4 ms·

When I think of WV, the main thing I think of is opioid addiction. Other than that and coal mining I don't really know anything else about WV. So, why WV?

catsdanxe 6y ago
West Virginia has cheap land, lots of undeveloped areas, and republican government. Way less bs and regulation. More freedom.
- reaperducer 6y ago
  The Republican government is only a recent phenomenon. This is the state that had a Rockefeller for governor in the 90's.
bigbubba 6y ago
Being desperate for outside investment makes them relatively credulous.
Communitivity 6y ago
WB has large expanses of area. It's already being renovated, look at the changes in my home town from 1979 to 2020 - it's gone from a quaint small town to a tourist destination and upscale DC suburb with the Clintons owning a home there ('One of America's Coolest Small Towns'-Budget America). If this experiment works it might enable much more of WV to be considered a suburb of DC. That could be good or bad, but most likely both in different areas. It would definitely be profitable.
- bigbubba 6y ago
  This is certainly what optimistic WV politicians what to believe, but unfortunately for them there is the problem of Hyperloop being a bunk gadgetbahn that won't pan out and was probably never meant to. (The true purpose of hyperlink, promoted by a man who sells cars, likely being to derail traditional highspeed rail proposals with "but if we wait N years we could build a Hyperloop instead!") WV is being taken for a ride, but not the sort they hope for.
mac01021 6y ago
That's not a flattering impression of the state you have. Anyway, WV is between NYC and DC, and there was a good site available for them to build their prototype.
- jcranmer 6y ago
  Uh... West Virginia is nowhere near the NYC-DC axis. It is potentially on the route between DC and Chicago, but most crayon maps would rather hook the Midwest into the Northeast Corridor by going via Pittsburgh, the Juniata water gaps, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia instead of picking a more southerly route that hits Baltimore or DC.
  - Brendinooo 6y ago
    The site selected is about three hours from DC. But yeah, nowhere near NYC. Interestingly enough, I was reading an article[0] about how Wheeling and Pittsburgh were competing to be the gateway to the west. When the National Road bypassed Pittsburgh, that was a big win for Wheeling. Most of the rail ended up going through Pittsburgh, though, and then the PA Turnpike opened a path through the mountains that further solidified Pittsburgh's advantage. For WV's part, I could see them being very motivated to try and bring a new mode of transportation through their state. [0]: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20093288?seq=1 https://www.jstor.org/stable/20093288?seq=1
    - jcranmer 6y ago
      In the 1820s and the 1830s, after the opening of the Erie Canal, there was serious competition to figure out which Ohio River city would be the western terminus of various eastern seaboard cities. By the 1840s, however, it became clear that the answer to transportation was going to be the railroad, and terminating at the Ohio River made no sense; the real target was the western entrepôts such as Chicago. From the perspective of the major NE railroads, the New York Central traveled through the same Mohawk Gap that the Erie Canal uses, and then travel along the south bank of Lake Erie. The Pennsylvania Railroad followed the route of the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal system, that traveled Philadelphia-Pittsburgh via Altoona. The B&O (originating from a state that had no access to the Ohio River) tried playing off Virginia and Pennsylvania against each other, but Pennsylvania stopped playing ball when it committed to the Pennsylvania Railroad, and Virginia forced the B&O to pick Wheeling over Parkersburg to make it harder for B&O to bridge the Ohio River and push on to Chicago. (The B&O would eventually reach Parkersburg, cross the Ohio there, and continue to Chicago, but this happened a generation later). The Pennsylvania Turnpike was based on the route of the South Pennsylvania Railroad, which was never built.
blisterpeanuts 6y ago
It's probably less expensive than, say, Maryland or northern Virginia, more land available, cheaper labor, etc.

catsdanxe 6y ago

West Virginia has cheap land, lots of undeveloped areas, and republican government. Way less bs and regulation. More freedom.

reaperducer 6y ago
The Republican government is only a recent phenomenon. This is the state that had a Rockefeller for governor in the 90's.

bigbubba 6y ago

Being desperate for outside investment makes them relatively credulous.

Communitivity 6y ago

WB has large expanses of area. It's already being renovated, look at the changes in my home town from 1979 to 2020 - it's gone from a quaint small town to a tourist destination and upscale DC suburb with the Clintons owning a home there ('One of America's Coolest Small Towns'-Budget America). If this experiment works it might enable much more of WV to be considered a suburb of DC. That could be good or bad, but most likely both in different areas. It would definitely be profitable.

bigbubba 6y ago
This is certainly what optimistic WV politicians what to believe, but unfortunately for them there is the problem of Hyperloop being a bunk gadgetbahn that won't pan out and was probably never meant to. (The true purpose of hyperlink, promoted by a man who sells cars, likely being to derail traditional highspeed rail proposals with "but if we wait N years we could build a Hyperloop instead!") WV is being taken for a ride, but not the sort they hope for.

mac01021 6y ago

That's not a flattering impression of the state you have. Anyway, WV is between NYC and DC, and there was a good site available for them to build their prototype.

jcranmer 6y ago
Uh... West Virginia is nowhere near the NYC-DC axis. It is potentially on the route between DC and Chicago, but most crayon maps would rather hook the Midwest into the Northeast Corridor by going via Pittsburgh, the Juniata water gaps, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia instead of picking a more southerly route that hits Baltimore or DC.
- Brendinooo 6y ago
  The site selected is about three hours from DC. But yeah, nowhere near NYC. Interestingly enough, I was reading an article[0] about how Wheeling and Pittsburgh were competing to be the gateway to the west. When the National Road bypassed Pittsburgh, that was a big win for Wheeling. Most of the rail ended up going through Pittsburgh, though, and then the PA Turnpike opened a path through the mountains that further solidified Pittsburgh's advantage. For WV's part, I could see them being very motivated to try and bring a new mode of transportation through their state. [0]: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20093288?seq=1 https://www.jstor.org/stable/20093288?seq=1
  - jcranmer 6y ago
    In the 1820s and the 1830s, after the opening of the Erie Canal, there was serious competition to figure out which Ohio River city would be the western terminus of various eastern seaboard cities. By the 1840s, however, it became clear that the answer to transportation was going to be the railroad, and terminating at the Ohio River made no sense; the real target was the western entrepôts such as Chicago. From the perspective of the major NE railroads, the New York Central traveled through the same Mohawk Gap that the Erie Canal uses, and then travel along the south bank of Lake Erie. The Pennsylvania Railroad followed the route of the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal system, that traveled Philadelphia-Pittsburgh via Altoona. The B&O (originating from a state that had no access to the Ohio River) tried playing off Virginia and Pennsylvania against each other, but Pennsylvania stopped playing ball when it committed to the Pennsylvania Railroad, and Virginia forced the B&O to pick Wheeling over Parkersburg to make it harder for B&O to bridge the Ohio River and push on to Chicago. (The B&O would eventually reach Parkersburg, cross the Ohio there, and continue to Chicago, but this happened a generation later). The Pennsylvania Turnpike was based on the route of the South Pennsylvania Railroad, which was never built.

blisterpeanuts 6y ago

It's probably less expensive than, say, Maryland or northern Virginia, more land available, cheaper labor, etc.