Discussion: Travel in a larger USA

JJohnson

Banned
Since this has a Pod before 1900, I put it in this forum.

Let's assume the following USA:

Territory:
-USA
-Canada
-Rio Grande, Sonora, Baja California, Chihuahua
-Cuba, Puerto Rico, both Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Bermuda
-76 states out of all that territory
-Territories: American Polynesia, Mariana Islands (Guam+Northern Marianas), American Samoa, Guadeloupe, Martinique

Some specific states in this US
Arizona: border is a straight line from the OTL southernmost latitude, to the shore, giving it a small coastline
California: split in twain at 37° N into North and South California
Nova Scotia: our Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
Columbia: 49° to 52° N, OTL BC eastern border
Yukon: OTL northern remnant of BC, then straight due north to the Arctic
Québec: Ottawa river, then due north to 49°, then east to Lac St Jean, then out that river
Ottawa: the Ontario Peninsula

As of 2016, this US has 76 states, and 5 territories, has the interstate system, and high speed rail.

What would be the best paths for these HSR tracks to take? How about the larger interstate? How about Puerto Rico, Cuba, since they're islands?

Assume the main settlements occur in essentially all the same places.
 
It would probably be fairly similar to the system now, as many major highways (and presumably rail) continue beyond the borders.
 
I'd imagine that if we had that much of the Caribbean, Florida ports would have developed and grown even faster than in OTL due to all that shipping.
 
The islands would probably have something similar to what Alaska and Hawaii has, although I wonder if Cuba might have its own interstate running the length of the island.

A highway roughly in the place of I-5 would go all the way down to Cabo. It also might extend as far north as Prince Rupert, but I think both the BC north and Alaska would have to more populated to get it going to Anchorage or Fairbanks since it would be really expensive to route it through all that nothingness.

As a side note, shouldn't Sonora maintain its pre-Mexican War borders where it also included the area that became the Gadsden Purchase?

I'd imagine that if we had that much of the Caribbean, Florida ports would have developed and grown even faster than in OTL due to all that shipping.

But I wonder how much of migration that OTL went to Florida would instead go to the Caribbean.
 
imo a larger interstate highway system, more railways and a ferry/boat system to facilitate easily available travel to and fro the Caribbean Territories/States (later). Air travel of course when that becomes a thing. Most U.S. airlines spend more time going to and fro other States than they do countries.
 
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