[ih] Why was MAE East located in Northern Virginia?

[Scott O. Bradner]

I am quite sure that MAE East predated the NSF NAPs by quite a few years

NSF later designated MAE East as a NAP which may be the bases of the story

I tink the Wikipedia story you point to is the correct version

Scott

> On Aug 31, 2021, at 5:13 PM, Alexander Goldman via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
> 
> I understand why 60 Hudson Street is important to the internet. As Hunter
> Newby once said, "everything is where it is now because it was there then"
> and 60 Hudson Street was the HQ of Western Union.
> 
> 56 Marietta in Atlanta was also a Western Union building. Those buildings
> were connected to the telegraph lines that crossed the nation on railroad
> rights of way.
> 
> But why Ashburn, Loudoun, etc. in Northern Virginia? VOA says that America
> Online made the investment
> https://www.voanews.com/usa/all-about-america/heres-where-internet-actually-lives
> 
> Wikipedia says a bunch of ISP CEOs decided to interconnect there
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAE-East. Another article says NSFNET chose
> it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_exchange_point#History
> 
> But I always assumed there was either government influence in the choice,
> or that a railway line that I did not know about passed through there.
> 
> Does anyone know the answer?
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