Why DC's Shaped Like That

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Video written by Corinne Neustadter
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[@caseclosed9612]

DC was very specifically told to be there or be square

[@thefuzzman]

"and" be square lol

[@jamiesinclair9227]

😆

[@MyBelch]

Squares are rayciss!

[@bigdave6390]

And on the level...

[@mittfh]

They should have made it a hexagon, for, as we all know, hexagons are the bestagons...

[@UncommonElevators]

2:30 is slightly inaccurate. When DC was created, all of the Virginia side was Alexandria County. In 1870, Alexandria City was seperated from the county when Virginia amended their constitution to make cities not part of counties (this is an oddity among our state laws). In 1920 the remaining part of Alexandria County was renamed to Arlington County.

[@foiledthrice]

the dimensions also say 249 sq km, a double mistake for the next video

[@legoyoda256]

🤓

[@ardentvibe6917]

AND Arlington is a county, and NOT a city - despite having the largest collection of sky scrapers in the entire Washington D.C. metropolitan area.

[@guatemalantomcat]

I guess that wasn't as catchy as "they separated because racism"

[@nataliegrn17]

To one reply: The reason for the split, stated as racism in the video, isn't changed by this comment correction.

[@elduderino007]

1:06 I love using stock footage of Minneapolis for this segment because not only is it not Washing D.C. it's not even the capital of Minnesota.

[@counterfit5]

And that followed Amtrak being represented by the Rhaetian Railway in Switzerland

[@elduderino007]

@@counterfit5 I honestly feel like there are so many meta jokes on this channel if you pay attention.

[@Cheppy44]

Stone arch bridge!

[@lucase.2546]

Was just about to comment this. Is there something HAI knows that we don’t?

[@DVSDoge]

Minnesota mentioned

[@bababababababa6124]

Crazy how this would not even be the smallest state by population if it became a state

[@endermeap6488]

Vermont gang

[@bababababababa6124]

@@endermeap6488 Wy***ng gang

[@Koblac]

@@bababababababa6124 (almost) Alaska gang It’s only like 20k behind! fun fact: alaska has more coastline than the rest of the us combined.

[@jakkakasunset5485]

@@Koblac Are you also Alaskan?

[@TrollGarlic]

The great wyoming void(wyoming is fake)

[@gotnomoney6779]

If stock images didn't exist, Half as Interesting wouldn't exist.

[@Bacopa68]

Good thing there's Storyblocks, a subscription-based stock photo and video resource.

[@TheElusiveReality]

way back in the day they had an animator but as soon as sam got that storyblocks subscription they took him out back like old yeller

[@mikeymike9926]

No half as interesting would just be half as interesting with just audio

[@tweezerjam]

Its kinda lazy and lame, imo

[@archerelms]

@@tweezerjam eh, I've seen it done a lot worse. I'm here more for the education and humor than the visuals anyway, and the stock photos sometimes add a lot to the humor

[@CrackShotCleric]

Also part of the retrogression deal was Virginia gave all rights to ownership of the Potomac River to Maryland, instead of the existing 50/50 split till that point. To this day, Virginia regrets that decision.

[@jk484]

How does it effect them in real life though?

[@CrackShotCleric]

@@jk484 Rights to the Potomac include taxes on anything harvested from it. Fishing and water processing chief among them.

[@bandzdmv]

VA gets the economic stimulus back from DoD. Benefits more off than DC MD. I bet you MD wishes we would have took our land back

[@taoliu3949]

That's not true. Ownership of the Potomac was determined by the original colonial charters.

[@User31129]

Yep, as soon as you step off the Virginia coast of the Potomac and both feet are in the water, you're officially in Maryland (or DC) now.

[@danielgreen1557]

I live in Arlington and I live near the old corner stone of the original stone that marked the corner border between Virginia and DC. today, it just serves as the marker between Arlington (OG DC) and Falls Church.

[@King-kw1mo]

If Va took its land back it should’ve destroyed the stones 👀 seems weird to Keep them up

[@toothscumbyt]

me too!

[@BeholdtheTruthBrandon]

​@King-kw1mo I think they kept it up for history purposes. It's a ton of stones that are on the border of Arlington/falls church Arlington/Fairfax and Alexandria/Fairfax

[@martythestines]

Fun fact: 🤓 I live in York Pennsylvania. It's just West over the river from Lancaster. There are sooo many businesses here that use the phrase First Capital. Why? Because somebody supposedly did a rough draft of something called The Articles of Confederation, where the Country was referred as The United States of America for the first time. Yet technically, it was the "forth" capital when congress met here.

