美国地理 (英语介绍加图解）

美国地理 (英语介绍加图解） Chapter I Themes and Regions The United States of America is located in the southern part of North America (except Alaska and Hawaii ). The continental United States stretches across central North America from the Atlantic Ocean on the east to the Pacific Ocean on the west. It is bounded by Canada on the North and by Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico on the south, with a distance of 2,575 kilometers between. Figure 1. 1.1 Map of USA AL - Alabama AK – Alaska AZ - Arizona AR – Arkansas CA - California CO - Colorado CT – Connecticut DE – Delaware FL - Florida GA - Georgia HI - Hawaii ID - Idaho IL – Illinois IN - Indiana IA - Iowa KS - Kansas KY – Kentucky LA - Louisiana ME - Maine MD - Maryland MA - Massachusetts MI - Michigan MN - Minnesota MS - Mississippi MO - Missouri MT - Montana NE - Nebraska NV - Nevada NH - New Hampshire NJ - New Jersey NM - New Mexico NY - New York NC - North Carolina ND - North Dakota OH - Ohio OK - Oklahoma OR - Oregon PA - Pennsylvania RI - Rhode Island SC - South Carolina SD - South Dakota TN - Tennessee TX - Texas UT - Utah VT - Vermont VA - Virginia WA -Washington WV - West Virginia WI - Wisconsin WY - Wyoming DC - District of Columbia The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in the world with a total area of 9,327,200 square kilometers. It consists of 50 states and a federal district, the District of Columbia , in which the capital city of Washington is located on the Potomac River . The state of Alaska , located in extreme NW North America between the Arctic and Pacific oceans, is the largest in area of all the 50 states and Texas is the second. This chapter is about the geography of the United States . And although we look at the country's physical geography, our central interest is not landforms, climate, soils, or vegetation but the human imprint on the landscape. Still it gives a brief introduction of the location and size of the United States of America first. This does not mean that the physical environment is ignored. In fact, in some instances it holds a central role since the physical environment often plays a significant role in the pattern of people's activities. One factor in the importance of New York City is certainly its location on one of the world's finest natural harbors. Southern Florida 's long growing season and mild winters enable it to be a leader in the production of oranges, lemons, and sugarcane. Figure 1.1.2 THE STATUE OF LIBERTY Still, Florida 's mild climate does not automatically mean that it will be a supplier of oranges, and New York City 's harbor is only one of many important reasons for the city's growth. The physical environment helps define human opportunities, but it does not in itself determine human activities. In general, the more advanced the level of technology, the greater the leeway a population has in dealing with the land. Figure 1.1.3 Map of Florida It is obviously impossible to cover all the material that might fit into geography of the United States . We have therefore chosen to divide the country into a number of areas, each of which has a special identity developed out of several interacting elements. We use these elements to form the themes around which each regional chapter is organized. 1.1 BASIC THEMES A few general cultural patterns cut across regional and political boundaries and, in many cases, ignore major differences in the physical environment. These themes characterize the ways Americans have organized their country. Urbanization: Millions of Americans, most of them urbanites, prefer to consider their country as a basically rural place, and they seem to believe that this rurality provides the country with a basic national vigor. Figure 1.1.4 Urbanization There is no longer much justification for this view of rural dominance. About 70 percent of Americans live in urban areas, and more than 40 percent are in areas of 1 million people or more. In 1990, the U.S. farm population numbered about 5 million (2 percent of the population), a figure that has declined steadily since the first national census in 1790, when over 90 percent of all Americans were farmers. Several elements of urbanization are emphasized in our discussion. Cities have a particular form, a particular layout. Most American cities have a rectangular-grid pattern, partly a result of cultural attitudes, partly a result of a desire for efficient transport before the automobile, and partly because that pattern is an easy way to survey the land. Within cities, there is a collection of industrial and commercial centers, residential areas, warehouses, and so on. Cities exist for many different reasons. They may have an important transportation role. Or they may provide an important administrative function. Perhaps they are a center of recreation or manufacturing. Most cities, certainly all large ones, contain many different urban functions. Nevertheless, many are characterized by certain dominant functions that were the reason for their development and much of their early growth, and that today continue to give them their special character. The pattern of continuing and often rapid urban growth in the United States during the last 100 years, coupled with the increasing mobility of the urban population, has stimulated a great sprawling pattern of urbanization. In some areas, the result of urban spread is urban coalescence, with the edges of different urban areas meeting and blending. Industrialization: A substantial part of U.S. employment is related to manufacturing, either directly or indirectly. Most cities were founded and experienced their major periods of growth when manufacturing was the primary factor in urban growth. Today, there is substantial regional specialization in manufacturing, partly as the result of variations in the availability of industrial raw materials and partly as the result of industrial linkages; manufacturing concerns that produce component parts of some final product are located near each other as well as near the final assembly site to minimize total movement costs. Other important sources of variation include differences in labor availability or labor skills, in the quality of transportation facilities, and in local political attitudes. Regions tend to specialize in the production of whatever it is that they can best produce. And with this regional specialization has come regional interdependence; few sections of America are truly self-sufficient in manufacturing, in spite of what local pride might lead us to believe. High Mobility: America 's extensive transportation network is an important element in its high level of economic interaction. Goods and people move freely within and between regions of the country. Regional interdependence is great; it is made possible by these interregional flows. Relative isolation is uncommon, but it does exist. Nearly 20 percent of all Americans change their residence in any one year. Although much of this residential migration is local in nature, it does result in substantial interregional population movement. Until the last decade of the 19th century, there was a strong westward population shift toward frontier agricultural lands. The focus of opportunity then changed and migration shifted to urban areas. More recently, the U.S. economy has entered what some call a post-industrial phase; employment growth is primarily in professions and services rather than primary (extractive) or secondary (manufacturing) sectors. Such employment is much more flexible in its location, and there has been a more rapid growth in such employment in areas that appear to contain greater amenities. Resources: About 25 percent of the land in row crops in the United States produces exports. Also, the country is able to satisfy much of its gigantic demand for industrial raw materials domestically. The United States has the potential to be a major supplier for a few nonagricultural raw materials internationally and is the world's leading exporter of coal. Although the U.S. population is predominantly urban, the extraction of natural resources from its abundant base requires a large non-urban labor force. Furthermore, particularly for agriculture, the development of these resources often involves a substantial land area. As a result, the relationship between the physical environment and human adaptations to that environment are clearly visible. Government plays an important role in this relationship by establishing controls on land use and agricultural production and by regulating the development of many resources. It is partly because processes inherent in urbanization and industrialization lead to high demand for raw materials that the United States has become dependent on imported raw materials in spite of great natural resource abundance. High Income and High Consumption: The high U.S. national income is achieved through high worker productivity, which requires a significant use of machines. And modern machines are fueled by inanimate energy sources. Mobility also implies heavy use of energy resources. High income spread somewhat evenly among a large share of the population will generate high product demand. All this increases energy consumption. Americans consume about 25 percent of the world's total energy production. The United States imports half the petroleum it consumes, an increasing share of the iron ore and natural gas used, nearly all of its tin and aluminum, and large quantities of many other mineral ores. High income also affects diet. Americans eat far more meat products and have a substantially more varied diet than most of the world's population. Beef and dairy production are, therefore, especially important in the agricultural economy. Environmental Impact: One consequence of high consumption combined with resource abundance and dependence is a strong disruption of the physical environment. Resources seldom can be removed from the natural landscape without some impact, and the manufacture and use of these resources often harm the air and water. The increased severity of such environmental impacts has enlivened the argument between development and conservation—an argument that has stimulated greater governmental intervention in both processes in an attempt to establish a middle ground. As domestic resources become increasingly scarce and their costs of extraction and production increase, the importance of this conflict will grow. Political Complexity: The United States has a complex political structure, with jurisdiction over an activity or state divided among many different decision-making bodies, some elected and some appointed. Below the state level, the complexity of the political structure can present a major problem in the effective and efficient distribution of governmental services. Counties, townships, cities, and towns are all governed by their own elected officials. Many special administrative units oversee the provision of specific services, such as education, public transportation, and water supply. The resulting administrative pattern is often nearly impossible to comprehend, because many jurisdictions may provide one service or another in a given overlapping area. Cultural Origins: The United States has grown from a diverse cultural background. African Americans have made important contributions to the national culture. A distinctive cultural region has developed in the Southwest, with an admixture of Hispanic Americans, American Indians, and European Americans. The Chinese contributed to the life of such cities as San Francisco and New York . This cultural diversity is an important element in the distinctive character of the country. Figure 1. 