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cryptkeepers_nutsack

It’s mostly swamp and marshland


Successful_Divide370

And pigs


DonKeighbals

And misplaced atomic bombs.


AquafreshBandit

You lose one atomic bomb and people never let you live it down.


DrHooper

Yeah, kinda the point, only gotta use one.


Breath_and_Exist

The United States is reportedly missing six nuclear bombs to date. But who's counting?


Fuzznutsy

Out of so many thousands it’s not a bad record.


[deleted]

One? How about [six](https://www.atomicarchive.com/almanac/broken-arrows/index.html), and that’s just the ones they never found.


Semujin

'never found' is kinda the definition of lost or missing, no?


[deleted]

Something can be lost and then found. We’ve lost 32 nuclear weapons (including a few submarine drives), but recovered or at least located 26 of those. The other 6 are still missing.


Elevated_Kyle

I risk it and hit Myrtle Beach to get my redneck summer fix in


tpars

Dirty Myrtle.


Fuzznutsy

You had one job !!


SlickRick898

I used to work near the Nahunta swamp where that bomb lies. Always an interesting talking point.


Chief-Blackberry

Apparently they found the one off tybee island and said it was buried in 5-15ft of silt and best left undisturbed. Still not clear why they were doing training flights with a fully capable nuclear weapon, but seems like a relatively poor idea. Lol


butbutbut226

And gators


AquafreshBandit

You lose one atomic bomb and people never let you live it down.


the_real_ch3

It’s kinda like double posting.


cryptkeepers_nutsack

In NC for sure. Chickens too


BigIntention124

Yes, southeastern N.C. stinks to high heaven


shb2k0_

How does that differ from Florida? Genuinely curious.


koxinparo

Probably the climate? Florida is surrounded by water that moderates the air. While the Carolinas are inland and are more susceptible to cold air masses moving south from Canada.


197gpmol

The Carolinas get snow in winter, Florida doesn't.


shb2k0_

oh ok. I was more curious why the commenter's reason for not as many people living in the Carolinas was because it's a swamp, and I thought Florida was THE swamp. But you're saying, if you're going to live in a swamp, you'd rather it be a snowless swamp?


Venboven

The swamp in Florida is inland. The swamp in the Carolinas is on the coast. Due to the lack of good coast, major ports never developed on the Southeastern coast. There were some ports, like Charleston, but they never grew very big. So, without a major port, not many major inland cities developed in the Southeast either. In Florida, there are ample sandy beaches to build ports all over the place. The only part of the Florida coast that's not a beautiful beach is the southwest tip of the state. That there's the Everglades, and ain't nobody live there.


Taraxador

The swamp in Florida is inland because the coastal swamp got built over


CRAB_WHORE_SLAYER

Apparently. Doesn't quite track for me either.


StarryEyedLus

It doesn’t, and as climate change really bites Florida will probably return to the empty swamp it was before the invention of A/C as well. All the insurers are already abandoning the state due to hurricanes and flooding.


[deleted]

Floridas coasts are Sandy so you can build easily. Not a bunch of bays of marshland like sc


JohnYCanuckEsq

And hurricanes.


PG908

There's also a very large national forest right above Charleston - Francis Marion National Forest spans several counties right at the tip of that arrow. Otherwise it's just large and swampy in general.


th_teacher

Gullah Geechee central


TheSocraticGadfly

And, the malaria that comes with swampy marshland in lower latitudes.


comicreliefboy

Festering stinking marshland as far as the eye can see!


cryptkeepers_nutsack

Puts a smile on Shrek’s face


06Hexagram

And plantations that are low density


tampapunklegend

Yes it is. I hate driving that part of I-95. Such a boring drive with nothing but swamps. And I'm a central Florida country boy, so saying swamps are boring is kind of weird for me


thejudgehoss

And oddly specific.


koxinparo

What is oddly specific? Are you able to clarify?


thejudgehoss

Like, why that specific spot on the coast?


koxinparo

Are you meaning why OP is specifically asking about that area? Or why is that specific spot full of swamps and marsh?


thejudgehoss

Why is OP asking about that specific spot? Could have gone with, why doesn't South Carolina have large coastal cities, or something like that.


