closer to Harrisburg

It's a long way to heaven
It's closer to Harrisburg
and that's still a long way from
the place where we are
and if evil exists it's a pair of train tracks
and the devil is a railroad car
~Josh Ritter

On the way back from Harrisburg yesterday I sat in the car idly watching the world go by (and nursing a hideous hangover like I haven't had in years; I earned it, though) in its monochromatic tones of sere and amber, and I noticed how many of the green highway signs direct the traveler to places whose names end in "burg."

I started ticking names off through my mind of places in PA and along the East Coast which also end in "burg," and came up with rather a lot. Then I tried to remember how many places in the Midwest ended in "burg," and only came up with a few.

So I wonder if, should this be in fact a trend and not a part of my brain sluggishly wading through toxins and negotiating badly, this stems from the dominance in the East Coast of early settlers from the UK (notably Scotland) and Germany, where lots of places end in "burg" or its phonetic variants. I also wonder if this trend does indeed dissipate as one moves west across the country. And then I wonder why. PA has little 'burgs everywhere. Lots of "villes" too. In the Midwest you have names that stand more alone, like Buchanan, or Mishawaka, or South Bend, or Detroit, or Ann Arbor, or Kalamazoo.

I think it's interesting. Any opinions?