[@mikemotter3685]

Imagine my surprise when I left York and literally nobody knew about the whole First Capital thing

[@johnnessuno6515]

Imagine my surprise when I lived in an adjacent county my whole life and just learned this

[@tatianachichilla2974]

Ayy fellow York resident. At least we got the marquis de Lafayette

[@AndrewPonti]

Imagine my surprise leaving New Cumberland and now live in Southern MD an hour south of DC and and people have no idea about how to correctly say "Lancaster" LOL

[@nuclearbanana1631]

dang i dont care

[@TS_Mind_Swept]

I never knew it was originally a full square, I always thought it was a weird shape because that's just how they do things 🤷🏿‍♀️

[@marmac83]

I see. Did you ever look at a map? Hmm...

[@TS_Mind_Swept]

@@marmac83 No. No I did not. Not ever in my life.

[@marmac83]

@@TS_Mind_Swept clearly

[@TS_Mind_Swept]

@@marmac83 Come to think of it, you should probably try it sometime yourself, instead of those girly magazines all the time

[@marmac83]

@@TS_Mind_Swept misogynistic and geographically illiterate... you're hitting all the nails on the head 🤣

[@kaisercortex4115]

I only clicked on this video because as a Marylander I yearn to be relevant and this video mentions Maryland.

[@That_Pillow]

same wih me but for alexandria

[@Fortzon]

3:40 It's amazing how little foresight the federal government had when making this restriction. Did they really think that Washington never grows enough to need all the land it was given? No wonder Alexandria City and Arlington County wanted to rejoin Virginia (on top of the slave thing) if you restrict new buildings only to the north of the Potomac and don't allow them anything new.

[@timmccarthy872]

You make a good point, BUT, 100 square miles was ludicrously large by 1700s standards. For most of its history, most of the District, even the Maryland part, was forest and farmland, with a small city in the center. Then the automobile made sprawl possible and DC filled out.

[@AaronOfMpls]

@@timmccarthy872 "Then the automobile made sprawl possible and DC filled out." -- Well, mass transit like trains and streetcars allowed it to a lesser extent even before widespread car ownership. But yah, in the 1700s, pretty much every city -- including super-populous ones like London or Istanbul -- was still small enough to walk across. The "10 miles square" the Constitution allowed probably seemed like a more-than-reasonable city-state.

[@Fortzon]

@@timmccarthy872 Yeah I get that 100 square miles was massive in 1700s but why give all that land if you aren't going to use it to its full potential? Maybe they gave that much land because 100 is a nice round number? 😁

[@timmccarthy872]

@@Fortzon Well, George Washington, land speculator that he was, thought it WOULD fill out the district and become the economic center of the United States. Which was, shall we say, fanciful.

[@zerg539]

@@timmccarthy872 it probably could have been if it was allowed to grow and the hamstringing of potential growth on the Virginia side by blocking building for nearly half a century hurt things as well. If you look at everything inside the Beltway it is an economic center

[@petematthews9346]

I believe the term is Retrocession, not retrogression. The former means to give back, whereas the latter means to move backewards (hence your pun 😂).

[@Lil10kBitch]

its because the freemasons found this land along with the illuminati and this USA is theres thats y rappers and actors and hold half a eye and its a diamond just like the illuminati triangle its HALF it was mad that way for a reason

[@heyvsauce8444]

Everyone knows old compromises never have gone bad

[@hhiippiittyy]

Maybe about 3/5ths of the time.

[@Name-qj9ql]

@@hhiippiittyy 🤣

[@mikemotter3685]

Tom Scott next year: why these stones are all around DC

[@beckikennedy12]

OMG that would be so cool! I have one in my backyard basically

[@krallja]

they’re actually bricks

[@vulpes7079]

Well.... This didn't age well

[@mattguey-lee4845]

Fun fact I grew up in the South Arlington neighborhood of Fairlington. Behind one of my friend's house there was a mile marker for the Washington DC boundary.

[@miconis123]

I forgot about Farlington and misremembered both sides of 395 being Shirlington. I spent a lot of years in Clarendon before all the sky scrapers took over.

[@MyBelch]

May be a fact. Decidedly not fun.