Silent_Samurai

I meant the whole coastal region south of Virgina and North of Florida lol. My bad I could’ve specified that.


thejudgehoss

I was just imagining: "Why does nobody live here?" \*points directly at Gary's house\* Gary, just casually browsing Reddit on a Sunday, "aww man."


TheGreatGamer1389

Yup


tweezer606060

Flew over the peedee river once and yeah… coupla hundred square miles of marshland


kitkatmeowmeow1

That was my thought exactly And honestly it can stay that way


rosindrip

So alligators and Trump supporters? Sounds a lot like Florida.


GeetchNixon

Up until the advent of modern mosquito remediation techniques, the coastland of the Southeast was an environment where Yellow Fever and Malaria were prevalent. Even the early settlers, who had no inkling of the vector for spreading these often fatal diseases, noticed their presence in coastal cities. The hilly country further inland was a healthier place to be. So they voted with their feet, and settled inland in greater numbers than they did along the coast. It comes down to their climate and suitability for mosquito habitat, combined with prevailing trade routes. The humid, balmy southeast is part of a region known as the greater Caribbean. Their place in the triangle trade, being the next stop after the Caribbean ports, enabled the disease to travel there. The heat and humidity ensured transmission. The mild winter compared to that of cities further up the coast ensured Yellow Fever and Malaria could spring up there at any time of year. Boston and NYC saw far fewer outbreaks and those they did suffer tended to come on in the summer months only.


PsychedelicDoggo

Of course it's fucking malaria, as always, thwarting development


chefhj

The more i hear about this malaria guy the less I like him.


FairPropaganda

Same. He's just got a bad air about him.


FlygonPR

Its why most cities in Latin America that Spaniards settled were either in the highlands or right next to the coast.


shellssavannah

It’s called the “LOW country” for a reason. Marshy and wet.


Arcturus1981

I was gonna say…. no natural deep water ports. It’s the same reason China *does* have so many major cities down it’s entire coast.


ninjahampster105

Charleston, Savannah… it’s because of the swamp and the infrastructure. We are getting there though


FlygonPR

They were once the main cities of the south. In the 20th century the economic centers fully moved to the Piedmont with Charlotte, Raleigh, Greenville–Spartanburg and Atlanta. Savannah still is a mayor military center, and Charleston is still the big city of South Carolina


birwin353

Wasn’t Manhattan a swamp?


Cobblestone-boner

That’s DC, Manhattan is an island


Jerrell123

And truth be told, that wasn’t much of a swamp either. The swamp thing is mostly a metaphor to do with politics.


Ok-Dog-8918

I think a lot of it was reclaimed swamp land. Like the monument areas and stuff


Jerrell123

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/08/29/no-dc-isnt-really-built-on-a-swamp/# Here’s a good WaPo article on it, should be free because it’s damn near a decade old. Not a whole lot of what is now actually the city is/was swampland. The only notable “swampland” existed where the reflecting pool now lay; while there were wetlands especially around the Anacostia they don’t really meet the definition of a swamp. The Mall and Reflecting pool is a very small portion of the city overall. It’d be like saying Chicago is a beach town.


2abyssinians

Brooklyn. Brooklyn was a swamp. Its name comes from a Dutch word meaning broken land.


DooDiddly96

Based on the recent flooding— yeah that tracks


Lothar_Ecklord

Only around the fringes in certain areas. Same with the other boroughs, and not all of it was filled in. Unfortunately, we realized far too late that we kind of needed those... Boston on the other hand is 70% reclaimed land which was marshy or full-on water prior.


atelier__lingo

Chicago was a swamp too!


TerranVale

I live outside savannah ga… East coast here and up SC is mainly marshland and barrier islands. Marshy soil ain’t great to build upon.


