Frankfort

Frankfort is one of the smallest state capitals in the country, tucked into a deep, scenic bend of the Kentucky River in the heart of the Bluegrass region. Chosen as capital in 1792, the year Kentucky became a state, it was a compromise site between the rival cities of Louisville and Lexington — a pattern of picking a small middle ground that recurs across American capitals.

The river valley walls rise steeply around the old downtown, giving Frankfort an intimate, hemmed-in setting unusual among capitals. The surrounding Bluegrass country is gently rolling limestone pasture, horse-farm and bourbon-distillery land. Government and nearby distilleries anchor a small city far quieter than the two metros it was chosen to balance.

• Kentucky
  The Bluegrass State, between the Appalachians and the Mississippi located in
• Louisville
  A river city at the Falls of the Ohio same state