[@cruzgomes5660]

​@@MyBelchI thought it was slightly fun

[@Lil10kBitch]

its because the freemasons found this land along with the illuminati and this USA is theres thats y rappers and actors and hold half a eye and its a diamond just like the illuminati triangle its HALF it was mad that way for a reason

[@tomthedespoiler]

LOL at 2:17: VA being shown as a sno radar blockers' sign while MD gets the Domino Sugar billboard in Baltimore is highly accurate to the DMV.

[@insertchannelnamehere8685]

Yeah, There's a reason PG county has 120 road fatalities every year while Fairfax County has just 40 despite a larger population. The speed enforcement here is no joke.

[@SkylineFTW97]

@@insertchannelnamehere8685 It's probably more to do with the roads themselves. I have enough coworkers who live in Fairfax county who have seen all the ways to circumvent the speed enforcement. Virginia actually takes care of it's roads. Montgomery and PG county really don't. Just this past Friday, I saw a car flip between Poolesville and Gaithersburg because he hit a nasty bump while trying to avoid hitting a deer at night. The driver only suffered minor injuries, but the car was totaled and it could've easily been worse. Another thing to note is that no matter how strict Virginia cops are, they can only react to what they see. Maryland arguably has more speed enforcement in terms of frequency of patrols (this is admittedly anecdotal, but I have been across the Potomac in Fairfax county enough to make a somewhat educated observation), plus Maryland also makes extensive use of speed cameras while Virginia has very, very few. People will always circumvent speed limits some way, the best you can do is account for that in terms of road maintenance. Seriously though, Montgomery county roads suck. PG's too. I blew a tire and bent a rim about 4 years ago due to a deep pothole at night along Old Gunpowder road near Laurel, and it took them a YEAR to fix it after I reported it. And I know I wasn't the only one to report it.

[@HurtsEnd]

@@SkylineFTW97 couldn’t have said this better, especially the cameras in md vs actually speed patrolling in VA

[@samiam619]

@@SkylineFTW97 We are in Michigan. MD tried to nail my Dad with a speeding ticket once. We sent a letter that said, yes we own a car with that number, but it’s not a 2004 Ford Focus but a 1931 Ford Victoria. Plus my Dad hadn’t been to MD in fifty years plus had been dead for five years! Never heard from them…

[@OrangeDied]

At least its better than most town borders, which looks like somebody drew a reasonable border with powder then snorted it.

[@Lil10kBitch]

its because the freemasons found this land along with the illuminati and this USA is theres thats y rappers and actors and hold half a eye and its a diamond just like the illuminati triangle its HALF it was mad that way for a reason

[@dstinnettmusic]

Virginia later outlawed cities from absorbing surrounding counties, which was a practice the metropolitan areas did in response to white flight to try and keep their tax base. This ultimately hurt the state as a whole because now Richmond and Petersburg can never reach their full economic potential. Richmond is a little tiny city, but if you include the surrounding counties it rounds out to become a much more respectably sized entity. Which is all a part of the story of how Virginia went from mother presidents and capital of the south to the one with the Pentagon.

[@applesyrupgaming]

i dont want fairfax and arlington counties to be stolen by a city because sovreignty is needed for the most economically productive counties and not imperialism by evil cities. They outlawed it because city aggression in the hampton roads region had extinguished the counties.

[@james_giant_peach]

True, but hey at least they got their land back what did Maryland get?

[@xp_studios7804]

"DC East was thriving!" is probably a sentence that nobody has uttered for 150 years

[@MyBelch]

Much like post-apartheid South Africa is much better off than before.

[@icantthinkofaname8139]

“Wow, let’s see how Sam can stretch a single sentence in a 6-minute video”

[@Maxime_K-G]

Always

[@schris3]

4:15 Think about it, slavery cheapened labor costs, so in their minds the cost of leaving would be offset in the long term.

[@mahadaalvi]

0:01 Then why do people still call it “a capital carved out of two different states”? It’s clearly only carved out of Maryland now.

[@dylanf3108]

We don’t want them. Most MD residents would vote against it.

[@bandzdmv]

@@dylanf3108 doubt it. Do you know the economic value of DC? Billions

[@dylanf3108]

@@bandzdmv And that was your first mistake right there. You didn’t consider the social and cultural implications and made it seem as though most cared about the economics.

[@toahero5925]

@@dylanf3108 Can confirm. Rural Illinois residents would give anything to kick Chicago out of their state.