1.5 San Francisco 1.2. REGIONS Geographers use regions as a neat system of categorization, a way of organizing a complex set of facts about places into a more compact, meaningful set of information. As with any categorization, the regions are satisfactory if they identify understandable patterns in the facts and if they help clarify the complex patterns. To geographers, a region can be either nodal or uniform, single featured or multi-featured. A nodal region is characterized by a set of places connected to another place by lines of communication or movement. The places in the set are associated with each other because they share a common focus, even though each place may be quite different from the others. In comparison, a uniform region is a territory with one or more features present throughout and absent or unimportant elsewhere. A uniform region may represent some characterization of the total environment of an area, including both its physical and cultural features. Our perception of the nature of a region, of the things that together shape its personality, is based on a relatively small group of criteria. In each major section of the United States , we have tried to identify the one or two underlying themes that reflect ways in which the population has interacted (within itself or with the physical environment) to create a distinctive region. The most important identifying themes for a region may vary greatly from one region to another. It is impossible to speak of the American Southwest without a focus on aridity and water erosion, of the North without its cold winters, or of the Northeast without cities and manufacturing. The key element that establishes a total uniform region, then, is not how that section compares with others on a predetermined set of variables, but how a certain set of conditions blend there. This scheme has resulted in our division of the United States into 14 regions, each of which is discussed in its own chapter. These are: Megalopolis, the American Manufacturing Core, the Bypassed East, Appalachia and the Ozarks, the Deep South, the Southern Coastlands, the Agricultural Core, the Great Plains and Prairies, the Empty Interior, the Southwest Border Area, California , the North Pacific Coast , the Northlands, and Hawaii . Figure 1.1.6 California Within this book, regions have been presented largely as though they are distinct territorially, even though they are not. The “feeling” of a region we wish to present is a function of place, but it is also a function of the subject theme chosen. Therefore, for example, the intense urban character of Megalopolis is discussed in chapter 4, but the aspects of manufacturing that affect New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and other manufacturing core cites that comprise Megalopolis are presented in chapter 5. There are two important aspects of regional feeling in the region usually called “the Midwest ”—the urban-industrial and the rural-agricultural. Both are important enough for us to treat each separately in some detail. Figure 1. 1.7 P hiladelphia Rigid regional boundaries do not fit the landscape of the United States . A given portion of the country may be occupied by parts of two or more regions, but the boundaries of many regions may also be fairly broad transitional zones that contain many of a region's characteristics. At times, these zones mark an area where the mix of characteristics is so subtle or complex that it is difficult to assign the area to any one region. Parts of the margin between the Agricultural Core and the Great Plains are examples of this, as are sections of the transition between the Agricultural Core and the Deep South . Regional boundaries and regions themselves are not static. Settlement patterns shift, society develops significant new technological abilities, and political patterns are altered; regions reflecting these patterns may expand, contract, appear, or disappear. A regionalization of the United States for the year of its discovery, 1492, would have been quite different from one for 1776, 1865, or 1991. There is no reason to believe that the pattern for 2100 will be similar to that for 2000. An examination of the regions that we have created for this text indicates a subdivision that should be generally recognizable, although some regions may represent combinations that are normally not expected. For example, consider the Bypassed East, a combination of the Adirondacks of New York and the northeastern portion of the United States known as New England . Most casual observers firmly lump all of New England into one region, reflecting the long-term identification of the states of New England as a separate region with strong cultural cohesion. But there have been great changes in southern New England in recent decades because of heavy immigration and urbanization. Several of the regions closely follow political boundaries. The reason for this in Hawaii is obvious. California is separated from most of its adjacent landscape because of its leadership role in changing the culture of America and its statewide political “solutions” to its local resource problems. Megalopolis has been defined traditionally along county lines. Figure 1.1.8 Hawaii As we mentioned, each of the regional chapters is developed around one or a few basic themes. Most of these themes are drawn at least indirectly from the basic themes of the entire book. In certain regions, the expression of some themes is stronger or clearer than others. The themes are intended to provide an explicit basis for treatment of information about the region, although, in many chapters, it will not be difficult to identify elements of national or continental geography. Chapter ? The Physical Environment The conterminous United States may be divided into seven broad physiographic divisions: from east to west, the Atlantic–Gulf Coastal Plain; the Appalachian Highlands; the Interior Plains; the Interior Highlands; the Rocky Mountain System; the Intermontane Region; and the Pacific Mountain System. An eighth division, the Laurentian Uplands, a part of the Canadian Shield, dips into the United States from Canada in the Great Lakes region. It is an area of little local relief, with an irregular drainage system and many lakes, as well as some of the oldest exposed rocks in the United States . The terrain of the north United States was formed by the great continental ice sheets that covered the north of North America during the late Cenozoic Era. The southern edge of the ice sheet is roughly traced by a line of terminal moraines extending west from eastern Long Island and then along the course of the Ohio and Missouri rivers to the Rocky Mounts; land north of this line is covered by glacial material. Alaska and the mountains of NW United States had extensive mountain glaciers and were heavily eroded. Large glacial lakes (see Lake Bonneville under Bonneville Salt Flats; Lahontan, Lake) occupied sections of the Basin and Range province; the Great Salt Lake and the other lakes of this region are remnants of the glacial lakes. • The East and the Gulf Coast • Figure 1.2.1 Gulf Coast Sunset The Atlantic–Gulf Coastal Plain extends along the east and southeast coasts of the United States from E Long Island to the Rio Grande ; Cape Cod and the islands off SE Massachusetts are also part of this region. Although narrow in the north, the Atlantic Coastal Plain widens in the south, merging with the Gulf Coastal Plain in Florida . The Atlantic and Gulf coasts are essentially coastlines of submergence, with numerous estuaries, embayments, islands, sandspits, and barrier beaches backed by lagoons. The northeast coast has many fine natural harbors, such as those of New York Bay and Chesapeake Bay, but south of the great capes of the North Carolina coast (Fear, Lookout, and Hatteras) there are few large bays. A principal feature of the lagoon-lined Gulf Coast is the great delta of the Mississippi River . The Atlantic Coastal Plain rises in the west to the rolling Piedmont (the falls along which were an early source of waterpower), a hilly transitional zone leading to the Appalachian Mountains . These ancient mountains, a once towering system now worn low by erosion, extend southwest from SE Canada to the Gulf Coastal Plain in Alabama . In eastern New England, the Appalachians extend in a few places to the Atlantic Ocean , contributing to a rocky, irregular coastline. The Appalachians and the Adirondack Mountains of New York (which are geologically related to the Canadian Shield) include all the chief highlands of E United States; Mount Mitchell ( 6,684 ft / 2,037 m high), in the Black Mounts. of North Carolina , is the highest point of east North America . 2 . The Plains and Highlands of the Interior Extending more than 1,610 km from the Appalachians to the Rocky Mounts and lying between Canada (into which they extend) in the north and the Gulf Coastal Plain in the south are the undulating Interior Plains. Once covered by a great inland sea, the Interior Plains are underlain by sedimentary rock. Almost all of the region is drained by one of the world's greatest river systems—the Mississippi-Missouri. The Interior Plains may be divided into two sections: the fertile central lowlands, the agricultural heartland of the United States ; and the Great Plains , a treeless plateau that gently rises from the central lowlands to the foothills of the Rocky Mts. The Black Hills of South Dakota form the region's only upland area. The Interior Highlands are located just western of the Mississippi River between the Interior Plains and the Gulf Coastal Plain. This region consists of the rolling Ozark Plateau (see Ozarks) to the north and the Ouachita Mountains, which are similar in structure to the ridge and valley section of the Appalachians , to the east. • The Western Mountains and Great Basin Figure 1.2.2 Great Basin West of the Great Plains are the lofty Rocky Mountains . This geologically young and complex system extends into NW United States from Canada and runs S into New Mexico . There are numerous high peaks in the Rockies; the highest is Mt. Elbert ( 14,433 ft / 4,399 m ). The Rocky Mts. are divided into four sections—the Northern Rockies, the Middle Rockies, the Wyoming (Great Divide) Basin, and the Southern Rockies . Along the crest of the Rockies is the Continental Divide, separating Atlantic-bound drainage from that heading for the Pacific Ocean . Between the Rocky Mts. and the ranges to the west is the Intermontane Region, an arid expanse of plateaus, basins, and ranges. West of the Rockies are the two great plateaus: the Columbia Plateau in the north and the Colorado Plateau in the south. The Columbia Plateau, in the north of the region, was formed by volcanic lava and is drained by the Columbia River and its tributary the Snake River , both of which have cut deep canyons into the plateau. The enormous Colorado Plateau, an area of sedimentary rock, is drained by the Colorado River and its tributaries; there the Colorado River has entrenched itself to form the Grand Canyon , one of the world's most impressive scenic wonders. West of the plateaus is the Basin and Range province, an area of extensive semidesert. The lowest point in North America, is Death Valley ( 282 ft / 86 m below sea level), in there. The largest basin in the region is the Great Basin, an area of interior drainage (the Humboldt River is the largest stream) and of numerous salt lakes, including the Great Salt Lake . Between the Intermontane Region and the Pacific Ocean is the Pacific Mountain System, a series of ranges generally paralleling the coast, formed by faulting and volcanism. The Cascade Range, with its numerous volcanic peaks extends S from SW Canada into N California, and from there is continued south by the Sierra Nevada , a great fault block. Mt. Whitney ( 14,495 ft / 4,418 m ), in the Sierra Nevada, is the highest peak in the conterminous United States . 