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This article is about cities geographically close together. For other uses, see twin city.

Twin cities are a special case of two cities or urban centres which are born in close geographic proximity and then grow into each other over time. The term Twin Cities in the United States refers specifically to the cities Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Cities twinned geographically do not necessarily match demographically, economically, or politically.

In the normal course of things, cities which grow into each other's space in this way lose their individual identity and whatever border or barrier still separates them becomes irrelevant until they fuse into one new city. One famous example of this is Budapest in Hungary, which began as two settlements (Buda and Pest) facing each other across the Danube at a strategic fording place along a trade route; another is London, England, which resulted from the merger of two cities, the City of London and the City of Westminster. But there are twin cities which have been able to resist this final union and have maintained individual identity against the tides of history, economics and demographics.

Twin cities often share an airport, into whose airport code are integrated the initials of both cities; DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) and MSP (Minneapolis-St. Paul) are well-known examples.

Examples

Asia

The capital of the medieval Khazar Empire, Atil-Khazaran, which was situated on the western and eastern banks of the Volga River, respectively.
Islamabad and Rawalpindi, Pakistan
Hyderabad and Secunderabad, India
Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, India
Hubli and Dharwad, India
Kolkata and Howrah, India
Ramallah and al-Bireh, in the West Bank
Taipei and Keelung, Taiwan
Taoyuan and Jhongli, Taiwan
Seoul and Incheon, South Korea
Tirunelveli and Palayamkottai, India
Sodom and Gomorrah, historically located in southeastern Israel near the Dead Sea.

Fictional twin cities

Gotham City (the home of Batman) and Metropolis (the home of Superman) have sometimes been presented as twin cities, mainly in 1970s and 1980s stories by DC Comics. The two cities were shown as located on opposite sides of a large bay.
Central City and Keystone City, from the current Flash comics, are shown as twin cities; earlier comics presented each city as located in the same space but on different parallel Earths.
Ankh-Morpork, from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, is referred to as "the twin cities of proud Ankh and pestilent Morpork", but has been a single political entity in all the books thus far.

Tri-Cities

United States

The Tri-Cities, Washington, consisting of Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick, Washington, along the banks of the Columbia River
The Tri-Cities, Tennessee, Tennessee and Virginia, consisting of the twin cities of Bristol, Tennessee/Bristol, Virginia, Kingsport, and Johnson City
The Research Triangle in North Carolina, consisting of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill.
The Golden Triangle in Texas, consisting of Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange.
The Piedmont Triad in North Carolina, consisting of Greensboro, Winston-Salem (itself a merged city), and High Point.
The Tri-Cities (Michigan) in Michigan, consisting of Bay City, Saginaw, and Midland in the Saginaw Valley
In Illinois and Iowa: three of the four Quad Cities—Moline and Rock Island in Illinois and Davenport in Iowa—were formerly known as the Tri-Cities, before the inclusion of East Moline, Illinois and later, Bettendorf, Iowa
The Capital District in New York, consisting of Albany, Schenectady, and Troy
In Colorado: the towns of Firestone, Frederick, and Dacono (known as the "tri-towns")
In Nebraska: Grand Island, Kearney, and Hastings in the south-central part of the state
Tri-Cities, Virginia, consisting of Petersburg, Colonial Heights, and Hopewell in the Greater Richmond Region
In New Hampshire: Dover, Somersworth, and Rochester in the Seacoast Region
In Florida: the Tampa Bay Area, consisting of Tampa, Clearwater, and St. Petersburg
In Oklahoma: Tuttle, Newcastle, and Blanchard (sometimes with the town of Bridge Creek)
In California: Anaheim, Orange, and Santa Ana, the three oldest cities in Orange County
In California: Yorba Linda, Placentia, and Brea, three cities in northeast Orange County that all meet at Tri-Cities Park.
In California: Chino Hills, Diamond Bar, and Brea, representing San Bernardino, Los Angeles, and Orange counties, respectively
In California: Carlsbad, Oceanside and Vista in northwest San Diego County
In California: Fremont, Newark, and Union City, the three southernmost cities in Alameda County
In California: Santa Barbara, Goleta, and Carpinteria, sometimes referred collectively as the South Coast, being on the a south-facing coast in Santa Barbara County. The term 'tri-cities' is only rarely used as a reference to them, and is considered somewhat old.
The Triple Cities in New York: Binghamton, Endicott and Johnson City
In Pennsylvania: Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton

Canada

Tri-Cities (British Columbia), consisting of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, and Port Moody, located east of Vancouver
Penetanguishene, Ontario, Victoria Harbour, Ontario, Midland, Ontario, and Port McNicoll, Ontario.
Ingersoll, Ontario, Tillsonburg and Woodstock.
Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge.
Tri-Towns, a historic designation for the towns of Haileybury, New Liskeard and Cobalt, which is no longer in widespread use since the amalgamation of Haileybury and New Liskeard into the city of Temiskaming Shores in 2004.

Mexico

Torreon, Coahuila, Gomez Palacio and Lerdo, Durango.

Asia

Warangal in India, Andhra Pradesh consists of the towns of Warangal, Hanamkonda, and Kazipet.
The second Tricity in North India consists of the towns of Chandigarh, Panchkula and SAS Nagar (Mohali).

South America

Near Iguazu Falls: Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, and Puerto Iguazu, Argentina.

Europe

The Tricity in Poland consists of Gdańsk, Gdynia and Sopot

Quad Cities

Quad Cities of Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Illinois. Also includes a fifth member, East Moline, Illinois.
The Florence-Muscle Shoals Metropolitan Area in Alabama is locally referred to as "the Quad Cities", with Florence and Muscle Shoals dominating smaller Sheffield and Tuscumbia.

Examples of cities formed by merging

London grew from its cores in the City of London and the City of Westminster to encompass many other towns and villages.
Budapest is the amalgamation of Buda, Pest and Óbuda.
Minneapolis. St. Anthony (not to be confused with St. Anthony Village, a modern city which is a suburb of Minneapolis) was a twin city to Minneapolis in the two cities' youth. Minneapolis, the larger of the two, annexed St. Anthony in the late 1800s.
New York City (five boroughs, historically especially between Manhattan and Brooklyn)
Hong Kong (Victoria City and Kowloon)
Thunder Bay, Ontario (Fort William and Port Arthur).
Lloydminster, Canada, on the Saskatchewan-Alberta border, was formed as a single entity in 1903, when both future provinces were part of the Northwest Territories, but was divided into two separate entities in 1905 because the border between the newly created provinces bisected the community. In 1930, the two towns were reunited as a single town under the shared jurisdiction of both provinces, and Lloydminster was reincorporated as a single city in 1958.
Halifax and Dartmouth (Canada) were forcibly merged in 1996 along with Bedford and Halifax County to create the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Berlin (Berlin and Cölln) in Germany
Wuppertal (Barmen and Elberfeld) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
Townsville (Townsville and Thuringowa) in Queensland, Australia
Saguenay, Quebec (Chicoutimi and Jonquière, et al.)
Pittsburgh annexed Allegheny City, which is now the quarter of the city that lies north of the Allegheny and Ohio rivers.
Wuhan in China consists of the towns of Wuchang, Hankou, and Hanyang in Hubei Province

Resistance to merging

Bloomington and Normal, Illinois have always rebuffed any merger referendum, and where the original boundary is the appropriately named "Division Street". In England, the cities of Leeds and Bradford are very close, but have strong separate identities and would not see themselves as part of the same entity. Both cities have individual cathedrals and councils, as well as having separate sports teams.

Examples

Asia

Europe

North America

South America

Australia

Africa

Fictional twin cities

Tri-Cities

United States

Canada

Mexico

Asia

South America

Europe

Quad Cities

Examples of cities formed by merging

Resistance to merging

See also