[@MasonGreenWeed]

I think large enough city like Chicago or NY should be made their own City-states like Bristol or Frankfurt

[@five12man]

I'm from Alexandria so this is very interesting to me! Also lived all around DC Metro, it's cool but it's incredibly crowded.

[@zian01000]

So the next side of the river is the united state capital

[@samiam619]

I’m in upper Lower Michigan. We’re visiting BIL and family over Turkey Day in Chantilly, you ain’t whistling Dixie about TMP! Too many people. A week for good food and I’m ready to go home to Peace and Quiet…

[@Kraken9911]

Lived 3 years in old town Alexandria while I was stationed in DC. Most interesting years of my life. Got to see so many things and places I'd end up recognizing in movies often.

[@five12man]

@@Kraken9911 you know about the ice building on the diagonal? Good times, but that town is so different...

[@KevinWindsor1971]

The old boundary stones can still be found in Virginia.

[@TheRandomguy06]

I grew up on the border of Alexandria, and an original stone marker was on my street.

[@SkylineFTW97]

I grew up around downtown Silver Spring, near one of them, the one off of East West highway.

[@rhino5551212]

Me too. Belle View

[@Starius65]

Hang on, all this information seems strangely familiar... as if I had seen it on a similar channel a little over a month ago...

[@snitzer05]

Wait where did you see a similar video?

[@MushroomMan64]

hmm

[@MichelleD2023]

The RealLifeLore video was a much longer video that addressed potential DC statehood. This is a goofy six minute video about why DC isn’t shaped like a square. Joseph doesn’t own the exclusive rights to all facts about DC, and you can’t claim plagiarism unless Sam lifted his video word for word, which he didn’t. If you’re going to vaguebook and make handwavy accusations about two guys who are friends off of KZbin, try again with more substantial proof.

[@Starius65]

@@MichelleD2023 hey now I'm not calling plagiarism here, just a... _spooky coincidence..._

[@Gizmote]

I'm from Arlington and sometimes jokingly refer to it as "the rest of DC's square" or "the least southern part of the South". Also, DC statehood for the win!

[@EliF-ge5bu]

Eh that will never happen. Do you think republican states would allow another Democrat stronghold state?

[@King-kw1mo]

Arlington is still shaped like a percent square corner piece, if you join Dc, Arlington and Alexandria together it’s still a perfect square 👀

[@King-kw1mo]

Also the original boundary stones are still up in Va and Md, it’s like 35 out of 40 still standing

[@applesyrupgaming]

​@@King-kw1mo Alexandria's west end makes it not a square

[@King-kw1mo]

@@applesyrupgaming true but the original boundary stones are still in Alexandria currently… Actually 35 out of the 40 original boundary still surrounds Dc… I’ve seen about 10 so far Jones point is my favorite…

[@curlyparmesan]

Oof the Amtrak comment. This one was full of heavy hitters, nice.

[@tibbers3755]

Irony here is its congress fault amtraks expensive

[@pdolsk]

1:21 I really like the random stock footage of Minneapolis when talking about NYC, Philly, and Annapolis

[@Scwarzkop]

3:23 Washinton County seems like a a cool county to me!!!

[@AndrewPonti]

It's crazy because there is a Washington County, Maryland already, although I suspect it came in a decade after this..

[@Scwarzkop]

@@AndrewPonti The highlight was the spelling mistake

[@aidanaverbakh8296]

1:10 got so excited when i recognized MY minneapolis in thr stock footage

[@VitorFS999]

I think its weirder that brazilian capital district is shaped like an airplane

[@JoshuaGoudreau]

Airplane? *Sam from Wendover has entered the chat*

[@Elitist20]

Seems just as weird that the Australian Capital Territory (Canberra) has an area of 900 square miles with only 450,000 people vs 61 square miles for DC. But that was to secure a stable water supply, so maybe not so weird after all. It was agreed that it would be carved out of one state (New South Wales) but had to be at least 100 miles from Sydney. It's close to half way between Sydney and Melbourne, the two largest cities.

[@qprx]

As a non-American, I’ve always wondered why nearly every US state has perfectly square edges.

[@bababababababa6124]

Yeah looks weird Americans were high asf when drawing state borders and just though fck it imma use a ruler

[@zachryder3150]

The reason is because they made them the *F* up!

[@KitsuneRogue]

I mean when you own it all anyways why bother making them complex?

