Cairo Illinois: Why didn't it flourish? Two major water ways with the Ohio and Mississippi, a train from Chicago...

It's not a delta. It is where the Ohio and Mississippi meet. There is a beautiful bridge nearby that crosses the Ohio from Paducah KY to basically Metropolis IL. Kick ass bridge! Louisville took one of these bridges and made it pedestrian only (and bicycles).

youtube.com/watch?v=u2GJ_0BJ1So

>Louisville

Louisville is one of the whitest moderately large metropolitan areas in the United States.

No. It has flooded though. Last major flood was in 1993 I believe. A flood that took out St Louis and Southern Illinois. Cairo is elevated enough to withstand flooding from both the Ohio, Mississippi, and Wabash rivers.

The reason for it's failures has to do with politics. Hands down. This city should be the city of all cities and yet it is hardly even heard of.

Depends on what part of Louisville you are speaking of. It is one of the most Liberal cities I have worked in. Anything on the west side is for the black community and it has a very high crime rate. There is very little black/white integration there. Women are adorable though so I gave them a passs.

theres dirt cheap housing there, should we build the ethostate here?

It's because of politics user.
Same reason Alton illinois never got big despite being the same as st louis in everyway.
Also Cairo does flood all the time, you cant really build in certain places cause come spring its underwater.
T. Southern illinois fag

"Cairo" implies lots of snadnogs there.

Maybe. Has access to everything. Wildlife is abundant as it is close to the Shawnee National Forest and the Cache River swamp.

Pic is Louisville Zombie walk in the Highlands.

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The last big flood was in 93. I was in Murphysboro filling sandbags as the Big Muddy was over flowing.

t. transient Salukifag

This!

Highways used to be pretty long in the US. Before the interstate freeway system, US Highways were designed to connect multiple states together along a route with the same signage and certain minimum quality standards.

As for Cairo, it USED to be bigger. It was never huge, but in the steamship era, it was an important hub. The problem is basically that it became a hub for former slaves and their kids, and was around 40% black by 1900. That was tolerated when necessary, but once bridges and bypasses were built, people didn't want to deal with Cairo and its racial problems.

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So does Memphis

Alton Illinois has the Missouri river close by, right? I think I drove across the bridge to there once. Cool architecture/design. It was the first of it's kind.

>As of the census of 2010, there were 2,831 people, 1,268 households, and 677 families residing in the city. There were 1,599 housing units. The racial makeup of the city was 29.2% White, 71.5% Black or African American

theres your answer.

...And we are getting a winner here.

>big flood
Small floods happen every year. Southern Illinois is basically a marsh land with all the rivers and creeks flowing towards the ohio and Mississippi, every spring southern Illinois floods. It doesnt have to be a big flood to stop housing, just consistent.
I live near the conjunction of quite a few water ways and my area isnt a giant metropolis, bunch of small towns and farm land. You know why? You can only build in certain areas

Alton = beautiful bridge.

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Alton is awesome used to work for a paper there lot of neat shit happening

Didn't Mark Twain live there? Always wanted to visit and wondered the same. Looks pretty flat, does it flood badly?

I am quite fond of the Giant City area and the Cache River. Have pedaled Tunnel Hill more times than I can count. Southern Illinois has some of the best people on the planet. Hands down.
Giant City Lodge has the best cobbler too!

t. Nashvillefag

Being cut of from land on two sides is logistically a net loss than just being cut off on one side. Not much transporting are NOT going to go across the bridges, that means that a bridge in most cases will be a bottleneck. If you need to make a port, you will take piece of more narrow available space, also making it more likely you will hinder logistics internally in the city. Then consider the possibility of laying bigger ports at the coast. If all trans-ocean transports need to go up the river for transhipment there, you will have congestion between the sea and that port. Not much marginal benefit in building a port there when transhipment will take place at the sea ports. It is likely that the size of the city corresponds to its logistical importance.

Yeah that area is awesome wish we could break off from Chicago its ruining the state

Mark Twain (Sammy Clemens) wrote about the area. Southern Illinois isn't flat like most of Illinois. The Ozark mounts creep through. It is one of the most biologically diverse areas of the country. They close roads in the spring time to let the snake migrate. Cool place.

pic is La Rue Pine Hills in So Il

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The reason it is that way is because that's where the glaciers stopped during the last ice age, depositing stones and carving the land. Neat little fact for ya

Interesting. Almost the same setup as Pittsburgh

At the time when the city was getting started it had two major waterways. Barge traffic was a primary means of shipping goods. A major railroad (Illinois Central) built a bridge through there down to New Orleans from Chicago. East/West traffic was limited, but North/South was golden. Cairo was and still is in a perfect spot. It is hampered by poverty which it should not have. By all accounts it should be larger than St Louis and Memphis and yet is regulated to a small hick town. It had more potential than both of those towns when it started.

Glaciers stopped at the Cache River. Same place that the Gulf of Mexico came to. Cairo was below that/

Pic is Giant City State Park.

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Same concept. Barge traffic was a major means of shipping back in the day. The Allegheny and Ohio rivers where a part of that. Add the foundries and steel mills, and you have Pittsburgh. Cairo back in the day was similar. It would have more coal and produce, but same concept.

t. Fag who lives off the Cumberland

That would be a comfy drive.

Based on what im reading it was a great place to live until the nigs trashed it in the 60s and 70s. Went from 75% white to 75% black with nig projects all abound, apparently Ben Carson is trying to shut them down and move the po' nigs out.

based sleepy doctor

chronicles.roadtrippers.com/cairo-illinois-ghost-town/

This could be your city :-)

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Too late now, Cairo is a ghetto shithole. Trashiest, poorest people I've seen love there