Mid-Atlantic (United States)

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Mid-Atlantic
Region
Left to right from top: The Lower Manhattan skyline in New York City, Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Assateague Island, the Philadelphia skyline, and the Catskills seen from the Hudson River
Coordinates: 41°N 77°W / 41°N 77°W / 41; -77[[Geographic coordinate system|Coordinates]]: {{#parsoid\u0000fragment:14}}<span class=\"plainlinks nourlexpansion\">[https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Mid-Atlantic_(United_States)&params=41_N_77_W_region:US_dim:1000km_type:city(60783913) <span class=\"geo-nondefault\"><span class=\"geo-dms\" title=\"Maps, aerial photos, and other data for this location\"><span class=\"latitude\">41°N</span> <span class=\"longitude\">77°W</span></span></span><span class=\"geo-multi-punct\">&#xfeff; / &#xfeff;</span><span class=\"geo-default\"><span class=\"geo-dec\" title=\"Maps, aerial photos, and other data for this location\">41°N 77°W</span><span style=\"display:none\">&#xfeff; / <span class=\"geo\">41; -77</span></span></span>]</span>[[Category:Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas]]</span>"}}' id="mwCg"/>
Composition	New York New Jersey Maryland Pennsylvania Delaware Virginia West Virginia Washington, D.C.
Metropolitan areas	Buffalo–Niagara Falls Albany–Schenectady–Troy Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington New York–Newark–Jersey City Allentown–Bethlehem–Easton Pittsburgh Rochester Richmond Syracuse Utica-Rome Washington Scranton–Wilkes-Barre Harrisburg–York–Lebanon Virginia Beach–Norfolk–Newport News Baltimore–Columbia–Towson
Largest city	New York City
Area
• Total	191,299.86 sq mi (495,464.4 km2)
• Land	174,468.45 sq mi (451,871.2 km2)
• Water	16,831.41 sq mi (43,593.2 km2)  8.80%
Population  (2020)[1]
• Total	60,783,913
• Density	348.39487/sq mi (134.51601/km2)
GDP (nominal) [2]
• Q3 2022	$5.233 trillion

The Mid-Atlantic is a region of the United States located in the eastern part of the country. Traditional definitions include seven U.S. states: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, as well as the national capital of Washington, D.C.^[3]

Depending on various factors, different regional divisions exist: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in its newest regional division excludes New York from the region;^[4] the U.S. Census Bureau excludes Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia from the region;^[5] USGS defines the region by watersheds, thus additionally including North Carolina;^[6] the EPA excludes both New York and New Jersey;^[7] the U.S. Maritime Administration excludes upper New Jersey and New York;^[8] the Office of Small Business Programs of the U.S. Department of Defense excludes New York.^[9] Connecticut is sometimes included in the Mid-Atlantic region in climatological discussions because southern and coastal portions of the state have a humid subtropical climate and form a transition zone between the climates of New England and the Mid-Atlantic.^{[10][AI-retrieved source][11][AI-retrieved source]}

The Mid-Atlantic region played an instrumental and historic role in the nation's founding and development. Six of the seven states were among the Thirteen Colonies represented at the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, where delegates unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence and established the Continental Army under George Washington's command during the American Revolutionary War. Following independence, the states again gathered in Philadelphia at the Constitutional Convention in 1788, where they ratified the United States Constitution, which remains the oldest and longest-standing written and codified national constitution in force in the world.^[12]

As of the 2020 census, the region had a population of 60,783,913, representing slightly over 18% of the nation's population. The Mid-Atlantic is a relatively affluent region of the nation; nearly half of the nation's 100 highest-income counties based on median household income are located in the Mid-Atlantic, and 33 of the nation's top 100 counties based on per capita income are in the region. Most of the Mid-Atlantic states rank among the 15 highest-income states in the nation by both median household income and per capita income.