[@yeahnoway111]

@@bababababababa6124 But doesnt using a ruler make way more sense than drawing a line by hand that just goes where ever

[@sokonek1]

The actual reason is that the US surveyed out the entire country in 1 mile squares, then combined 36 of those into townships six miles by six miles and then kept going up from that.

[@teotab4293]

This video feels much more savage than usual

[@relhen30]

My thoughts exactly.😂

[@marlonmoncrieffe0728]

Leftists do not like America. It is just and always an [insert X here]-ist country.

[@nazamroth8427]

"Why DC's Shaped Like That" Amusingly rare in the case of the US, the answer is "Historical reasons"

[@KaitouKaiju]

Not really rare The US is one of the few developed countries whose entire history is well documented

[@nazamroth8427]

@@KaitouKaiju Yeah, because they have so little of it, half of it is still in living memory.

[@WhenInDarknessSeekTheLight]

@@nazamroth8427 Cry more brit.

[@danielbishop1863]

@@nazamroth8427 : 123 years is a bit longer than "living memory".

[@TheHylianBatman]

And that decision went on to bother geography nuts for hundreds of years.

[@timothyhart4269]

1:07 stock footage of Minneapolis was an interesting choice

[@moolikethecow1172]

Ah yes, my hometown. This is one of my back pocket fun facts 😂

[@gamespotlive3673]

Arlington used to be called Alexandria county. It only changed to Arlington (after the name of the house Robert E. Lee owner there) to create some distinction between it and Alexandria after they split some time later.

[@bobbyhamm4865]

I still cannot figure out what the 109th word is supposed to be, when I counted I got "the"

[@davidroddini1512]

I think that the number was slightly off. He mentioned the constitution right around that point (although it was not the 109th word)

[@AiNaKa]

@@davidroddini1512 i tried counting 109 words and didnt come up with constitution either. in hindsight though i just realized at 4:58 there's an asterisk in the bottom right clarifying the word is constitution

[@theodoresmith3353]

I have a $5 amtrak trip coming up. It was BY FAR the cheapest option.

[@hazeldejesus]

It’s Lank-ister not Lan-caster. We use the Dutch pronunciation:)

[@tejaswoman]

Interesting. That's also true for the Dallas suburb of the same name, a fact I found out when we were heading to canvass it earlier this year and were cautioned to say correctly.

[@TheKewlPerson]

Rumor has it, that no one else was in the room where it happened

[@CarsMutley1995]

4:38 Has it actually grown exponentially? Or are do you just mean "a lot"?

[@room34]

Me at 1:06 : Ooh! Minneapolis! But why? Oh well, can't wait to watch the rest of the video. Must post now!

[@room34]

OK, after having watched the rest of the video (except the ad, sorry Sam & Co.), the answer is clear (and predictable): stock footage!

[@jscheunemann]

Sam, at 1:09 you use a stock city clip for Minneapolis, not DC. I know because the Stone Arch Bridge is a landmark and the skyline from it is my fav spot for photos

[@samiam619]

Not to mention that DC doesn’t have many grain storage facilities in it…

[@adrianrafaelmagana804]

Sam why did to bless us with a clip of someone biking the stone arch bridge in Minneapolis when talking about the Capitol ...I absolutely love it but it's not even the capitol of our state, even though most people do assume Minneapolis is Minnesota's Capitol....anyways i love your work, especially when it has a clip of the city i live in :)

[@highway2heaven91]

St. Paul is Minnesota’s Capital

[@ABomb1972]

There was also the matter of The War of 1812. When the British sailed up the Potomac, Alexandria's citizens asked that they not the city's docks as this was really their only source of revenue. The British agreed and instead went to the District and set fire to it instead. After the War, Congress was vindictive and limited spending to turn Alexandria and the surrounding county, into a forgotten backwater. When Alexandria finally prevailed on Virginia to take them back, Congress basically said good riddance.

[@mattcat65]

Does anyone know why Congress didn't take back Alexandria and Arlington during or after the Civil War? It would seem to make sense!

[@WiisardNic]

Almost like ACT in Australia. Although, not "half as square", but does have one side of its border as just a perfect straight line

[@arwon2227]

That's a surveying quirk, the borders were to be defined by water catchments so for the rest of the way they follow the ridges of mountains. The two ends of the straight line were two known points, trigonometry stations from which they then mapped out the entire rest of the way. It's also going to stop being a single straight line in a few years when a small piece of land is transferred to ACT so they can build a new suburban development spilling out from West Belconnen.

