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Why Indianapolis?
I cannot verify the truth of this story, but it sounds quite rational. If you are familiar with the history of industrial engineering or business practices in the twenties and thirties it makes even more sense - think about the movie "Cheaper By The Dozen".
In the twenties and thirties there was a movement in indisutrial engineering known as "time and motion studies" and at the heart of this notion was the idea that there was an optimal way to do anything.
Engineers scampered around manufacturing plants with stopwatches, measuring how long it took to do certain tasks. Tasks were then rearranged to reduce the time needed.
About this same time someone decided to find the most efficient place to but a headquarters and the criteria was to minimize travel time between HQ and various cities across the nation.
Indianapolis was a rail hub served by several railroads and proved to be the center of the universe if an American company wanted to minimize travel time and costs. To most cities (think twenties and population density) Indianapolis was simply an overnight Pullman ride. To go west added additional travel days, but remember where most of the people were in the twenties, thirties and even into the forties!
If you were to do the same study today you would probably find that Dallas (hub for American Airlines) would meet the criteria for minimizing travel time.
BTW, if anyone can find the article(s) regarding Indy and the trains, I'd like to see a copy as I have been unable to locate the original sources.
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