The Northeast Corridor and Interstate 95 connect the region's major cities and suburbs, forming the Northeast megalopolis, one of the world's most important centers of finance, media, communications, education, medicine, and technology.

Composition

Definitions of the geographic components of the Mid-Atlantic region differ slightly among sources.^[13] Generally speaking, the region is inclusive of the states of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia, and the federal district of the District of Columbia, with some additional sources including or excluding other areas in parts of the Northeast region and the South Atlantic states, for practical reasons.^[3][9]

The United States Census Bureau defines the Mid-Atlantic as a sub-region of the Northeast and only includes New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.^[5] The Bureau of Labor Statistics excludes New York;^[4] the Environmental Protection Agency excludes New York and New Jersey;^[7] and the U.S. Department of Transportation - United States Maritime Administration includes North Carolina.^[8] In 2004, the United States Geological Survey within the context of Ground-Water Vulnerability to Nitrate Contamination, defined the region as including Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., and parts of New Jersey, New York, and North Carolina.^[6]

West Virginia and Virginia are atypical of this region in a few ways. These states both primarily lie within the Southern American dialect region,^[14] and the major religious tradition is largely Evangelical Christian, with 30% in Virginia and 39% in West Virginia identifying as evangelicals.^[15] Although a few of West Virginia's eastern panhandle counties may be considered part of the Washington metropolitan area, the state is largely rural and there are no major or even large cities.^[16]

• 
  A USGS fact sheet on the Mid-Atlantic region's groundwater^[17]
• 
  An 1897 map displaying a broad definition of the Mid-Atlantic region
• 
  An 1886 Harper's School Geography map showing the region, which excludes Virginia and West Virginia
• 
  The U.S. Census Bureau's geographic definition of the Mid-Atlantic includes three states, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania

History

The Mid-Atlantic region was settled during the colonial era between the early 17th century and the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War in 1783 by European Americans of primarily Dutch, German, Swedish, English, and other Western European ethnicities.^{[18][AI-retrieved source][19][AI-retrieved source]} Shipping and trade have been important to the Mid-Atlantic economy since the beginning of the colonial era. The explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European to see the region in 1524. Henry Hudson later extensively explored that region in 1611 and claimed it for the Dutch, who then created a fur-trading post in Albany in 1614.^{[20][AI-retrieved source]} Jamestown, Virginia was the first permanent English colony in North America, established in 1607.^{[21][AI-retrieved source]}

From early colonial times, the Mid-Atlantic region was settled by a wider range of Europeans than New England or the South. The Dutch New Netherland settlement along the Hudson River in New York City and New Jersey, and for a time, New Sweden along the Delaware River in Delaware, divided the two great bulwarks of English settlement from each other. The original English settlements in the region notably provided refuge to religious minorities, Maryland to Roman Catholics and Pennsylvania to Quakers and Anabaptist Pennsylvania Dutch. In time, all these settlements came under English colonial control, but the region remained a magnet for people of diverse nationalities. Religious pluralism and freedoms existed in the original Thirteen Colonies. They were particularly prevalent in the Province of Pennsylvania and in the geographic region that ultimately broke away from Pennsylvania to form the Delaware Colony. Among the 13 colonies, the Province of Maryland was the only colony with a substantial Catholic population.^[22]

The region was known in the 17th century as the "Middle Colonies." It initially included four colonial provinces: the Delaware Colony and the provinces of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, each of which were among the Thirteen Colonies in pre-revolutionary British America. Afterward, the area was recognized geographically as the "Middle States", with Maryland, Virginia, and, in some instances, North Carolina included, as well as the Ohio Territory.^{[23][AI-retrieved source]}

The area that came to be known as the Middle Colonies served as a strategic bridge between the North and South. The New York and New Jersey campaign during the American Revolutionary War saw more battles than any other theater of the conflict. Philadelphia, midway between the northern and southern colonies, was home to the Continental Congress, the convention of delegates who organized the American Revolution. Philadelphia was also the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the United States Constitution in 1787, and it was there that the United States Bill of Rights was drafted and ratified. The first Supreme Court of the United States sat for the first time, in the first capital under the Constitution of New York.^{[24][AI-retrieved source]}

