Madison Audio Tours

James Duane Doty bought a thousand acres of swamp and forest on a narrow strip of land between two lakes in 1836 and persuaded the Wisconsin territorial legislature to name it the capital, partly through charm and partly through land deals that were not fully above board. He named it after President James Madison, who had died that June and was not available to object. The Wisconsin State Capitol that now anchors the centre of the isthmus took from 1906 to 1917 to build, and state law restricts the height of all buildings in the downtown to protect its dome's sightline, which is why Madison remains one of the few American cities where the Capitol is genuinely the tallest thing you can see from the centre.

The University of Wisconsin, established in 1848, has always been the other force shaping the city.

The campus runs along the southern shore of Lake Mendota, and the relationship between the university and the city is unusually integrated: State Street, the pedestrian mall that connects the Capitol to the campus, is lined with independent restaurants, bookshops, and music venues in a density that reflects decades of student-and-faculty foot traffic. The university's 25,000 faculty and staff make it the city's largest employer, and the research output from the UW medical and engineering schools feeds a significant biotech presence.