When you’re learning American geography, it’s always surprising to find out that so many of the capitals of states across the Union are not located in the state’s largest city, or even its second largest city.
In fact, many capitals are in relatively-small communities and in opposite parts of the state. Alaska’s capital, Juneau, is over 21 hours by road from its largest city, Anchorage, but a little over an hour and a half by plane. And in California, it’s a nearly six-hour drive from Los Angeles to Sacramento.
Some state capitals are so small they don’t even have commercial air service.
Montpelier VT, population 7,855, is one such capital, which is serviced by Burlington VT, a city around 20 minutes away with a population around six times larger.
bustling downtown
Nearby Concord, NH is in a similar situation, and is serviced by Manchester, NH, the largest city in the state.
Out of the four state capitals with “City” in their name, you can’t fly into two: Carson City NV and Jefferson City MO.
Frankfort KY is the 14th largest city in the state and has no commercial flights. Both Dover DE and Annapolis MD would rather you fly into Baltimore or DC.
much downtown many blocks
You can fly into Seattle and Portland but not into Olympia WA or Salem OR.
And the largest city on the list?
Topeka KS, with over 230,000 people, does have an airport that you were able to fly into–from January 7th to September 2nd 2014 via Chicago on United Express until it was cancelled. They also had a flight to Vegas that was cancelled too.
now that’s the BIG city
So the next time you have to head into a state on government business, make sure to plan your trip around a drive if you have to head to the capital.