Twelve Capital Cities, from National Seats to State Houses

London is the capital of the United Kingdom, on the Thames, and grew from the Roman settlement of Londinium founded in AD 47. The entry also records John Snow tracing the 1854 Soho cholera outbreak to one Broad Street pump, a founding episode of epidemiology.

Washington, D.C. was created on purpose: the Residence Act of 16 July 1790 authorized a federal capital on the Potomac, and the city was named for President George Washington on 9 September 1791. It is coextensive with its federal district and so has no independent state government.

Tokyo was the fishing village of Edo until it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1603. An imperial edict of 3 September 1868 renamed it Tokyo, meaning Eastern Capital, and moved the government there from Kyoto. Greater Tokyo holds roughly 33 million people.

Canberra was built as a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne after federation. Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin designed it around the artificial Lake Burley Griffin, and it holds Parliament House and the Australian War Memorial.

Bamako sits on the Niger River and its name means crocodile river in Bambara. France made it capital of French Sudan in 1908, four years after the rail link to Kayes opened, and it stayed the capital when Mali became independent in 1960.

Port Moresby was named for Admiral Fairfax Moresby by his son John Moresby, who charted the harbour in 1873. It grew from a colonial trading post into the political and economic centre of Papua New Guinea, with 756,754 residents at the 2024 census.

Trenton on the Delaware River was the site of the Battle of Trenton in December 1776, and it briefly served as the capital of the United States from November to December 1784. It later became a manufacturing centre under the slogan Trenton Makes, The World Takes.

Harrisburg is the capital of the Pennsylvania commonwealth, on the Susquehanna River. A former industrial centre, it now relies on state government and tourism, and hosts the Pennsylvania Farm Show, the largest indoor agricultural exposition in the United States.

Springfield, near the Sangamon River, is the capital of Illinois and the home of Abraham Lincoln, who lived there for twenty-four years before becoming president. His presidential library, home and tomb anchor its tourism alongside state government.

Lansing was selected as the Michigan capital in 1847 for its central, more defensible location. It then became an industrial centre as automobile makers such as Oldsmobile and the REO Motor Car Company grew there, and its economy still includes government and higher education.

Tallahassee in the Big Bend and Panhandle of North Florida holds the Florida State Capitol and Supreme Court and nearly thirty state agency headquarters. Florida State University, Florida A&M University and Tallahassee State College make it a college town as well.

Sacramento stands where the Sacramento and American rivers meet. It grew from a Gold Rush settlement into the permanent capital of California in 1854, and is now the largest city in the Sacramento Valley.