4. The Pacific Coast , Alaska , and Hawaii West of the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada and separated from them by a structural trough are the Coast Ranges , which extend along the length of the U.S. Pacific coast. The Central Valley in California , the Willamette Valley in Oregon , and the Puget Sound lowlands in Washington are part of the trough. The San Andreas Fault, a fracture in the earth's crust, parallels the trend of the Coast Ranges from San Francisco Bay southern and eastern to northern and western Mexico ; earthquakes are common along its entire length. The Pacific Coastal Plain is narrow, and in many cases the mountains plunge directly into the sea. A coastline of emergence, it has few islands, except for the Channel Islands (see Santa Barbara Islands) and those in Puget Sound; there are few good harbors besides Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay , and San Diego Bay . Alaska may be divided into four physiographic regions; they are, from north to south, the Arctic Lowlands, the coastal plain of the Arctic Ocean; the Rocky Mountain System, of which the Brooks Range is the northernmost section; the Central Basins and Highlands Region, which is dominated by the Yukon River basin; and the Pacific Mountain System, which parallels Alaska's southern coast and which rises to Mt. McKinley (Denali; 20,320 ft / 6,194 m ), the highest peak of North America. The islands of southern and eastern Alaska and those of the Aleutian Islands chain are partially submerged portions of the Pacific Mountain System and are frequently subjected to volcanic activity and earthquakes. These islands, like those of Hawaii , are the tops of volcanoes that rise from the floor of the Pacific Ocean . Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on Hawaii are active volcanoes; the other Hawaiian islands are extinct volcanoes. Figure 1.2.3 A laska 5. Major Rivers and Lakes The United States has an extensive inland waterway system, much of which has been improved for navigation and flood control and developed to produce hydroelectricity and irrigation water by such agencies as the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Tennessee Valley Authority. Some of the world's larger dams, man-made lakes, and hydroelectric power plants are on U.S. rivers. The Mississippi-Missouri river system (c .3,890 mi / 6,300 km long), is the longest in the United States and the second longest in the world. With its hundreds of tributaries, chief among which are the Red River, the Ohio , and the Arkansas , the Mississippi basin drains more than half of the nation. The Yukon , Columbia , Colorado , and Rio Grande also have huge drainage basins. Other notable river systems include the Connecticut , Hudson , Delaware , Susquehanna, Potomac, James , Alabama , Trinity, San Joaquin, and Sacramento . The Great Salt Lake and Alaska 's Iliamna are the largest U.S. lakes outside the Great Lakes and Lake of the Woods, which are shared with Canada . The five Great lakes are Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Ontrario . They form the most important system of inland waterways in the world. Of all the five Great Lakes in the United States , Lake Michigan is the largest freshwater lakes entirely within the United States and Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world. The Illinois Waterway connects the Great Lakes with the Mississippi River, and the New York State Barge Canal links them with the Hudson . The Intracoastal Waterway provides sheltered passage for shallow draft vessels along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts . Figure 1.2.4 Hudson River 6. CLIMATE Climate is the aggregate of day-to-day weather conditions over a period of many years. It is the result of the interaction of many different elements, the most important of which are temperature and precipitation. Climatic patterns are a result of the interaction of three geographic controls. The first is latitude. The earth is tilted on its axis with reference to the plane of its orbit around the sun. As it makes its annual revolution around the sun, first the Northern Hemisphere and then the Southern are exposed to the more direct rays of the sun. During the Northern Hemisphere's summer, higher latitude locations have longer days, with far northern points experiencing a period of continuous daylight. Daylight periods during the winter months are shorter at higher latitudes, whereas more southerly locations have both longer days and exposure to more direct rays of the sun. The second control is based on the relationship between land and water. Land tends to heat and cool more rapidly than water. In a tendency called continentality, places far from large bodies of water experience greater seasonal extremes of temperature than do coastal communities. Parts of the northern Great Plains experience annual temperature ranges close to 65?C ; annual differences of as much as 100?C (from 50?C to -50?C ) have been recorded in some locations. The converse effect occurs at maritime locations, especially on the western coast of continents in the mid-latitudes. These locations have smaller temperature ranges as a result of what is called a maritime influence. Summer and winter extremes are moderated by the movement onshore of prevailing westerly wind systems from the ocean. Horizontal and vertical ocean currents minimize seasonal variations in the surface temperature of the water. The moderated water temperature serves to curb temperature extremes in the air mass above the surface. Proximity to large water bodies also tends to have a positive influence on precipitation levels, with coastal locations receiving generally higher amounts. The reason for this should be obvious; large water bodies provide greater levels of evaporation and thus increase the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. That, in turn, increases the possibility of precipitation. There are, however, notable exceptions to this rule, including the dry coast of southern California and the Arctic coastline of Alaska . The third prime geographic influence on climate is topography. Most obvious is the relationship between elevation and temperature, with higher elevations cooler than lower elevations. The influence of topography can be broader, however, because of its effect on wind flow. If a major mountain chain lies astride a normal wind direction, the mountains force the air to rise and cool. As the air mass cools, the amount of moisture that it can hold is reduced. Precipitation results if the cooling causes the relative humidity to reach 100 percent. Moisture falls on the windward side, and the lee is dry. The wettest area in North America is along the Pacific coast from Oregon to southern Alaska , where moisture-laden winds strike mountains along the shore. Average annual precipitation is more than 200 centimeters throughout the area, and in some places exceeds 300 centimeters. Mountains also can reduce the moderating effects of maritime conditions on temperature, as happens in the interior of the Pacific Northwest . The Western Cordillera (mountain mass) confines West Coast maritime climatic conditions to that coast. Some of the greatest variations in both precipitation and temperature to be found across a small distance anywhere in America exist between the west and east sides of parts of the Coast Ranges . The aridity of the central and northern interior West is due in large part to the barrier effect of the north-south-trending mountain ranges of the West. East of the Rockies, the topographic effect on precipitation eventually disappears, partly because the eastern mountains are lower and thus pose less of a barrier to moving air, and partly because much of the weather of the interior is a result of conflict between two huge air masses that are unimpeded, one flowing northward from the Gulf of Mexico, and the other flowing southward out of Canada. The contact of these air masses creates what are often violent displays of weather in the region. This illustrates a fourth major and complex influence on climate, the impact of air mass characteristics and wind systems. America 's weather is affected markedly by the confrontation between polar continental air masses (usually cold, dry, and stable) and tropical maritime air masses (warm, moist, and unstable). The former push farthest south in winter, whereas the latter extend farthest north in summer. Most parts of America are subject to a generally westerly wind flow that tends to move weather systems eastward. The continental climate of the interior is thus pushed onto the East Coast. The interaction of these climatic controls creates a pattern of climatic regionalization. In the East, the principal element in climatic variation is temperature; in the West, it is precipitation. In the East, the divisions between the climate regions are based largely on the length of the growing season—the period from the average date of the last frost in spring to the first frost in fall—and on the average summer maximum temperature or winter minimum temperature. In the West, average annual precipitation is the key, although moderated temperatures are an important aspect of the marine West Coast climate. In the East, the more northerly areas are generally drier; in the West, they are colder. In the East, the major influence on climatic variation is latitude; in the West, it is topography. Figure 1.2.5 West Coast climate Affected by the above factors, the climate varies greatly from one region to another. New England states have a somewhat cold climate, where winters are long and snowy, and summers are short and warm. The middle Atlantic states have a temperate climate, where there are four definite seasons. The south has a warm climate, which varies with the geographical position of the individual state. 