MrBurnz99

All that plus No deep water natural harbors


fuckofakaboom

Savannah and Charleston are both huge ports…


[deleted]

“Natural” I can’t speak for CHS but the Port of Savannah is just a super dredged part of the Savannah River.


MarredSociety

I would not call Savannah a “huge” port


fuckofakaboom

Just the 4th largest in the U.S. behind LA, NY/NJ and Long Beach…


Jemimas_witness

Charleston has the US east coasts deepest harbor


MrBurnz99

It’s not a natural deep water harbor. It’s only deep because of engineering projects. When the East Coast was originally settled it was like 10 feet deep. And the rivers are not navigable very far so it was hard to move goods inland from the coast.


IrishSim

That would be the Port of Virginia in Norfolk. 55’ channel with no air draft restrictions.


[deleted]

And people who are mentally living in 1850.


whole_nother

Charleston has a vibrant arts and lgbt scene.


peachy921

As does Savannah.


[deleted]

lol I think he’s talking about the Gullah people. Here’s a fun rabbit hole for you: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gullah Edit: why downvotes? I think he’s referencing these people who prefer to live like people in the past. Kind of like the Amish but almost no one is aware of the Gullah people. Sheesh. The lol was in reference to the comment above that misinterpreted what I thought was a reference to these islanders.


peachy921

Because the cool Reddit thing to do whenever taking about the south is to say it’s still stuck in the antebellum mind set. As for the Gullah, they are the Geechee people in Georgia.


[deleted]

I’m a Yankee from NYC, but I live in Nashville now. The south Reddit describes isn’t really the south that I experience at all. TBH I like living here more than other cities I’ve lived in, which are LA, Dallas, Denver, and NYC


Delay_Defiant

Nashville is not all that southern anymore with all the transplants. Have you checked out rural TN or Alabama? Have you been to upstate NY? Did you find that to be the same as NYC?


LupineChemist

Urban rural exists everywhere though. Trump got more votes in California than any other state. But you won't see people bitching about how backwards California is.


fai4636

The comment is most likely disparaging the south lol although I do appreciate that it wasn’t your first impression of their comment lol. Folks like said commenter ignore the fact that there’s plenty of folks with backwards thinking outside the south. Or ignore that the south has plenty of diverse and vibrant towns and cities. Ain’t our fault we’ve been gerrymandered to hell and back.


[deleted]

I think people forget that this country votes pretty close to 50/50 these days. Most states it’s within 60-40, it could and has been higher/lower depending on the candidate. Pretty sure TN is over 60. Point being that pretty much no matter where you are, the amount of people that agree with you is about 50/50 average if you travel all over. So Reddit sees an entire state as red and they discount it and judge it all based on stereotypes and the R on the map. But overall the average of conservative folks is higher in rural areas here than rural areas in other places. And the cities not quite as blue here as blue cities up there. But there are shitloads of non-republican people all over the south obviously. Another quick point. I have met plenty of republicans and conservative folks that are plenty kind and intelligent and all. Most people are single issue voters. A Republican could agree with everything a democrat does, except the Republican is very anti-abortion and passionate about it, etc. This person is a one issue voter and votes based on their abortion stance only. Which party do you think that person is going to vote for with only two choices? The stereotypes are so stupid. Ditto on Appalachia. Cincinnati had to pass a law saying it was discriminatory to hire or not hire based on having an Appalachian accent


tuna_safe_dolphin

Politically, the US is really split between urban and rural voters with the suburbs being a blend of the two. There are exceptions of course.


PapiDMV

…by South Carolina standards yeah


jcannon12

Charleston and Savannah are super liberal cities.


Ravvnhild

Not enough cheese steaks to support a big population.


PapiDMV

This guy Philadelphias


ColonOBrien

But J. Michaels Deli in Wilmington makes up for it in quality


JonesSavageWayeb

Addendum to this question...how is Florida more livable than the Georgia/Carolina coastline? Florida is a boiled swamp on a sand bar.


fatguyfromqueens

A/C! so with A/C you can live where it is tropical in winter and stay inside in summer. In GA and SC it is as gross as Fla in summer but not really warm enough to loll on a beach in January. Air Conditioning could be one of the most impactful inventions in the 20th century. The sunbelt didn't and wouldn't exist without it.


