Nearby city overshadows Washington D.C

There are many cases where a capital is overshadowed in the public consciousness- Ottawa by Toronto, Canberra by Melbourne and Sydney, Quebec City by Montreal, Brasilia by Rio, or even Albany by New York City. How could there have been a metropolis that formed in the vicinity of D.C. to dwarf it in size and importance so as to make D.C. seem like a backwater?
 
Surely if Ottawa and Toronto (a four-and-half-hour drive), Canberra and Sydney (a three hour drive), Quebec and Montreal (another three-hour drive), and Brasilia and Rio (a fifteen-hour drive) count as "nearby cities," D.C. and NYC (a little under four-hour drive) are also nearby cities?
 
Baltimore and DC are and have always been pretty much the same size, so otl kinda fits.

DC got big not only because the federal infastructure is huge (Capitol, white house, fuckton of museums and monuments) but also because it was far enough away from Baltimore that it served as the city for it's own area. Ottawa (desipte being about the same distance) never was able to do this because Montreal sucked up all the development instead, due to the area having less overall population and density (compared to the mid Atlantic which is the most densely populated part of the u.s.)

So if the capital is at Havre de grace or closer to baltimore the (much smaller) federal district could end up only as a campus for the fed's administration, about the size of wilmington, delaware, and Baltimore be much larger, parraleling Philadelphia in size.
 
Surely if Ottawa and Toronto (a four-and-half-hour drive), Canberra and Sydney (a three hour drive), Quebec and Montreal (another three-hour drive), and Brasilia and Rio (a fifteen-hour drive) count as "nearby cities," D.C. and NYC (a little under four-hour drive) are also nearby cities?

This. The mid atlantic region's population density is actually higher than most of Europe (total population is about u.k. and Ireland combined)

How far away are Ottawa and Montreal?
 
Another thing: DC was planned from the beginning to be a real city, ottowa not so much (Canada didn't really do much with it besides locate the federal buildings there, while DC (I live there, so I should know) is DECKED with much more stuff than other American cities of the same size, and significantly more than baltimore (although that could be because baltimore has gone through much worse urban decay recently)
 
Surely if Ottawa and Toronto (a four-and-half-hour drive), Canberra and Sydney (a three hour drive), Quebec and Montreal (another three-hour drive), and Brasilia and Rio (a fifteen-hour drive) count as "nearby cities," D.C. and NYC (a little under four-hour drive) are also nearby cities?

New York just feels so different culturally and geographically from D.C. I was wondering about Tidewater.
 
I guess you could have a scenario where DC remains a backwater longer(slower/smaller progressive movement and New Deal) and Baltimore doesn't go through deindustrialization. Of course DC--NYC also works.
 
DC really doesn't have very much going for it except that it's where all the power is. You would probably need a much more decentralized US to avoid it overtaking Baltimore or what the Norfolk/Hampton Roads area could potentially become.

Or just outlaw air conditioning in DC and watch various embassies decamp for points north like the old days.
 
Top