7. VEGETATION Botanists speak of something called climax vegetation, which is defined as the assemblage that would grow and reproduce indefinitely at a place given a stable climate and average conditions of soil and drainage. For most of the inhabited portions of America today, that concept has little meaning. The “natural” vegetation, if it ever existed, has been so substantially removed, rearranged, and replaced that it seldom is found now. In the Southeast, for example, the original mixed broadleaf and needle leaf forests were cut and replaced by the economically more important needle leaf forests. The grasses of the plains and prairies are mostly European imports. Their native American predecessors are gone either because they offered an inferior browse for farm animals or because they could not withstand the onslaught of modern humanity and its imported weeds. Most of what climax vegetation remains is in the West and North. There are several ways of creating vegetation regions. Perhaps the simplest is to divide the United States into three broad categories—forest, grasslands, and scrublands. Forests once covered most of the East, the central and northern Pacific Coast , the higher elevations of the West, and a broad band across the interior North. Forests of the Pacific coast, the interior West, the North, and a narrow belt in the Deep South were all needle leaf and composed of many different trees. Much of the Ohio and lower Mississippi River Valleys and the middle Great Lakes region was covered by a deciduous broadleaf forest. Grasslands covered much of the interior lowlands, including nearly all of the Great Plains from Texas and New Mexico to the Canadian border. This is an area of generally subhumid climate where precipitation amounts are not adequate to support tree growth. An eastward extension of the grasslands, the Prairie Wedge, reached across Illinois to the western edge of Indiana , where precipitation is clearly adequate to support tree growth. Figure 1.2.6 Texas Scrublands usually develop under dry conditions. They are concentrated in the lowlands of the interior West. Actual vegetation varies from the cacti of the Southwest to the dense, brushy chaparral of southern California and the mesquite of Texas . The tundra of the far North is the result of a climate that is too cold and too dry for the growth of vegetation other than grasses, lichens, and mosses. Tundra exists in small areas far southward into the United States , where climatic conditions at high elevations are inhospitable to tree growth. Northward, the altitudinal tree line is found at lower elevations until, eventually, the latitudinal tree line is reached. 8. SOILS The soil of a place owes its characteristics to such things as the parent rock material, climate, topography, and decaying plants and animals. Hundreds of different types of soil result from the interaction of these elements. Any particular soil is unique because of its mix of properties (such as color and texture) and composition (including organic content and the action of soil colloids). Colloids are small soil particles. Their properties and influences on soil are complex and often important. Soil acidity (or alkalinity), for example, is a result of the alteration and integration of soil colloids. Acid soils are characteristic of cold, moist climates; alkaline soils typically are found in dry areas. Most soils of the major agricultural zones of the eastern United States are moderately to strongly acidic. Lime must be added periodically to neutralize that acidity before these soils can be used to produce most row crops. Color is perhaps the most obvious soil property. A dark color usually indicates an abundance of organic materials, and red, the presence of iron compounds. Generally, however, color is a result of the soil-forming processes. For example, the pale-gray soil of the northern needle-leaf forest results from the leaching of organic matter and minerals from the soil's surface layer. Soil texture, which determines a soil's ability to retain and transmit water, refers to the proportion of particles of different size in the soil. Sand is the coarsest measure of soil texture, silt is intermediate, and clay is the finest. Soils called “loams” contain substantial proportions of each of the three particle grades and are considered best. They are fine enough to hold moisture yet are not so fine that they cannot easily take up water. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has developed a soil classification system that indicates the most important soil types for an area of the country. Aridisols, found mostly in the Southwest, gain their name from arid. These soils of dry climates are low in organic content and have little agricultural value. Spodosols generally develop in cool, moist climates, although they are found in northern Florida . They are quite acidic and low in nutrients, and are of agricultural value only for acid-loving crops. Tundra soils, which also have little agricultural value, are associated with a cold, moist climate such as Alaska . The soil is shallow, frequently water saturated, and with a subsurface of perennially frozen ground. Highland soils, found in West Virginia , Utah , and Alaska , are little developed and agriculturally worthless. Mollisols are grassland soils of the semiarid and subhumid climates of the Central, North Central, and Pacific Northwest sections of the country. They are thick dark brown to black and have a loose texture and high-nutrient content. They are among the most naturally fertile soils in the world and produce most of America 's cereals. Alfisols are second only to mollisols in agricultural value. They are soils of the mid-latitude forest and the forest-grassland boundaries. They are very much “middle” soils in a climatic sense. They are located in areas moist enough to allow for the accumulation of clay particles but not so moist as to create a heavily leached or weathered soil. Alfisols are divided into three categories, each with its own characteristic climatic association. Udalfs are soils of the deciduous forests of the Middle West . Somewhat acidic, they are nevertheless highly productive when lime is used to reduce the acidity. Ustalfs, found in warmer areas with a strong seasonal variation in precipitation, are most common in Texas and Oklahoma . They are highly productive if irrigated. Xeralfs are soils of cool, moist winters and hot, dry summers. Found in central and southern California , they too are highly productive. Figure 1.2.7 Oklahomajhg Ultisols represent the ultimate stage of weathering and soil formation in the United States . They develop in areas with abundant precipitation and a long frost-free period, such as the South. Particle size is small, and much of the soluble material and clay has been carried downward. These soils can be productive, but high acidity, leaching, and erosion are often problems. Entisols are recent soils, too young to show the modifying effects of their surroundings. They are widely scattered and of many types, from the Sand Hills of Nebraska to the alluvial floodplains of the Mississippi River Valley . The agricultural potential of entisols varies, but the alluvial floodplain soils, drawn from the rich upper layers of upstream soils, are among America 's most productive. Figure 1.2.8 Entisols ?. Geography and regional characteristics The French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss has written of the "mental click" he feels when arriving in the United States : an adjustment to the enormous landscapes and skylines. The so-called lower 48 states (all but Alaska and Hawaii ) sprawl across 4,500 kilometers and four time zones. A car trip from coast to coast typically takes a minimum of five days -- and that's with almost no stops to look around. It is not unusual for the gap between the warmest and coldest high temperatures on a given day in the United States to reach 70 degrees Fahrenheit (about 40 degrees Celsius). The United States owes much of its national character -- and its wealth -- to its good fortune in having such a large and varied landmass to inhabit and cultivate. Yet the country still exhibits marks of regional identity, and one way Americans cope with the size of their country is to think of themselves as linked geographically by certain traits, such as New England self-reliance, southern hospitality, midwestern wholesomeness, western mellowness. This chapter examines American geography, history, and customs through the filters of six main regions: , New England, made up of Maine , New Hampshire , Vermont , Massachusetts , Connecticut , and Rhode Island . , The Middle Atlantic, comprising New York , New Jersey , Pennsylvania , Delaware , and Maryland . , The South, which runs from Virginia south to Florida and west as far as central Texas . This region also includes West Virginia , Kentucky , Tennessee , North Carolina , South Carolina , Georgia , Alabama , Mississippi , Arkansas , Louisiana , and parts of Missouri and Oklahoma . , The Midwest, a broad collection of states sweeping westward from Ohio to Nebraska and including Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, parts of Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas, and eastern Colorado. , The Southwest, made up of western Texas , portions of Oklahoma , New Mexico , Arizona , Nevada , and the southern interior part of California . , The West, comprising Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, California, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii. Note that there is nothing official about these regions; many other lineups are possible. These groupings are offered simply as a way to begin the otherwise daunting task of getting acquainted with the United States . Regional Variety How much sense does it make to talk about American regions when practically all Americans can watch the same television shows and go to the same fast-food restaurants for dinner? One way to answer the question is by giving examples of lingering regional differences. Consider the food Americans eat. Most of it is standard wherever you go. A person can buy packages of frozen peas bearing the same label in Idaho , Missouri , and Virginia . Cereals, candy bars, and many other items also come in identical packages from Alaska to Florida . Generally, the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables does not vary much from one state to the next. On the other hand, it would be unusual to be served hush puppies (a kind of fried dough) or grits (boiled and ground corn prepared in a variety of ways) in Massachusetts or Illinois , but normal to get them in Georgia . Other regions have similar favorites that are hard to find elsewhere. While American English is generally standard, American speech often differs according to what part of the country you are in. Southerners tend to speak slowly, in what is referred to as a "Southern drawl." Midwesterners use "flat" a's (as in "bad" or "cat"), and the New York City patois features a number of Yiddish words ("schlepp," "nosh," "nebbish") contributed by the city's large Jewish population. Regional differences also make themselves felt in less tangible ways, such as attitudes and outlooks. An example is the attention paid to foreign events in newspapers. In the East, where people look out across the Atlantic Ocean, papers tend to show greatest concern with what is happening in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and western Asia . On the West Coast, news editors give more attention to events in East Asia and Australia . To understand regional differences more fully, let's take a closer look at the regions themselves. 