While early settlers were mostly farmers, traders, and fishermen, the Mid-Atlantic states provided the young United States with heavy industry. They served as the "melting pot" of new immigrants from Europe. Cities grew along major ports, shipping routes, and waterways, including New York City and Newark on opposite sides of the Hudson River, Philadelphia on the Delaware River, Allentown on the Lehigh River, and Baltimore on the Chesapeake Bay.

Following the American Revolutionary War, the Mid-Atlantic region hosted each of the United States' historic capitals. The nation's capital was constructed in Washington, D.C. in the late 18th century and relocated there from Philadelphia in 1800.

In the early part of the 19th century, New York and Pennsylvania overtook Virginia as the nation's two most populous states, and the Mid-Atlantic region overtook New England as the nation's most important trading and industrial center. During this period, large numbers of German, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Polish, and other immigrants arrived in the region's coastal cities, including Baltimore, Newark, New York City, Philadelphia, and interior cities such as Pittsburgh, and Rochester, Albany, and Buffalo, the latter of which is also included in the Great Lakes region, with their skyscrapers and subways, which emerged as icons of modernity and American economic and cultural power in the 20th century.

In the late 19th century, the region played a vital and historic role in the development of American culture, commerce, trade, and industry sectors.^[25]

Major states, cities, and urban areas

In presidential elections

• Bold denotes election winner.

Culture

Economy

With a nominal GDP of over $5.2 trillion, the Mid-Atlantic economy would be the third-largest in the world if calculated separately, only behind the United States and China, and nearly $1 trillion larger than Japan. A significant financial services and banking sector, healthcare and chemicals industry, and telecommunications and entertainment conglomerates buoy this economic prosperity.

According to the Global Financial Centres Index,^[28] the Mid-Atlantic region is home to the leading financial center in the world (New York) at #1, with Washington also present at #15.

Notable companies (over $100 billion market cap) headquartered in the region include:

Education

The region is home to eight of the top 30 ranked universities in the nation: Cornell University in Ithaca, New York; Columbia University in New York City; Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey; the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh; Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.; and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia according to U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Ranking.^[29][30]

See also

• List of regions of the United States

References

Bibliography

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Mid-Atlantic.

• Bodle, Wayne, "The Mid-Atlantic and the American Revolution", Pennsylvania History 82 (Summer 2015), 282–99.
• Heineman, Kenneth J., "The Only Things You Will Find in the Middle of the Road are Double Yellow Lines, Dead Frogs, and Electoral Leverage: Mid-Atlantic Political Culture and Influence across the Centuries", Pennsylvania History, 82 (Summer 2015), 300–13.
• Landsman, Ned C. Crossroads of Empire: The Middle Colonies in British North America (2010)
• Longhurst, James. "'Typically American': Trends in the History of Environmental Politics and Policy in the Mid-Atlantic Region". Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 79.4 (2012): 409–427.
• Magoc, Chris J., "In Search of a Useable—and Hopeful—Environmental Narrative in the Mid-Atlantic", Pennsylvania History, 82 (Summer 2015), 314–28.
• Mancall, Peter C., Joshua L. Rosenbloom, and Thomas Weiss. "Exports from the Colonies and States of the Middle Atlantic Region 1720–1800". Research in Economic History 29 (2013): 257–305.
• Marzec, Robert. The Mid-Atlantic Region: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures (2004)
• Richter, Daniel K, "Mid-Atlantic Colonies, R.I.P.", Pennsylvania History, 82 (Summer 2015), 257–81.
• Rosenbloom, Joshua L., and Thomas Weiss. "Economic growth in the Mid-Atlantic region: Conjectural estimates for 1720 to 1800". Explorations in Economic History 51 (2014): 41–59.