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Monrovia is the most American city in Africa
Answers for Globle, Metazooa, Stocktangle and more from Dec 29 - Jan 4
Abe Train
January 05, 2026
Coming to your inbox every Monday with a brand new fun-fact and all the answers to Trainwreck Labs games from the past week.
This week, we have…
Trainwreck Labs update
A fun fact inspired by Globle: Capitals
Answers to last week's games
Reader survey
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Monrovia is the most American city south of the Sahara
Broadway, NYC and Broad Street, Monrovia aren’t exactly comparable, but they both have their charms.
The streets of Liberia's capital read like a roll call of American history—and that's no accident. Monrovia (Globle: Capitals answer for Dec 29) is perhaps the only city in Africa where you can stroll down Broad Street and pass landmarks that seem to echo the nation's founding by freed African Americans. Established in 1822 by the American Colonization Society, the city was named after President James Monroe, and this transatlantic connection appears woven into its very grid.
Downtown Monrovia includes streets such as Ashmun Street and Carey Street—names that parallel key figures in the colony's founding. Jehudi Ashmun served as the settlement's de facto governor from 1822 to 1828, while Lott Cary was a formerly enslaved Baptist minister from Virginia who emigrated to Liberia in 1821 and founded Providence Baptist Church in Monrovia.
The naming practice reflects the complex and contradictory history of Liberia's founding. The American Colonization Society comprised an uneasy alliance of abolitionists who genuinely sought freedom for formerly enslaved people and slaveholders who simply wanted to remove free Black Americans from the country. Whatever their origins, the street names serve as markers of this fraught history.
Today, these American-echoing names coexist with later additions honoring Liberian leaders and African heritage, creating a layered urban landscape that tells the story of a nation shaped by migration, colonialism, and the long struggle for self-determination.
Learn more: BlackPast.org
Trivia
Which of the following superlatives is also true about Monrovia? |
Answers to last week's games
Monday, December 29 to Sunday, January 4.
Globle
| Globle: Capitals
|
Chronogram
| Fictogram
|
Metazooa
| Metaflora
|
Linxicon
The following are the shortest paths from last week:
#686 both → job → president → cabinet
#687 fit → detailed → basic
#688 contain → inside → outsider → stranger → odd → strange
#689 connection → connected → question → debate
#690 possibility → possibles → evidences → testify
#691 feature → body → bench
#692 undergo → through → under → fifteen
#693 Play now!
Elemingle
| Stocktangle
|
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!
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