1. New England Figure 1.2.9 Map of New England The smallest region, New England has not been blessed with large expanses of rich farmland or a mild climate. Yet it played a dominant role in American development, which is sometimes called the birthplace of America . From the 17th century until well into the 19th, New England was the country's cultural and economic center. The earliest European settlers of New England were English Protestants of firm and settled doctrine. Many of them came in search of religious liberty. They gave the region its distinctive political format -- the town meeting (an outgrowth of meetings held by church elders) in which citizens gathered to discuss issues of the day. Only men of property could vote. Nonetheless, town meetings afforded New Englanders an unusually high level of participation in government. Such meetings still function in many New England communities today. New Englanders found it difficult to farm the land in large lots, as was common in the South. By 1750, many settlers had turned to other pursuits. The mainstays of the region became shipbuilding, fishing, and trade. In their business dealings, New Englanders gained a reputation for hard work, shrewdness, thrift, and ingenuity. These traits came in handy as the Industrial Revolution reached America in the first half of the 19th century. In Massachusetts , Connecticut , and Rhode Island , new factories sprang up to manufacture such goods as clothing, rifles, and clocks. Most of the money to run these businesses came from Boston , which was the financial heart of the nation. New England also supported a vibrant cultural life. The critic Van Wyck Brooks called the creation of a distinctive American literature in the first half of the 19th century "the flowering of New England ." Education is another of the region's strongest legacies. Its cluster of top-ranking and colleges -- including Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, universities Wellesley, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Williams, Amherst, and Wesleyan -- is unequaled by any other region. As some of the original New England settlers migrated westward, immigrants from Canada , Ireland , Italy , and Eastern Europe moved into the region. Despite a changing population, much of the original spirit of New England remains. It can be seen in the simple, wood frame houses and white church steeples that are features of many small towns, and in the traditional lighthouses that dot the Atlantic coast. In the 20th century, most of New England 's traditional industries have relocated to states or foreign countries where goods can be made more cheaply. In more than a few factory towns, skilled workers have been left without jobs. The gap has been partly filled by the microelectronics and computer industries. • Middle Atlantic Figure 1.2.10 Map of Middle Atlantic If New England provided the brains and dollars for 19th-century American expansion, the Middle Atlantic States provided the muscle. The region's largest states, New York and Pennsylvania , became centers of heavy industry (iron, glass, and steel). The Middle Atlantic region was settled by a wider range of people than New England . Dutch immigrants moved into the lower Hudson River Valley in what is now New York State . Swedes went to Delaware . English Catholics founded Maryland , and an English Protestant sect, the Friends (Quakers), settled Pennsylvania . In time, all these settlements fell under English control, but the region continued to be a magnet for people of diverse nationalities. Early settlers were mostly farmers and traders, and the region served as a bridge between North and South. Philadelphia , in Pennsylvania , midway between the northern and southern colonies, was home to the Continental Congress, the convention of delegates from the original colonies that organized the American Revolution. The same city was the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the U.S. Constitution in 1787. As heavy industry spread throughout the region, rivers such as the Hudson and Delaware were transformed into vital shipping lanes. Cities on waterways -- New York on the Hudson , Philadelphia on the Delaware , Baltimore on Chesapeake Bay -- grew dramatically. New York is still the nation's largest city, its financial hub, and its cultural center. Like New England , the Middle Atlantic region has seen much of its heavy industry relocate elsewhere. Other industries, such as drug manufacturing and communications, have taken up the slack. 3. The South The South is perhaps the most distinctive and colorful American region. The American Civil War (1861-65) devastated the South socially and economically. Nevertheless, it retained its unmistakable identity. Like New England , the South was first settled by English Protestants. But whereas New Englanders tended to stress their differences from the old country, Southerners tended to emulate the English. Even so, Southerners were prominent among the leaders of the American Revolution, and four of America 's first five presidents were Virginians. After 1800, however, the interests of the manufacturing North and the agrarian South began to diverge. Especially in coastal areas, southern settlers grew wealthy by raising and selling cotton and tobacco. The most economical way to raise these crops was on large farms, called plantations, which required the work of many laborers. To supply this need, plantation owners relied on slaves brought from Africa , and slavery spread throughout the South. Slavery was the most contentious issue dividing North and South. To northerners it was immoral; to southerners it was integral to their way of life. In 1860, 11 southern states left the Union intending to form a separate nation, the Confederate States of America . This rupture led to the Civil War, the Confederacy's defeat, and the end of slavery. (For more on the Civil War, see chapter 3.) The scars left by the war took decades to heal. The abolition of slavery failed to provide African Americans with political or economic equality: Southern towns and cities legalized and refined the practice of racial segregation. It took a long, concerted effort by African Americans and their supporters to end segregation. In the meantime, however, the South could point with pride to a 20th-century regional outpouring of literature by, among others, William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Robert Penn Warren, Katherine Anne Porter, Tennessee Williams, Eudora Welty, and Flannery O'Connor. As southerners, black and white, shook off the effects of slavery and racial division, a new regional pride expressed itself under the banner of "the New South" and in such events as the annual Spoleto Music Festival in Charleston , South Carolina , and the 1996 summer Olympic Games in Atlanta , Georgia . Today the South has evolved into a manufacturing region, and high-rise buildings crowd the skylines of such cities as Atlanta and Little Rock , Arkansas . Owing to its mild weather, the South has become a mecca for retirees from other U.S. regions and from Canada . Figure 1.2.11 Florida 4. The Midwest The Midwest is a cultural crossroads. Starting in the early 1800s easterners moved there in search of better farmland, and soon Europeans bypassed the East Coast to migrate directly to the interior: Germans to eastern Missouri , Swedes and Norwegians to Wisconsin and Minnesota . The region's fertile soil made it possible for farmers to produce abundant harvests of cereal crops such as wheat, oats, and corn. The region was soon known as the nation's "breadbasket." Most of the Midwest is flat. The Mississippi River has acted as a regional lifeline, moving settlers to new homes and foodstuffs to market. The river inspired two classic American books, both written by a native Missourian, Samuel Clemens, who took the pseudonym Mark Twain: Life on the Mississippi and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . Midwesterners are praised as being open, friendly, and straightforward. Their politics tend to be cautious, but the caution is sometimes peppered with protest. The Midwest gave birth to one of America 's two major political parties, the Republican Party, which was formed in the 1850s to oppose the spread of slavery into new states. At the turn of the century, the region also spawned the Progressive Movement, which largely consisted of farmers and merchants intent on making government less corrupt and more receptive to the will of the people. Perhaps because of their geographic location, many Midwesterners have been strong adherents of isolationism, the belief that Americans should not concern themselves with foreign wars and problems. The region's hub is Chicago , Illinois , the nation's third largest city. This major Great Lakes port is a connecting point for rail lines and air traffic to far-flung parts of the nation and the world. At its heart stands the Sears Tower , at 447 meters, the world's tallest building. 5. The Southwest The Southwest differs from the adjoining Midwest in weather (drier), population (less dense), and ethnicity (strong Spanish-American and Native-American components). Outside the cities, the region is a land of open spaces, much of which is desert. The magnificent Grand Canyon is located in this region, as is Monument Valley , the starkly beautiful backdrop for many western movies. Monument Valley is within the Navajo Reservation, home of the most populous American Indian tribe. To the south and east lie dozens of other Indian reservations, including those of the Hopi, Zuni, and Apache tribes. Parts of the Southwest once belonged to Mexico . The United States obtained this land following the Mexican-American War of 1846-48. Its Mexican continues to exert a strong influence on the region, which is heritage a convenient place to settle for immigrants (legal or illegal) from farther south. The regional population is growing rapidly, with Arizona in particular rivaling the southern states as a destination for retired Americans in search of a warm climate. Population growth in the hot, arid Southwest has depended on two human artifacts: the dam and the air conditioner. Dams on the Colorado and other rivers and aqueducts such as those of the Central Arizona Project have brought water to once-small towns such as Las Vegas , Nevada ; Phoenix , Arizona ; and Albuquerque , New Mexico , allowing them to become metropolises. Las Vegas is renowned as one of the world's centers for gambling, while Santa Fe , New Mexico , is famous as a center for the arts, especially painting, sculpture, and opera. Another system of dams and irrigation projects waters the Central Valley of California, which is noted for producing large harvests of fruits and vegetables. 