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Recently I was thinking about developing a map of the city of Columbia, the alternate capital of the United States located just down river from Harrisburg. Got my giant topographic map of the area ready (thanks USGS) and now I am just trying to come up with ideas for the layout of the city.

But I have a few questions first. Maybe some of you can help me.

  • Compared to Washington DC, how defensible is Columbia? The mouth of the river is not even a mile wide and I would wonder if large ships can even navigate up it very far. Havre de Grace and Perry Point would likely make good places for some small artillery forts. Not sure if Garret Island has the stability to support a fortress.
  • Was the river around the town of Columbia today at the same level it was in the late 1700's or have the Dam projects down stream caused major reservoirs to form?
  • Would defenders have more time to rally, what with the march inland taking so long for the British?

For anyone curious, my rough topographic map stitched together from 4 USGS maps. I actually have it as a vector map. I need to fool around with the scale, but Ive only put 15 minutes into this.

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