Alternate history travel guides

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edvader

Saw the seme thing when I was looking at Uchronia a year or two ago.Believe the uchronia site has been revamped-no web links!I will try and look up the hard copies I printed out of some of the guides.
 

hewhocaves

when I go from Morgantown Wv (where I live) up to my relatives in NJ I inevtably pass the exit for "Camp Hill" in Pa.

john
 

NomadicSky

Banned
this is my favorite

The "Federal City": A Forgotten Experiment on the Potomac
©1998 Victoria Iona Adams


On your way south, you might consider a brief stop to look at the ruins of our nations first capital. Just east of the sleepy little town of Georgetown, Maryland, alone the Potomac you can see what is left of the early Republics efforts to found a new "Federal City." Began in Washington's first term, the city was an attempt to build a home for the federal government outside the reach of state governments. The federal government actually occupied the site in 1800 and continued until the capital was burnt and occupied by the British in the War of 1812. The yearlong occupation of the site by the British left most of the buildings in ruins. During that time, the Congress decided to permanently move the capital north to Philadelphia where it remains today. Once you have experienced the old Federal City's impossibly humid climate, you can appreciate their decision. In fact, the climate alone, with its high humidity and temperatures reaching the 90s, is enough to make one question the wisdom of ever attempting to build a city in what would have been a swamp in the early 19th Century. However, other reasons doomed the Georgetown-area as a national capital. First, its accessibility from the sea meant that invasion or bombardment could easily threaten the capital. This was the very weakness that the British exploited when they first raided and then, occupied the old capital. Second, as an artificial city, the old capital lacked at natural economic base to draw population. Before the age of an activist government in the 20th Century, even Philadelphia's Capital District was a relatively sleepy place. Outside the President, the federal bureaucracy (still small then), and the diplomatic core, the only residents were the state delegations that quickly hurried back to the state capitals the moment Congress was out of session. It is inconceivable that this largely temporary population could have sustained a national capital like Philadelphia was to. Third, although the Founders could not know it, the Civil

War would have almost certainly doomed the old capital (in fact, Robert E. Lee house can be easily seen on the Virginia side of the Potomac opposite the old President's mansion). After Maryland succeeded, a national capital on the Potomac would have been impossible.

Today little remains of the old capital. The ruins of the "Capital Building" are small and unimpressive. The President's mansion (know as the "White House"), has been restored and is a pleasant 18th Century house. A small museum has some interesting maps and models showing the plans for the Federal City. The "Mall" area (now farmland) was to be a large open grassy area that provided the Congress and the President separate unimpeded views. The classical architecture gives the city a very different look from the gothic and 2nd Empire style of the Capital District in Philadelphia. Taken together, the Federal City would have been a beautiful city, if it had ever escaped its handicaps.[\qoute]
I even did a map of what I thought that United States looks like Hawaii is a british commonwealth nation and Alaska is part of Canada as it was annexed by the British during the Crimean war

48 State.PNG
Click to expand...
 

Dumitru Ivanov

The link doesn't work anymore. Did you change the domain or give up on the project?
It sounded like an interesting concept.
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Dumitru from Questo travel app
 
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