Is there a Cleveland in most TLs?

I am using Cleveland as an example because I have lived almost my entire life in the Cleveland area, but the question could be asked for almost any big, major city.
Cleveland is at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, on Lake Erie. Is that a good spot to put a metropolis? Can I assume that a world class city is on its site in the TLs where Ohio is still French speaking, or Spanish? Or is it more likely that Marietta, as Ohio's first town, now has a population of 400,000?
Same question about Brasilia, Washington, Denver, Rio deJaneiro, Chicago...
 
Well, there's some big differences between quite a few of those.

Brasilia is unlikely to exist as it was purpose built to be in the middle of nowhere due to a particular set of circumstances, Georgetown (which was originally seperate to Washington) might exist but be smaller as it's a relatively decent location for a crossing on the Potomac, Chicago and Rio are decent locations for major or semi-major ports so it's quite likely to find at least a medium sized city there and I don't know enough about Cleveland to comment.

Basically, you'll need to research the background behind a city to know. If you're looking at a major city that was a big port back in Saxon times, it's likely that you'll have a city of some standing in most TLs as you're still likely to get people utilising it as a key port. There are too many variables to tell how big a city it is though simply from geography, and your TL's history will have a big effect.
 
Cities tend to get built in places like natural ports, bridges over a major river or crossroads. The exceptions are the cities built in a place that is easily defended. For example Paris would exist in some form in most time lines as its location involves everything but a seaport.
 
I am using Cleveland as an example because I have lived almost my entire life in the Cleveland area, but the question could be asked for almost any big, major city.
Cleveland is at the mouth of the Cuyahoga, on Lake Erie. Is that a good spot to put a metropolis? Can I assume that a world class city is on its site in the TLs where Ohio is still French speaking, or Spanish? Or is it more likely that Marietta, as Ohio's first town, now has a population of 400,000?
Same question about Brasilia, Washington, Denver, Rio deJaneiro, Chicago...

Cleveland may or may not be a major city in any given TL but I do know this, though; there isn't much of a chance, at all, of Marietta being too much larger than OTL.
 

Thande

Donor
I left it in LTTW but only by accident, and probably mistakenly (it should have been butterflied away)--not the city itself but certainly the name, which is derived from a person rather than the English region of Cleveland.
 
Some locations are almost forced.
Any TL with civilizations in the area will have a significant city at New York City, Chicago, Montreal, Minneapolis/St.Paul and London, for instance. (Due to location at the navigable termini of major rivers for most of them. Chicago because of the trivial portage between the Great Lakes and Mississippi Basin.

I don't know how big the Cuyahoga is, but isn't it a decent connexion to the Ohio? in which case, it does seem likely.
 
There is probably a city at the mouth of the Cuyahoga. How big it is, and whether the name ends up being "Cleveland," depends a lot on the timeline.

Indianapolis, like Brasilia, is a purpose-built city. The Indiana State Legislature decided that the state capital needed to be relocated from the initial population centers in the Ohio Valley to the geographic center of the state. They selected a site almost exactly in the middle, with a decent-sized river, and sent up a surveying party. (Turns out the river wasn't as navigable as they thought it might be, but the roads made up for it.) In a lot of ATLs, especially those with non-USA control of the old Northwest Territories, there is probably something here, but probably not a major city.
 

yofie

Banned
I don't know how big the Cuyahoga is, but isn't it a decent connexion to the Ohio? in which case, it does seem likely.

There was indeed OTL a canal linking the Cuyahoga and Lake Erie with the Ohio River, now mostly abandoned.

As someone with deep connections to Cleveland (my mother's originally from there), I could say that Cleveland would have functioned as a major city in just about any TL where masses of people settle in the Ohio area and in the Midwest in general. It received lots of immigrants because it's been a port city on Lake Erie, at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, and it had lots of industry and has had good transport connections with surrounding areas. Cleveland, along with Pittsburgh, is roughly midway between the East Coast and Chicago.
 
For the example of Chicago, I think that people in a lot of TLs would want to build a major railroad from the east coast of the continent to the port city on the southernmost of the Great Lakes, and then onward to other cities. So, I think that city would suddenly become much more than moderately sized in a lot of TLs.

I also know that Fargo's location is because it's the highest navigable point on the Red River, which was a useful place to ship goods into Canada (and through Hudson Bay.

Unfortunately, I know nothing about Cleveland.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
Also don't forget lake effect snows. Generally, you are not going to build a city South to East of the Great Lakes. Buffalo is the exception due to the Canal. There is a reason that the East side of Lake Michigan is pretty empty. I think Cleveland will always have a city, but in some TL, it could be a city of a few hundred thousand.
 
Top