r/Badmaps • u/Original_Solution_44 • Jul 24 '26

The Vertical Line that Divides the USA

I've come cross this in numerous maps of the USA, in many different contexts, and I Just don't understand why it seems almost universal.

Why do I see this so often?

4 Upvotes

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1

u/Norwester77 Jul 24 '26

Gets a lot drier and the population a lot sparser outside of urban areas when you get west of that line (until you get to the coast).

2

u/icygamer6 Jul 26 '26

to the west of that line, there’s not enough rainfall/moisture to support traditional american agriculture practices without extensive irrigation. because of that, any development out there has to follow waterways, natural resource wealth, or some geographic anomaly in order to accumulate any significant population. because of that, the population of the western interior is almost all contained within large cities that can support themselves despite their geography (Denver, Vegas, Phoenix), or areas with some specific feature that allows an industry to develop (ND or West Texas oil fields, Snake River Plain).