6. The West Americans have long regarded the West as the last frontier. Yet California has a history of European settlement older than that of most midwestern states. Spanish priests founded missions along the California coast a few years before the outbreak of the American Revolution. In the 19th century, California and Oregon entered the Union ahead of many states to the east. The West is a region of scenic beauty on a grand scale. All of its 11 states are partly mountainous, and the ranges are the sources of startling contrasts. To the west of the peaks, winds from the Pacific Ocean carry enough moisture to keep the land well-watered. To the east, however, the land is very dry. Parts of western Washington State , for example, receive 20 times the amount of rain that falls on the eastern side of the state's Cascade Range . In much of the West the population is sparse, and the federal government owns and manages millions of hectares of undeveloped land. Americans use these areas for recreational and commercial activities, such as fishing, camping, hiking, boating, grazing, lumbering, and mining. In recent years some local residents who earn their livelihoods on federal land have come into conflict with the land's managers, who are required to keep land use within environmentally acceptable limits. Alaska , the northernmost state in the Union , is a vast land of few, but hardy, people and great stretches of wilderness, protected in national parks and wildlife refuges. Hawaii is the only state in the union in which Asian Americans outnumber residents of European stock. Beginning in the 1980s large numbers of Asians have also settled in California , mainly around Los Angeles . Los Angeles -- and Southern California as a whole -- bears the stamp of its large Mexican-American population. Now the second largest city in the nation, Los Angeles is best known as the home of the Hollywood film industry. Fueled by the growth of Los Angeles and the "Silicon Valley" area near San Jose , California has become the most populous of all the states. Western cities are known for their tolerance. Perhaps because so many westerners have moved there from other regions to make a new start, as a rule interpersonal relations are marked by a live-and-let-live attitude. The western economy is varied. California , for example, is both an agricultural state and a high-technology manufacturing state. 7. The Frontier Spirit One final American region deserves mention. It is not a fixed place but a moving zone, as well as a state of mind: the border between settlements and wilderness known as the frontier. Writing in the 1890s, historian Frederick Jackson Turner claimed that the availability of vacant land throughout much of the nation's history has shaped American attitudes and institutions. "This perennial rebirth," he wrote, "this expansion westward with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces dominating American character." Numerous present-day American values and attitudes can be traced to the frontier past: self-reliance, resourcefulness, comradeship, a strong sense of equality. After the Civil War a large number of black Americans moved west in search of equal opportunities, and many of them gained some fame and fortune as cowboys, miners, and prairie settlers. In 1869 the western territory of Wyoming became the first place that allowed women to vote and to hold elected office. Because the resources of the West seemed limitless, people developed wasteful attitudes and practices. The great herds of buffalo (American bison) were slaughtered until only fragments remained, and many other species were driven to the brink of extinction. Rivers were dammed and their natural communities disrupted. Forests were destroyed by excess logging, and landscapes were scarred by careless mining. A counterweight to the abuse of natural resources took form in the American conservation movement, which owes much of its success to Americans' reluctance to see frontier conditions disappear entirely from the landscape. Conservationists were instrumental in establishing the first national park, Yellowstone , in 1872, and the first national forests in the 1890s. More recently, the Endangered Species Act has helped stem the tide of extinctions. Environmental programs can be controversial; for example, some critics believe that the Endangered Species Act hampers economic progress. But, overall, the movement to preserve America 's natural endowment continues to gain strength. Its replication in many other countries around the world is a tribute to the lasting influence of the American frontier. Chapter III Foundations of Human Activity The country that came to be the United States had a small, dispersed native population at the time of initial European discovery, totaling perhaps 800,000 people, most organized in small tribal units. There was great diversity among American Indian cultures. Several hundred dialects were spoken along the coast of California alone. The Pueblo , who lived in what is now New Mexico and who were probably influenced culturally by the Aztecs to the south, resided in permanent towns and constructed extensive irrigation systems. The Piutes of the Great Basin lived in temporary thatch dwellings and pursued a seminomadic existence based on available wild edible vegetation and small game. The Inuit, or Eskimos, who were the most recent of the pre-European arrivals, shared close cultural ties with Inuits in Greenland and Siberia . Although American Indians represented a barrier to the expansion of European settlement at times, for the most part their impact was minimal. Many died of imported infectious diseases such as smallpox and measles before they experienced direct contact with the Europeans. The Indians made important contributions to the arriving Europeans, especially during the first decades of settlement. But most often they were killed or shunted off to reservations in the West. As the settlement frontier moved westward, so did the American Indians and their reservations. 1. SETTLEMENT PATTERNS Although it is impossible to state precisely how many people entered what is now the United States from Europe and, to a lesser extent, from Africa , a reasonable estimate would place the figure at close to 60 million. Most early immigrants came from northwestern Europe . The first immigrants in American history came from England and the Netherlands . At the time of the first national census of the United States in 1790, more than two-thirds of the white population was of British origin, with Germans and Dutch next in importance. Emigration to North America slowed between 1760 and 1815. This was a time of intermittent warfare in Europe and North America, as well as on the Atlantic Ocean . Between about 1815 and the start of World War I in 1914, immigration tended to increase with each passing decade. For the first half of the 1815-1913 period, most migrants continued to come from northwestern Europe . Streams of people followed them in subsequent decades from southern and eastern Europe . By 1913, well over four-fifths of all immigrants were from these areas of Europe, especially Italy , Austria-Hungary , and Russia . The reasons for this shift are based on the impact of the Industrial Revolution. Beginning in the British Isles and the Low Countries in the 18th century, it spread southeastward during the following 150 years or so. With industrialization came a rapid rise in population as mortality declined. The economy shifted to manufacturing, urbanization increased, and there was a proportional decline in the agricultural population. The growth in the demand for urban labor did not match the increase in the potential labor force, and thus there were many willing emigrants. It has been suggested repeatedly that migrants to the United States chose areas that were environmentally similar to their European homes. The substantial Scandinavian settlement in Minnesota and the Dakotas is indicated as a case in point. There may be some small truth in this, but it was more important that those states represented the principal settlement frontier at the time of major Scandinavian immigration. For the most part, the mosaic of ethnic patterns in America is the result of a movement toward opportunity—opportunity first found most often on the agricultural settlement frontier and then in the cities. The major exception to the immigrant settlement pattern was black settlement in the American South. Forced to move as slave labor for the region's plantations, this was a small part of the large movement of Africans to the Caribbean Basin , the northeast coast of South America , and the American Southeast. Next to the European exodus, this was probably the second largest long-distance movement in human history. Perhaps 20 million left Africa . It is believed that fewer than 500,000 blacks came into the United States . Most probably arrived from the Caribbean rather than coming directly from Africa . The 1790 census indicated that 20 percent of the American population was of African origin. There was little African immigration after that date, and the percentage of the population that was black declined. The United States passed its first major legislation to restrict immigration in the 1920s. This limitation, coupled with the Great of the 1930s and World War II in the 1940s, cut immigration Depression to a fraction of its annual high in 1913. Since 1945, the number of arrivals has increased somewhat. Far more liberal immigration laws were passed in the 1960s. In the late 1980s, Mexico , the Philippines , and the West Indies provided the greatest number of migrants to the United States . Today, the United States typically receives roughly 700,000 legal immigrants annually. About 275,000 illegal aliens also enter the country each year. The first immigrant settlements were small, clinging to the ocean and looking more toward Europe than toward the land that crowded in about them. When settlement pushed tentatively away from the oceans, it still followed the waterways, for they offered trade pathways to the coast and an important link to Europe . Thus, the British settled the indented coastline of the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, and they spread a thin band of settlement along the rugged coastline of New England . The Dutch moved up the Hudson River from New Amsterdam ( New York ), and the French gradually settled the banks of the upper St. Lawrence River . During the first 150 years after the beginnings of permanent European settlement—until about 1765—Europeans moved westward only as far as the eastern flanks of the Appalachian Mountains. Within a century after that, the frontier reached the Pacific Ocean , and by 1890, the U.S. Bureau of the Census was able to announce that the American settlement frontier was gone entirely. This increasingly rapid settlement expansion resulted from a reorientation in attitude away from Europe . By the early 19th century, an increasing number of Americans viewed the occupation of the continent as their manifest destiny. The land laws of the country became increasingly pro-expansionist. Also, as the population grew, there were more people who hoped to improve their lot by moving westward. In the eastern half of the United States, about as far west as Kansas and Nebraska , settlement expanded westward in a generally orderly fashion. To be sure, advances were more rapid along certain transportation routes, such as the Ohio River , and slower in other places. Figure 1.3.1 Ohio River Settlement moved rapidly westward onto the interior grasslands. The Mississippi River and its many tributaries offered easy routes to the interior, and settlers found an expanse of excellent agricultural land with a generally good climate for crop production that stretched from the western margins of the Appalachians well into the Great Plains . From the Rocky Mountains westward and in Alaska , however, an even pattern of settlement expansion did not occur. Much of this broad area was either too dry, too hot, or too cold for farming. Rugged topography hampered transportation and further limited agricultural development. Settlement congregated in areas that offered an identifiable economic potential. The result was a pattern of point settlement scattered across an otherwise nearly unpopulated landscape. In 1990, the United States had a population approaching 250 million, with