[@archerelms]

Sam, I need you to pull a Hank Green and make way more channels so I can watch your channels even more often. Ben and Adam wouldn't have any problem with that, right?

[@carsonswitalski9098]

Is that not what Jet Lag is?

[@EatAtJoes]

3:55 Not sure why VA would have worried about that, given that MD was also a slave state...

[@Pr0toPoTaT0]

It totally just looks like Virginia said no you can't have the square in our land but maryland said yes so they got a half eaten cheezeit.

[@mirzaahmed6589]

2:07 sounds like Bir Tawil.

[@RocketBirdz]

They are represented by their mayor, they do not need two senators for a single city and a city that was intentionally designated in the constitution as a neutral area

[@OliverSahli]

switzerland randomly at 0:59

[@jackielinde7568]

Whoo Hoo!!! Phoenix AZ Represent! (00:19 Although, we're a bit cockeyed in that shot.)

[@kestekrafts1580]

do a video on why maps are oriented with the north upward (or forward if said map is laying on a tabletop)

[@jamesbarton1969]

Alexandrea lack Plantations but they did recognize that growing would be far more profitable that 20,000 in taxes. Not everything was about slavery

[@mrtank2010]

1:27 As a Pennsylvanian it is pronounced lane-kist-er and not lan-cast-er.

[@JamesK7911]

Well we’re all gonna keep saying lan-cast-er because it sounds better that way so HA HA 🤷‍♂️

[@EdgeDC]

Since the standard way to present maps is having North pointing up, DC is more commonly (and accurately, IMO) referred to as diamond-shaped, not square-shaped.

[@blue9multimediagroup]

Diamonds are longer on 2 sides. This was equidistant on each side

[@EdgeDC]

@@blue9multimediagroup The only requirement to be defined as a diamond, also known as a rhombus, is that the shape have 4 sides that are the same length. It does not in fact require that they are different lengths on any side - in fact, that is not a diamond at all (strictly speaking). Put it this way - a square is a special case of a diamond, but not all diamonds are square. The city of Washington D.C. is divided into 4 quadrants, centered on the Capitol - Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest - by drawing lines between the corners - lines which run North-South and East-West. Obviously the Southeast quadrant is significantly smaller than the others, due to Arlington being reclaimed by Virginia on the other side of the Potomac. In any case, I submit that due to its orientation, and the way that it is divided, DC is more commonly referred to as a diamond (at least, it used to be, with Arlington). Think of the bases in baseball - what shape is that area called? A baseball diamond.

[@anneonymous4884]

The "rest of the square" should really be added back since it's all federal offices.

[@IkeOkerekeNews]

Probably not going to happen unless the status of DC changes.

[@SkylineFTW97]

Federal offices go well past that on the Maryland side too. There's several large federal campuses well into Montgomery and PG county. For example, the FDA campus in White Oak, the USDA campus in Beltsville, the NASA campus in Greenbelt, and the HHS campus (NIH) in Bethesda. And there's plenty more of them. There's lots of offices too. Like the NRC office between Bethesda and Rockville, the NIST office in Gaithersburg, and the NOAA office in downtown Silver Spring (granted this one is less than 10 minutes walking distance from the DC border).

[@marmac83]

If DC absorbed the rest of the square, Virginia would become a red state again.

[@biscoito1r]

DC should just give the land back to Maryland and a new capital should be established in Nebraska. It is in the middle of the country, it would develop the area, residents of DC would finally have their representation.

[@CEOdawg]

As a DC native, I am totally not with that. For one thing, Maryland doesn't want us back. Two, the identity of DC, Alexandria and Arlington, and the three Maryland counties are the DC Metro area. While having a Congresswoman that could vote on the floor would be nice, what about the Senators that we, a city with 700,000, should have as we have been, basically governing ourselves for over 100 years. The city itself has so much Federal land mixed in that Real Life Lore actually did a 20-minute video on why DC wants Statehood and what's holding that up.

[@d00vinator]

AND there's no swamp in Nebraska!

[@Fuxser]

is the 109th word in the video rasicm?

[@IAmAnItalianPizza]

No, it's intermission(i counted and i hate myself for it

[@graymonk5972]

i’m from maryland and i’ve lived here almost my whole life and i always was taught DC is a shared by maryland and virgina but never knew what the virginia side was like now, at 20 years old i finally know 😭

[@terrapin6826]

You sound kinda like the guy from Wendover.