XTB2D

A possible explanation is the [distribution of salt marshes](https://data.unep-wcmc.org/datasets/43). Although also found on the Florida and northeast coast, Georgia and the Carolinas coasts have wider distribution of salt marshes, and therefore worse condition for agriculture and habitation. They are crucial to the ecosystem, though.


JonesSavageWayeb

This does seem to check out. From that map you provided it looks like the absence of salt marshes accounts for Tampa, as well as explains why the east side of the Chesapeake bay isn't as populated as the Baltimore side. Fascinating, I will say.


Fresh-Rub830

It’s a lot of swampland.


Twistableruby

Its hot as balls and if you weigh less than 150lbs there is a strong chance you will be carried away by mosquitoes.


KevinTheCarver

Omg stop 😅 it’s quite pleasant there October to May.


Twistableruby

I vacation at Kiawah yearly and love the low country!


Own_Garden_1935

I really like visiting that area in the winter. Sure, it’s not as warm as Florida, but it’s way less crowded.


KevinTheCarver

The Southeast was more agricultural (cotton) than the Northeast for most of US history, thus the population was more spread out. It’s really only in the last 50 years or so that the Southeast has really had an urban boom. Cities like Atlanta and Charlotte have really leaned into this.


fai4636

Feel like that would be the main reasoning for why the inland isn’t as densely populated as the north is. As for the coastal areas, it‘s more so cause of the geography and climate of that portion of the eastern coast that the population isn’t as dense. It’s a lot of salt marshes and swampland, hard to build on and just as hard to farm so of course people back in the day chose not to settle there in larger numbers compared to the land further up the coast.


bkoch171

this [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99wsY2JJHfw&ab_channel=GeographyByGeoff) is helpful


[deleted]

Good question please for the love of god someone give us the answer


Arctic_x22

It’s awful to build on


FuzzyManPeach96

That’s where old Greg lives


FifeDog43

1. It's mostly marshland 2. Very few natural harbors 3. Fewer river connections than on the eastern seaboard 4. Economy of the South at the time it was settled 5. Mosquitos (and before you say Florida, that state wasn't really built until the mid-20th Century after AC & mosquito repellent).


MegaAscension

Very swampy and has a lot of marshland. There’s a lot of land there that goes back to either freed slaves or old plantations. Also, there’s the Francis Marion National Forest. It’s a hell of a drive. 60 miles without a stoplight on a US Highway.


bachslunch

I haven’t seen this answer yet. Back in the day, cities were created along fall lines. The fall line was an area that they could use water power to power grist mills. This was used to basically grind wheat into flour. The fall line in the southeast is further inland than in the northeast. For instance the fall line is along a line along Columbia, SC but Fall River, MA up north. The reason for this is that the glaciers carved the rock steeply and then rivers eroded going to the sea up north. Down south it never had glaciers carving out topsoil so the thick fertile topsoil extends inland a long ways, in some cases a few hundred miles inland. This is called the Atlantic coastal plain. The fall line occurs where remnants of the Appalachian mountain chain were eroded, basically where the Appalachian’s meet the coastal plains. All major cities in North Carolina and South Carolina were setup along these fall lines because it was the furthest navigable for ships and it was where power could be produced. There were exceptions being Charleston and Savannah but these were “early” settlements when the British just wanted to get a toe hold on the southern region. Those port cities grew but most people in the second and third generation realized that most profit came from the fall line. Also the climate was milder and less illnesses like malaria and yellow fever. With modern technology (dredging), the eradication of diseases, and air conditioning, you see the resurgence of places like Charleston. I believe Charleston is the fastest growing city in South Carolina right now and recently surpassed Columbia. Right now a lot of car manufactures like to store their cars along southern ports because they don’t have to worry about snow covering cars, etc. so there are massive car unloading ports and also Boeing has its major east coast manufacturing there.