a density of roughly 235 people per square kilometer. Three principal zones of population can be identified. First, a primary zone fills a quadrant defined approximately by the cities of Boston ( Massachusetts ), Chicago ( Illinois ), St. Louis ( Missouri ), and Washington , D.C. : 7 of the 12 most populous U.S. states are here. It is the area of earliest growth and long the country's most advanced section economically. Fine natural routes and many excellent harbors along the Atlantic shore have been augmented by a dense transportation net. Some of the country's best agricultural lands plus rich mineral resources are either within the region or nearby. Figure 1.3.2 Boston Wrapping around the southern and western margins of the primary zone and extending westward to the eastern sections of the Great Plains , there is a secondary zone of population. Much of America 's best agricultural land is in this zone, and the greatest part of its potential agricultural lands is farmed. Most of the area is populated, although densities are generally much lower than those found in the core. Cities are spaced more widely and more evenly in this zone than in the core, and they are primarily service and manufacturing centers for the region. Finally, a peripheral population zone fills the land from the central Great Plains westward. A pattern of population and economic growth at locations of special potential in an otherwise limited region continues to dominate. Although some areas are now densely populated—notably California 's San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles Basin , as well as the Puget Sound Lowland in Washington State —most of the land remains sparsely populated. The mobility history of the United States can be divided into three periods. First came the period of east to west movement, then one from rural to urban areas, and, finally, the present period, when most long-distance movement is between metropolitan areas. If the country's population has moved westward with every decade, it has urbanized in an equally unvarying fashion. Whereas less than 10 percent of the population could even loosely be defined as urban in 1790, over three-quarters was urbanized by 1990. These statistics reflect not only a relative decline in rural population, but also an absolute decline in farm population. Between 1960 and 1987, for example, the farm population fell from more than 15 million to under 6 million. The movements from east to west and from rural to urban America were both clearly in response to the perception of economic opportunity. First, more and more farmlands became available as the settlement frontier pushed westward. Then there was a tremendous surge in urban employment generated by the Industrial Revolution. Once Americans were predominantly urbanites and economic opportunities were also urban based, variations in these opportunities ensured that most subsequent population migration would occur between metropolitan areas. U.S. population statistics for the 1970s and 1980s suggest that a fourth major mobility period is at hand. Areas that had long experienced no change or even declining population size are growing. Much of the South is a prime example. Many observers have suggested that the United States has become a post-industrial country. That is, the major growth areas are in occupations that provide services and that manipulate and create information. The number of Americans employed in manufacturing has increased only slightly during the past two decades, whereas tertiary and quaternary employment has boomed. Much of what increase there has been in manufacturing employment has been in the production of high-value, lightweight products, such as electronic components, which can presumably be located almost anywhere. Thus, more and more people can live where they want. 2. URBANIZATION Most of America possesses urban areas that have grown in population and extent. In a few instances, the growth has been so great and the size of the core cities has become so large that major urban areas have merged and formed clusters of cities. The group of large cities extending from Boston ( Massachusetts ) to Washington , D.C. , along the northeastern U.S. coast, is the clearest example. Another group of urban areas—more widely dispersed and containing smaller central cities—is found along the southern margin of the Great Lakes . Milwaukee ( Wisconsin ) and Chicago ( Illinois ) anchor this region in the west, and Buffalo ( New York ) and Pittsburgh ( Pennsylvania ) do the same in the east. Southern California, from San Diego to San Francisco , is offered by some observers as yet another set of urban areas that will be merged by the end of the 20th century, as is much of east coastal and central Florida . Figure 1.3.3 Washington D.C. Most large urban places have developed where transportation routes connect with each other. Quite often it is the land-water connection that is important. Some urban centers are on a seacoast or large estuary. Others are on naturally navigable waterways. Still others are on rivers or channels that have been modified extensively just to give the cities water access. Other factors matter, of course: hinterland quality, proximity to alternative transportation, security, and even healthfulness of the local environment. However, where goods and people must transfer from one form of transportation to another, there are opportunities to process, exchange, manufacture, repackage, sell, and buy goods. There are exceptions to this water orientation, such as Atlanta ( Georgia ), Denver ( Colorado ), and Dallas-Ft.Worth ( Texas ), but these, too, were on early transport routes of some kind. Atlanta , for example, located at the southern tip of the Appalachian Mountains , had become a key inland center for railroad transportation in the South by the 1860s. Figure 1.3.4 A tlanta Manufacturing is an important economic activity in the United States . The evidence of this is everywhere—in articles of clothing, items of preserved food, residential structures, means of transport and communication, and many other things. In spite of the presence of items manufactured outside the country, domestic industry remains paramount, and it is rare for any medium-sized U.S. town to be without at least some local employment in manufacturing. The northeastern United States , excluding northern New England , is the country's single most significant region of manufacturing (Map 4: 45K). This region is loosely defined on three sides by the Ohio River Valley , Megalopolis, and the southern Great Lakes . The western margin of the region is less clear; it blends gradually with agriculture-dominant landscapes across southern Indiana , Illinois , and beyond. In spite of the region's moderate extent and the growth of manufacturing elsewhere, Its factories produce most of the country's steel, as well as a significant percentage of its motor vehi the Manufacturing Core continues to be of tremendous economic significance in American geography. cles and motor vehicle parts. Most of the important ports, the main centers of communication, and the primary financial centers are within or near the region, and the country's political capital is on the immediate margins. The region includes the two largest clusters of coalescing metropolitan areas: Megalopolis, and the group of large urban regions between Milwaukee ( Wisconsin ) and Chicago ( Illinois ) on the west, and Cleveland ( Ohio ) and Pittsburgh ( Pennsylvania ) on the east. Understanding America 's Manufacturing Core is made difficult by its strongly dual character. In many respects, it was the vitality and productivity of the territory's farm population that created the resources and the demand for industrial production. Success in agriculture supported the region's early market centers, and it was the gradual mechanization of agriculture that demanded diversified manufacturing support. Mechanical reapers, winnowing machines, and cultivating implements by the tens of thousands were required during the later 1800s. Tractors, hay balers, pumps, and increasingly specialized farm machinery continued to be important local sources of industrial demand during the first half of the 20th century. Transportation lines were improved and expanded to carry the tremendous volume of agricultural products grown on the region's farms. Therefore, we encounter here a single portion of America that must be treated as two interdependent thematic regions. One theme, the urban and industrial nature of the region's manufacturing centers, is discussed here. The other is the rural and agricultural character of the territory's small towns and countryside. Turning to the manufacturing theme, what set of conditions or circumstances led to the development of so complex a mix of economic interrelationships on this portion of the continent? What is it about this region that encouraged the growth of heavy manufacturing industries and all of the related human activities that have come to dominate here? 1. MINERAL RESOURCES The United States is blessed with industrial resources. America 's broad interior plains are nearly enclosed by zones of metallic mineral concentrations: the Canadian Shield to the north and two linear areas, one extending northeast-southwest (the Appalachian Mountains) and one extending northwest-southeast (the Rocky Mountains ). Furthermore, much of these same interior plains are underlain by large deposits of high-quality mineral fuel, especially in the eastern section. In terms of the mineral requirements of heavy industry, then, a relatively small triangular region contains much of what is needed. Also, the interior portion of America 's Manufacturing Core possesses great accessibility resources. Connecting the mineral-rich Canadian Shield and the fuel-rich interior plains, the five Great Lakes— Superior , Michigan , Huron, Erie , and Ontario —represent an internal waterway unlike any other in the world. The Great Lakes are interconnected with only two significant changes of elevation. A small drop of about 6.7 meters between Lake Superior and Lakes Huron and Michigan was overcome by locks at Sault Sainte Marie , Michigan , first opened in 1855. The much greater change of elevation between Lakes Erie and Ontario might have been a serious barrier to water transport, but the Welland Canal (first opened in 1829) was built in Ontario to skirt Niagara Falls, and the Erie Canal was constructed (by 1825) in New York to permit some freight to avoid Lake Ontario altogether. With these exceptions, the lakes offered well over 800 kilometers of inexpensive transportation to early developers of America . Later, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the same cheap transportation was of critical importance to those moving the Shield's iron ore to the coal fields in Illinois , Indiana , Ohio , West Virginia , and Pennsylvania . Much of the basis for the location of the industrial capacity that developed along the southern margins of the Great Lakes can be attributed to this natural accessibility resource. Figure 1.3.5 West Virginia Figure 1. 