[@wesdemers258]

this is their second channel its the same guy

[@terrapin6826]

@@wesdemers258 yes I know chill it’s a joke

[@wesdemers258]

@@terrapin6826 never know with people

[@warriorson7979]

He's also the guy from RealLifeLore...😌

[@jonahs92]

1:33 1. Texas was not part of the United States during the events covered in this video. 2. Texas is not a Southern state. This is a common misconception. Texas can be considered either Southwestern or Western.

[@minutemansam1214]

Texas is considered a southern state.

[@jonahs92]

@@minutemansam1214 Nope. You clearly have never been to Texas.

[@loganhaynes9176]

@@jonahs92 it was apart of the confederacy so that’s why people say it is in the south

[@glennhower9265]

Okay, granted the Compromise of 1790 does occur after the intermission, however the Constitutional Convention occurs during "Non Stop" BEFORE the intermission. Yes, this is completely pedantic, and yes, I will definitely take the opportunity to be technically correct, Sam!

[@dcseain]

Arlington County was Alexandria County at the time. Alexandria County became Arlington County in 1920.

[@Blake-jl8lh]

Let's not forget the North was also still VERY racist they just had the wacky idea that maybe you shouldn't own people. Though they still joined into the human zoo craze later on so I guess they weren't very firm in that belief either...

[@CanadianInScotland]

Much like most of Americans today.. still racist, hate each other and can't come together for anything!

[@432leumas]

"Snuck isn't a word Conan. And you've been to Harvard and you should know that."

[@CEOdawg]

As a DC native, thanks for enlightening me on the finer points as to the why D.C. is the why it is now, as I already knew that it happened.

[@jasonhaven7170]

Sorry the Whites were so racist.

[@typeofguyto]

To answer the most important question if the video: They are indeed just fun decorative objects

[@alexwalker5716]

I was gonna report this, but I figured your just trying to be funny (keyword:trying) At least I hope this is sarcastic.

[@typeofguyto]

@Alex Walker so did you report the video then? you cracked a smile when he made the joke in the video but not when I made the same damn joke in the comments? Makes sense

[@noahshowalter9277]

At 4:07, I’ve always heard that called retrocession. Is retrogression the same thing?

[@KellyWu04]

I didn’t know Factor is owned by Hello Fresh. I thought you jumped ship 😂

[@CompuBrains27]

Lancaster with two long As is how you pronounce the town outside of Buffalo, NY. The place with the Amish outside of Philly is pronounced "Lan-kiss-ter." Also the constitution specifies DC is to be 10 miles squared, not 100 square miles. What's the difference? Well the way the constitution puts it, you can't have a DC that's 1 by 100 miles, whereas that would still be OK the way you said it.

[@MrKioder]

Two places with the same name in the US, are not only both pronounced differently to each other, the pronounciation is also different to the place in England where the name originates. .....

[@boarbot7829]

We pronounce it with single a which is correct. Lamkisster is ridiculous

[@rbzw4787]

YESSSSSSS A HAI VID ABOUT MY HOME

[@thefareplayer2254]

Everyone in PA: “it’s pronounced ‘LAN-castirr’”

[@flodnak]

LANG-kisstir, thank you very much. At least he got the "ng" part correct. (signed, grew up on Cabbage Hill)

[@Nytalite]

I live in Alexandria, and I can confirm we don’t want to be a part of DC again (especially right now with the out-of-control crime and the sheer incompetence of the DC Council). In fact, in the unlikely event Northern Virginia were to secede from the rest of Virginia, Alexandria is likely to become the new state’s capital due to its history.

[@natenae8635]

Is it just me that wants DC to be whole again.

[@breeze9819]

Anyone from the Virginia side really does not want that to happen

[@EdgeDC]

I live in Virginia, and I’d like to see this happen (along with DC statehood, but that’s another matter). If nothing else, than to annoy smug Arlingtonians. 😁

[@kiosk5595]

Clearly slavery was the prime driver of secession but it’s interesting he brought up how the Virginia side wasn’t allowed to build buildings, especially since Rosslyn is way more developed than DC proper today and has a skyline that overlooks the capitol rather than the other way around

[@Hibbs4Prez]

No one goes to Roslyn and thinks its more developed than DC. The place has an okay downtown that isn't distinguishable from a hundred other small city downtowns in the nation. And DC has Always had a limit on how tall buildings can be and most of us residents prefer it that way. Its part of what makes the city unique.