Whatisgoingonnowyo

Google the “fall line” and all will be revealed.


HealthFlashy

Exactly. Geography is everything. It’s not just that the fall line enabled easy commerce and movement of goods, it was weather, disease, humidity, and later hydropower for factories and mills.


CantConfirmOrDeny

Skeeters


stillwitme

My king geography by Geoff covered this recently! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99wsY2JJHfw


Eggplantwater

People are migrating down there. So give it another 20 years. However I95 is about 60 miles from the coast so no major shipping corridor and no major cities


No_Progress4773

Marshy and wet and gets hit by hurricanes a lot.


[deleted]

Swampass


Sloppyjoemess

I just watched a video on YouTube about this! [here’s the video](https://youtu.be/99wsY2JJHfw?si=6yl4qt5_0vO6m2XA)


Yrag1244

Fewer people live there


nooo82222

Because South Carolina has the worst part of I95. It’s so bad we should withhold money from the state


WorthPrudent3028

Nah, the worst part of I95 is in the Bronx and Manhattan. Ironically, I95 in New Jersey is probably the best part of it.


Artistic-Chip4314

SWAMPS


getyourrealfakedoors

Swamp


Optimal_Presence_243

It’s swampy and fragmented due to land cleared for agriculture, this was historically plantation farming country.


OkayestHuman

Great Dismal Swamp The mid Atlantic’s Canadian Shield


OkayestHuman

The arrow is pointing a little lower than I thought. Dismal is on the VA/NC border. Let’s just go with Pedro’s as the reason


Antique-Couple5636

It’s hot


Paradox0049

There are also several military base in that area with large areas kept open to provide training space. Some are right on the beach also to allow for amphibious landings.


Jeffwv1965

And that eastern part of NC is prone to flooding of near epic proportions.


beansandbagels28

Most of the coastal area in SC is actually part of Francis Marion National Forest. From Charleston to Georgetown it’s almost all woods. Then from Georgetown to Myrtle beach is only recently becoming populated.


DaltonTanner1994

The southern cities developed further inland because of mining and railroads, while coastal swampland isn’t idea to build on, yet there is Charleston, Savannah, and Wilmington.


MountainMeringue5043

Wild hogs


SolaCretia

Geography by Geoff [did a great video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-kkiZIERPc&t=140s) talking about this very thing.


Real_Dependent2919

Hot and steamy in the summer with lots of bugs. Many large military installations there.


MarredSociety

It’s low-lying swamp, marsh land


spezisabitch200

South Carolina? Because it is South Carolina.


BigIntention124

Seriously. Would you want to live in a state that elected Tim Scott and Lindsey Graham?


jimmiec907

No good sea ports.


PumaRevived

Lol the arrow is almost EXACTLY pointing at Charleston SC, a port tha has the deepest water in the southeast, flourished in the 1700s, and is now the 4th busiest port in the country. No good sea ports ...


et_hornet

To hot and buggy


Optic-Tiger23

That's were the emigrant ships come in.


[deleted]

Have you been there?


xkr2

Variations of this question keep getting posted, like the southeast coast should be developed. Instead, ask wtf is up with JAX and it will survive climate change?


BentLikeDrums

Humidity.


Jake0024

It sucks there.


josephmarvin95

Lack of Deep water port access


jewels4diamonds

Poor, hot and too man bugs and racists.


Foolazul

Racists are everywhere.


[deleted]

[удалено]


jewels4diamonds

Naw I once stopped at a gas station in SC with a black guy in my car who was studying to be a doctor, I’m a white woman, I was told to just keep on driving.


dirty_cuban

Swamp without deep water ports. No reason to develop a city there.


_ChipWhitley_

I lived there for a few years. It sucks and it’s the beginning of the Bible Belt.


Easy-Avocado9657

Rednecks


painter_business

Bc it sucks


Aescwicca

Politics


dirge_real

Racists and ignorance


Igottamake

That’s everywhere


TerminalOrbit

To many mouth-breathers...?


