Why is Cairo, Illinois not a major American city? (Chicago: how much, home)

[Cosmic Thunder]

Why did Cairo, Illinois not become a major metropolis? The longest, and one of the longest rivers in America, the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers meet in Cairo, it looks like it would have been one of the biggest cities in America.

One would think it would be at least as big as Memphis or St Louis, where the Missouri dumps into the Mississippi. Instead, it's probably one of the smallest places in the United States, or even the world, where 2 major rivers meet.

Anybody know why Cairo did not become a major American city?

[madpaddy]

Previously discussed here:

Curious About Cairo

[cubssoxfan]

Why do new posters often fail to use the search function?

[Cosmic Thunder]

Well excuue me, Mr cubsoxfan, but If I had over 9000 posts under my belt I'd know the law as well as you apparently do.

I checked out the link provided by madpaddy but I didn't see any answers to my question. Why didn't Cairo become a major city? If any town should have been a major American city, I would think it would be Cairo.

Obviously you don't know the answer so to distract from the fact that you don't know the answer, you had to smart off.

9000 posts tells me you have an opinion on just about everything,, even things you know nothing about..

[cubssoxfan]

Obviously you don't know the answer so to distract from the fact that you don't know the answer, you had to smart off.

Took me all of about 3 minutes. Used advanced search, entered why isn't Cairo a major us city, selected Illinois forum and presto:https://www.city-data.com/forum/illin...elop-into.html
With frequent users, such as myself, we are sometimes a bit snippy when someone asks a question without at least attempting to find the answer first. I'm not the most computer savvy, so if I can figure out the search feature, you shouldn't have too much of a problem.

[TheProudChicagoan]

Hey. cubssoxfan, wanna discuss the question?

Anyway, I think that, at that point in the river, all of the traffic is basically just cruising through to the South. But at the same time, the Ohio and Mississippi rivers do carry major traffic, from some major cities, like Louisville, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Chicago, which were pretty big cities when river traffic was much more important, plus connected the north to the east coast. So more than not, it seems like Cairo would be the perfect place for a city, much more so than cities like Cincinnati, and St. Louis.

[sedimenjerry]

I think being surrounded by water actually hurts it. There just isn't enough convenient, unified land. It's hard to connect the areas well enough. Even metro areas like St Louis, Cincinnati and Louisville are concentrated on one side. Evidently once river and train traffic slowed down there wasn't enough diverse economic action to keep Cairo relevant. I don't know how much river traffic the other major cities I mentioned get but they have diverse economies to support a large population base. With Cairo the rivers just end up being obstacles in infrastructure.

[madpaddy]

Originally Posted by sedimenjerry

Evidently once river and train traffic slowed down there wasn't enough diverse economic action to keep Cairo relevant.

I think that's it in a nutshell. The city hung it's hat on the transportation waypoint peg. When it became possible to cross the rivers by train without stopping in Cairo, the city doesn't seemed to have embraced manufacturing in any significant way. As far as being a major port city, its not really a convenient location to any major markets. Why would you offload goods at Cairo down at the tip of Illinois in the most sparsely populated part of the state when you could continue up river and offload closer to the final destinations?

[madpaddy]

I found this article, which addresses the subject at hand, to be quite interesting:
Down Town | Travel | Chicago Reader

[BLS2753]

Originally Posted by madpaddy

I found this article, which addresses the subject at hand, to be quite interesting:
Down Town | Travel | Chicago Reader

That's probably the best article I've read about Cairo. There's much more than just the decline of riverboats and railroads that has caused Cairo's current situation. The riots in 1967 is when the rapid decline occurred.

I recall as a young boy in the late 1950's, early 1960's, Cairo was still a town with some vitality. Lots of restaurants and bars. Also home to state and federal offices, that served this end of the state. It was still the most important town in far southern Illinois in some respects. By the 1970's, most businesses had closed, and the government offices had relocated to other towns.

None of us who live in this region, spend much time thinking about Cairo. It is what it is, and what's done is done. Occasionally, some Chicago politician comes down and makes some promises, but nothing ever changes. The last one was an African-American Senatorial candidate in 2004. He soon went on to bigger things, and hasn't set foot in Cairo since.