[@mister_i9245]

Its called retrocession not retrogression

[@sgtsalmon]

Fun fact: the right to vote was originally intended to be per household. That’s why women couldn’t originally vote. As the values shifted away from family-based and more to individual values, the constitution changed.

[@Bob1923Dobbs]

"Are women real people or just fun, decorative objects you can put in your house?" 🤣

[@MyBelch]

Wimmin are rayciss!

[@w41duvernay]

It is a good thing the Virginia side of the land wasn't used by DC. The Federal Government had serious problems trying to protect DC from Confederacy. Richmond and DC were only 250 miles apart during the Civil War.

[@TastyChubz]

What's the 109th word!? I'm to sleepy to count. This was the first video I watched when I woke up

[@jonasgrenild]

Constitution

[@TrollGarlic]

This is quite a random comment Nevermind i finished the video

[@TastyChubz]

@@jonasgrenild appreciate it man 🙏

[@VEVOJavier]

@@jonasgrenild thanks king

[@jonasgrenild]

np fam

[@mbbno]

Virginia needs to give back to Washington DC the part they illegally stole.

[@samuvisser]

There is no way this is accurate. There surely where a whole lot more reasons beside ‘racism’ why they didnt like DC

[@olivercharles2930]

No shit, but racism was still a large part of it.

[@ilajoie3]

I'm too lazy to count the words. What's the 109th word?

[@parallax_review]

@4:06 retrocession?

[@pattymcfatty0]

In the end Arlington joining Virginia worked out well. It's very likely Virginia would not be as solidly blue and progressive if Arlington hadn't joined for conservative reasons lol.

[@JeremyWS]

Fun fact: Washington, D.C. legally can't become a state. There is actually a law that says that the capital of the USA can't reside inside a state. So it would legally not be possible for D.C. to become a state without seriously rewriting our current laws and that is not gonna happen. Our government is too lazy.

[@jamescrawford7529]

When you talked about southern states not wanting the capitol to be in the north, you chose to show a Texas flag to represent those southern states. Texas would not become a state until over 50 years later.

[@josephwodarczyk977]

They were VERY ahead of the game. Planning ahead.

[@NakedGeep]

I don’t think “The Room where it happened” is the first song after intermission. That’d be “What’d I miss”

[@musicaleuphoria8699]

D.C.: Arlington, Alexandria, we have to square.

[@pummer]

So basically DC is in the south because racism… and DC is not in the south because racism.

[@MarloSoBalJr]

"Perfectly balanced. As all things shall be..."

[@danielbishop1863]

It was right on the border during the Civil War.

[@elgoog-the-third]

Except that's bullshit. But who cares anymore

[@PunnamarajVinayakTejas]

I counted and the 109th word is constitution. (actually I counted it as the 108th, and 109th is "specifically", but I'm gonna assume I forgot to count a word.

[@andrefreeman7025]

1:00 The reason for creating D.C. was reasonable concerns of state jurisdiction over the federal government. If that district were in some state, or even self-become a state it would have devastating aftermath on the independence of the federal government. Imagine if congress, the senate, and the white house were under the jurisdiction of California or Texas. That district is for the federal government body, not for a permanent resident. This small district is not a state for a very good reason.

[@adammoldover8769]

I think if DC becomes a state, the federal government buildings would remain in their own jurisdiction. Correct me if I'm wrong

[@minutemansam1214]

@@adammoldover8769 You are right.

[@smooooth_]

DC statehood legislation proposed has excluded the section of the city that contains federal buildings. This fear is antiquated and imaginary

[@andrefreeman7025]

@@adammoldover8769 Those who found that districk and separate it from Maryland was not worry about the buildins itself, but they was worry about the goverment body, thats means the whole district.

[@arwon2227]

It's funny how little this ended up mattering in every federation that formed after the US and which had capitals where people had voting rights and representation.

[@fouroverseven7799]

Actually, that’s not true. Early in the nation’s capital’s history, residents had federal representation through either Maryland or Virginia, depending on what side of the Potomac they lived on. Not sure why it can’t be like that again.

[@deleted-something]

I love how Virginia couldn't accept that lol

[@andersjacobson2487]

The thumbnail is inaccurate; the actual rock creek, of Rock Creek Park, is nowhere near as wide as the blue in the thumbnail implies it to be. It looks like you used the park boundaries but made it blue