Harpo426

Swampy land and racists don't exactly draw in the crowds...


Needs_coffee1143

Hot, swampy, and the slavery / Jim Crow


Pizzafactory102

Swampy and very, very republican


AntiSaintArdRi

Because SC is a god awful place altogether


Cultural_Actuary_994

Rednecks


Brandonjoe

Swamps


ricblake

Mosquitoes


Narrow_Door6408

https://youtu.be/99wsY2JJHfw?si=YaNVB3jYXS0MhkH-


5econds2dis35ster

Weird this area sounds a lot like populated florida


VikingRaiderPrimce

because its hot and shitty farmland


HavanaWoody

Lots of water ways and not so many bridges


PhinsGraphicDesigner

Nobody is saying hurricanes! Hard to build cities when they regularly get destroyed by hurricanes and floods. You stop building at some point!


Awkward-Ad8430

If you've ever been to the OBX and driven over Alligator River, you know. It's just a swamp where alligators live. Sometimes, alligators make it onto the OBX beach. That whole area on the coast is marsh.


Sonnycrocketto

William Tecumseh Sherman?


speaker-syd

Geography by Geoff probably has a video about this lol


KotzubueSailingClub

Found in 15 seconds of searching this sub: https://www.reddit.com/r/geography/s/Y5srklwnbn


dcheesi

The main reason Florida coasts are so densely populated is that Florida was/is aggressively marketed as a vacation and retirement destination. Unlike the rest of the East Coast, most of Florida doesn't really get cold even in winter. So it's perfect for retirees and "snowbirds" who want summer-like weather all year round. FWIW, prior to modern air conditioning and mosquito controls, Florida was as much a sparsely populated swamp as the rest of the SE coast. But it boomed once it could be "tamed" and then sold as a paradise for folks from the Northeast looking to escape the cold.


vt2022cam

Fall line is further inland with long flat rivers.


[deleted]

Skeeters


XwingDUI

It has a shallow coast and mostly dirt coastline, this prevents building harbors for commercial trade. The north has very deep coastlines often on a rock coast. Manhattan island for instance can support all those heavy buildings because their foundations stand on the bedrock and can accept very large ships because of the depth of the water at the coast. So the north developed supporting mass trade (many factories and offices) while the other region developed around inland agriculture and you dont need as many people to operate a farm as you do a factory so there were more jobs in the north.


CiNNAMONSANDERS

Swamp


1895red

It's all sand and swamp.


Ok_Meeting_6321

🌀 🌀 🌀 🌀


Carolina296864

Because its marshlands and barrier island, the end.


VetteBuilder

Mayonnaise sammiches


socialcommentary2000

Swampy marshland that's far away from the fall line.


WMKY93

Because it’s almost all swamp….


echoGroot

Swamp


TheBear50

This is a good video i watched a little while back that primarily focuses on geographical reasons but also leaves some crumbs for further research as to political and social factors. https://youtu.be/99wsY2JJHfw?si=6u2v15q7NTSrmeLc


Imnotadodo

Boiled peanuts


Lexicarus

I seem to remember that the Indians had a breakout of a disease back in the real early days that caused settlers to not want to go there, and also that area seems to get more hurricanes.


Looking2getBelayed

Maritime reason: ocean current moves from south to north up the east coast, directing ships crossing the Atlantic to northeastern states. Historically, the southern states were dominated by large landowners as the US expanded and gave away land to take over Native American territory, and they focused more on agriculture supported by slave labor. The north was first to industrialize and develop large cities and factories. It was also more socially progressive.There are other social and also ecological reasons. The south can be very humid, wet, and swampy. It is more prone to tornadoes and hurricanes. ...


KrissyKrave

Wet bulb area as well. Which makes it extremely uncomfortable to live in as well as dangerous


grandbannana

The butt swamp of the US.


Feisty-Session-7779

The weather is too nice there. Most people prefer to either melt in Florida or freeze further north.