicago to Milwaukee, Amtrak's Hiawatha is easy, with 8 trains/day each way, only 90 minutes from downtown to downtown (usually faster than driving at rush hour times).

But it ain't exactly cheap.

a one-time roundtrip will cost you $48.

and a monthly unlimited pass is $650.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

Yeah, if you want to get from Chicago to Milwaukee, Amtrak's Hiawatha is easy, with 8 trains/day each way, only 90 minutes from downtown to downtown (usually faster than driving at rush hour times).

But it ain't exactly cheap.

a one-time roundtrip will cost you $48.

and a monthly unlimited pass is $650.

At the IRS reimbursement rate, Amtrak is still cheaper than driving the 90 miles, much less both ways.

[streetscaper]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

At the IRS reimbursement rate, Amtrak is still cheaper than driving the 90 miles, much less both ways.

IRS reimbursement? Do tell!

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by SIGSEGV

At the IRS reimbursement rate, Amtrak is still cheaper than driving the 90 miles, much less both ways.

Yeah, probably.

But it's still an extremely expensive "commute" from my perspective ($5/day on the CTA).

But if you're only doing it once per week, it would be way more doable.

[EastSideHBG]

Originally Posted by streetscaper

IRS reimbursement? Do tell!

Mileage reimbursement for work travel (driving). If the employer isn't paying for it you can claim $0.67/mile.

[SIGSEGV]

Originally Posted by EastSideHBG

Mileage reimbursement for work travel (driving). If the employer isn't paying for it you can claim $0.67/mile.

Right, or it's typically how much your employer will reimburse you for business travel with a rental car (and for this reason, you are often encouraged to rent a car...)

In principle it should reflect the average total cost of operation per mile, though obviously that depends strongly on the type of vehicle and miles driven per year.

[DBR96A]

Originally Posted by Yuri

Guys, can you go back to the Philadelphia-Pennsylvania discussion?

I'm into alternate history and I'm working with some ideas with surviving New Netherland and New Sweden up today. For this, we should find a path for them to go to west and I'm aware on how the Great Lakes were reached from New York and an alternate Dutch New York could follow the same path to reach the continent hinterland.

However, what about Pittsburgh? I'm aware British took the fort from the French on their border wars, but how its growth was fueled on the next century? People arrived there primarly from Philadelphia or Baltimore and New York played a big role as well? How did they get there? By railways only crossing the complicated Pennsylvania geography?

My question is: a New Sweden beachhead formed by DE, south NJ, PA southeast corner would be able to expanding west to get Pittsburgh and from there go down the river freely? Or no, it wasn't only from there that western PA was settled and it's not possible to expand into that region by only having the control of southeast PA and you'd have to control NY and MD as well.

Pittsburgh was founded in 1758 and incorporated in 1771, so it predates the railroads and canals. If you look at the geology of Pennsylvania, you'll notice a series of very long ridges in the middle of the state that were virtually impossible to navigate during colonial times. The only way around the ridges were water gaps, and the most convenient water gap for settlers moving west was to the south at the Potomac River, which forms the border between Maryland and Virginia.

However, the Potomac River still passes nowhere near Pittsburgh, and it even turns back to the southwest closer to its headwaters. Even worse, the terrain changes markedly at the Allegheny Front, and becomes even more difficult on the Allegheny Plateau, which is a heavily dissected high plateau that's been eroded to the point of resembling an endless low mountain range. (Geologically speaking, it's actually a broad series of escarpments, rather than an actual mountain range.)

The good news is, the Allegheny Front is a major water divide in the Eastern U.S., and luckily enough, the first tributary to the interior river valleys rises just a few miles to the west of it. The Casselman River carves its way through some of the most difficult terrain on the Allegheny Plateau, and eventually flows to the Youghiogheny River (yock-a-GAY-nee), which flows to the Monongahela River (ma-NON-ga-HAY-la), which flows to the Ohio River at the confluence of the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh.

The most treacherous part of the route to Pittsburgh from the rest of Pennsylvania was between the Potomac River and the Casselman River, where settlers had to find their way up and over one long mountain ridge, and then the Allegheny Front. From there, they would just follow the river tributaries to Pittsburgh. Long story short, traveling to Pittsburgh from the east involved turning southwest in order to turn northwest.

This southwesterly turn made the route more convenient for settlers from Virginia as well, which is why Virginia attempted to claim a large amount of territory to its northwest, including a piece that is now the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania, west of Laurel Ridge, and south of the Ohio, Allegheny and Kiskiminetas Rivers (KIS-kim-in-NEET-as). Pennsylvania and Virginia resolved this border dispute by extending the Mason-Dixon Line to the west for 40 miles or to the Ohio River, whichever came first. This extension placed Pittsburgh firmly in Pennsylvania.

Oddly, the westward extension of the Mason-Dixon Line ended at 40 miles instead of the Ohio River, but the Ohio River was only another 12 miles away at that point, which explains part of the funky shape of the state of West Virginia.

[Yuri]

Originally Posted by DBR96A

Pittsburgh was founded in 1758 and incorporated in 1771, so it predates the railroads and canals. If you look at the geology of Pennsylvania, you'll notice a series of very long ridges in the middle of the state that were virtually impossible to navigate during colonial times. The only way around the ridges were water gaps, and the most convenient water gap for settlers moving west was to the south at the Potomac River, which forms the border between Maryland and Virginia.

However, the Potomac River still passes nowhere near Pittsburgh, and it even turns back to the southwest closer to its headwaters. Even worse, the terrain changes markedly at the Allegheny Front, and becomes even more difficult on the Allegheny Plateau, which is a heavily dissected high plateau that's been eroded to the point of resembling an endless low mountain range. (Geologically speaking, it's actually a broad series of escarpments, rather than an actual mountain range.)

The good news is, the Allegheny Front is a major water divide in the Eastern U.S., and luckily enough, the first tributary to the interior river valleys rises just a few miles to the west of it. The Casselman River carves its way through some of the most difficult terrain on the Allegheny Plateau, and eventually flows to the Youghiogheny River (yock-a-GAY-nee), which flows to the Monongahela River (ma-NON-ga-HAY-la), which flows to the Ohio River at the confluence of the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh.

The most treacherous part of the route to Pittsburgh from the rest of Pennsylvania was between the Potomac River and the Casselman River, where settlers had to find their way up and over one long mountain ridge, and then the Allegheny Front. From there, they would just follow the river tributaries to Pittsburgh. Long story short, traveling to Pittsburgh from the east involved turning southwest in order to turn northwest.

This southwesterly turn made the route more convenient for settlers from Virginia as well, which is why Virginia attempted to claim a large amount of territory to its northwest, including a piece that is now the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania, west of Laurel Ridge, and south of the Ohio, Allegheny and Kiskiminetas Rivers (KIS-kim-in-NEET-as). Pennsylvania and Virginia resolved this border dispute by extending the Mason-Dixon Line to the west for 40 miles or to the Ohio River, whichever came first. This extension placed Pittsburgh firmly in Pennsylvania.

Oddly, the westward extension of the Mason-Dixon Line ended at 40 miles instead of the Ohio River, but the Ohio River was only another 12 miles away at that point, which explains part of the funky shape of the state of West Virginia.

Thank you for the comprehensive answer. I've already forgotten about this post.

Basically, if I want an alternate European settlement around Southeast PA and DE to expand west to control Southwest PA and beyond, it would have to take Western MD and Northern WV to make it credible. Maybe an alternate Mason-Dixon few miles south could make it work.