How America would look if every state was redrawn so its capitol was in the middle

Have you ever wondered why state capitals aren’t located in a more central location? That’s precisely the question one Redditor asked, prompting him to redesign the entire US map so every bit of territory is closest to the nearest state capitol.

For example, the city of El Paso, which is currently in Texas, is actually closest to Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, so now it’s part of New Mexico. The borders were drawn using perpendicular lines, to the midpoint between two state capitals.

This results in state outlines appearing angular, with all borders creating a tripoint or quadripoint To be honest, the reimagined version looks like an extremely complex geometry equation.

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Many US state capitals are often not the largest or most economically significant city in the state. For example, the capital of Illinois is Springfield, not Chicago, the capital of California is Sacramento, not Los Angeles, and Maryland is Annapolis, not Baltimore.

But that could have more to do with history - and when the capitals were initially chosen - than it does with the current economy. After all, with 300+ years of history (for some states), it’s safe to assume things have changed over time.

Here are some of the biggest changes made.

• New York City and Philadelphia are now in New Jersey
• The rest of Long Island is now in Connecticut
• Martha’s Vineyard and most of Nantucket Island is now in Rhode Island
• Arlington and Alexandria are now in Maryland
• The Western half of Erie is now in Ohio
• Savannah is now in South Carolina
• Chattanooga is now in Georgia
• Memphis is now in Arkansas
• Kansas city is now entirely within Kansas
• St. Louis is now within Illinois
• Chicago is now in Wisconsin
• Toledo is now in Michigan
• Part of Michigan’s upper Peninsula has been relinquished to Wisconsin and Minnesota
• Isle Royale is now in Minnesota
• The Northwest Angle is now in North Dakota
• Sioux Falls is now in Nebraska
• El Paso is now in New Mexico
• DC has been removed because they aren’t states