3.6 A bridge in West Virginia Within the interior core, flowing westward from deep within the coal-rich Appalachian region, the Ohio River crosses the interior plains for hundreds of kilometers before joining the Mississippi River . Dozens of tributaries supply the Ohio with its water and provide further accessibility, either directly because they are navigable, too, or less directly because they offer easier routes of land movement through their valleys. Along the western margin of the core region, the Mississippi River and its tributaries provide access from the south and west. So unique is this combination of spatial and mineral resources that the Manufacturing Core in the United States is often thought of as this interior territory alone. References to “the industrial Midwest” or “ America 's industrial heartland” may seek to fire the imagination, but they are geographically incomplete. The American Manufacturing Core includes both the interior core and Megalopolis, the urban region through which the interior has its primary linkage to international commerce. Prior to 1830, the region's urban and industrial development was limited almost entirely to the Atlantic Coast in the ports' immediate hinterlands. European settlement of the trans-Appalachian area consisted of scattered subsistence agriculture and a few urban outposts. Between 1830 and the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1860, population density in the interior increased and agriculture intensified and began to produce a regular surplus, spurring demand for efficient centers of exchange. The foundations for the growth of the region are reflected in the gradual shift of transportation concentration as railroad lines began to be spread across the interior plains. The technological changes that directly affected the manufacturing geography of the United States have been grouped by one geographer, John Borchert, into four periods, or historical epochs as he called them. Writing in Geographic Review, Borchert identified the earliest period, 1790-1830, as the Sail-Wagon Epoch. During this period, almost all cities and towns were associated with water transportation. The Atlantic ports and towns that had their beginnings along some of the coastal rivers were the major urban centers. The greatest inland urban growth during this period occurred along the main inland waterways—the Mohawk River, the Great Lakes, and the Ohio River . The second period, 1830-1870, was triggered by development of the railway, a radical innovation in land movement. The Iron Horse Epoch at first stimulated further growth in the already established port locations. The new railway networks were constructed to focus on the port cities. Aside from additional growth of the larger port cities in what was soon to become Megalopolis, the greatest growth occurred in such cities as Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), Cincinnati (Ohio), and Louisville (Kentucky) (all on the Ohio River); Buffalo (New York), Erie (Pennsylvania), Cleveland (Ohio), Detroit (Michigan), Chicago (Illinois), and Milwaukee (Wisconsin) (all on the lower Great Lakes); and St. Louis (Missouri), Memphis (Tennessee), and New Orleans (Louisiana) (all on the Mississippi River). The Steel-Rail Epoch, 1870-1920, was stimulated by the development of steel, the replacement of iron rails with stronger and heavier steel rails, increased demand for bituminous coal, and the spread of electric power generation. Although the greatest growth in national urban areas occurred in cities only peripheral to the Manufacturing Core, there were several notable exceptions—the numerous smaller cities near the coal fields, near the Great Lakes , or on one of the major rail connections between larger cities. These cities were able to establish themselves because the interconnecting rail network crisscrossed the region so densely between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes . Akron , Canton , and Youngstown , Ohio , are clear examples, because they are located between the coal-and-steel city of Pittsburgh and the iron-ore port and steel city of Cleveland . A fourth epoch, the period 1920-1960, was the Auto-Air-Amenity Epoch. The main effects of transport innovations such as the automobile and the airplane were to increase individual mobility and to minimize the impact of shipment costs in the production process. Industry was drawn to areas of greatest population growth; these were primarily the amenity areas ( California , Florida , Arizona ) outside the traditional manufacturing core. The United States entered yet another period after 1960, one that might be called the Information Technology Epoch. As the U.S. economy becomes more dependent on the production and exchange of information, the means of processing and transmitting this information will encourage the growth of industries that do not need cheap bulk transportation or even large population clusters. This suggests that those factors that supported growth in the Manufacturing Core cities during the first two-thirds of the 20th century will no longer provide those cities with special development advantages during future decades, although their skilled labor forces, large markets, and established air transportation patterns will make some of them strong competitors for growth. 2. CITIES IN THE REGION With Boston , New York , Philadelphia , and Baltimore based early and firmly on commerce and the financial exchanges it stimulated, these ports and their satellites began to accumulate population long before manufacturing became dominant in the U.S. economy. Although manufacturing was drawn to the eastern coast by the promise of matchless local markets, tremendous labor supplies, and easy access to water transportation, the economies of most of Megalopolis's cities maintained a distinctly professional character. New England was the exception by developing manufacturing at the same time that its ports were growing. Shipbuilding industries thrived along the coast and generated countless subsidiary manufacturing operations needed to supply such a complex industrial undertaking. When factory industry began to grow in importance elsewhere in America , New England had several advantages that kept manufacturing significant, the most important of which was the ready availability of power in the area's small but abundant rivers. Boston , as the regional capital of New England , characterizes many of the changes in this portion of the continental core. Boston 's apparel and leather industries, as well as shipbuilding in nearby Connecticut , are remnants of an earlier period, but most growth in the last 50 or so years has occurred in electronic components and machinery. The harbor and the facilities found there remain excellent, but industry in New England now ships most of its products by land, either to markets in the rest of the United States or south to New York for export through Megalopolis's primary port. Figure 1.3.7 Connecticut New York 's primacy among American harbors has been discussed. As might be expected, manufacturing industries found proximity to this node of international commerce and the population cluster around it to be very advantageous. So strong was this pull that New York 's industrial mix became extremely diversified. Many industries were located on Manhattan until after the beginning of the 20th century. The increasing demand for space by the even more space-intensive office businesses gradually pushed heavier industry to the very margins of lower Manhattan or beyond the the island's confines into the New Jersey tidal marshes across the Hudson River . The New York metropolitan economy has been dominated for some time by office industries. These are the headquarters for activities of dozens of companies and corporations, the banking and insurance cluster, publishing houses, and all the other service and control centers that require a worldwide information network and the facilities to transmit their responses rapidly. Philadelphia and Baltimore , so different in industrial inheritance and urban character, have shown indications during recent years that they may be becoming more alike. Philadelphia 's manufacturing base is almost as diversified as New York 's, although there is a greater emphasis on food-processing industries and on shipbuilding and ship repair. The growth of Philadelphia 's industrial base suffered somewhat from the presence of New York 's better harbor and superior access to the interior only 120 kilometers to the north. But Philadelphia's better access to the coal and steel regions of western Pennsylvania, its respectable port facilities, and its heritage as an early political and cultural center in the United States have maintained the Philadelphia metropolitan region's growth within Megalopolis. Baltimore , on the other hand, has always been on the periphery of the Manufacturing Core region. Like Philadelphia , its port possessed good rail connections with the coal and steel regions of the interior, and Baltimore 's industrial mix reflects this. The manufacture of transport machinery is also important in Baltimore . Two additional industrial sectors—metals fabrication and chemicals—are well represented in Philadelphia and Baltimore , and they emphasize the coastal connections of these regions with the heavy industrial interior. The major cities of the other, larger portion of America 's Manufacturing Core region, the industrial Midwest , have derived their primary character from their location relative to the rich mineral and agricultural resources of the continent's interior. Almost all of the large cities in the western portion of the manufacturing region are located along the Ohio River or one of its tributaries, or along the shores of one of the Great Lakes . Most important in the development of urban centers in the interior portion of the Manufacturing Core has been the movement of metallic mineral ores from the margins of the Canadian Shield to the coal fields of western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and the smaller movement of coal in the reverse direction. Iron ore is mined at the Mesabi Range of northern Minnesota and at the Gogebic, Marquette, and Menominee ranges in northern Michigan and Wisconsin . Mesabi ore is now processed into pellets at the deposit site, but for decades unprocessed ore was carried to the southern shores of Lakes Michigan and Erie in large ships designed specially for Great Lakes travel. Pellets and ore are carried to the southern shore of Lake Michigan , to Hammond and Gary in Indiana , where these shipments are met by coal transported north by rail from the large Illinois coal fields. Most of the ore, however, is shipped to Lake Erie ports. From there, it is either carried south, primarily to the steel cities of the Ohio River , or converted to steel in the lakeside cities using coal carried north on the return rail trip from the Appalachian fields. Figure 1.3.8 Wisconsin Of the cities of the interior core, Pittsburgh is the one whose name became synonymous with steel. Located where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers join to form the Ohio River, Pittsburgh was in an excellent position to take advantage of access to both raw materials and downriver markets. The Allegheny and the Monongahela drain the coal-rich margins of the Appalachians, and the Ohio flows along the southern margins of the Agricultural Core and into the Mississippi . As Pittsburgh grew, that depend on steel crowded onto the narrow river bottoms to industries take advantage of proximity to low-cost water transportation. Metal-fabricating industries, machine parts, and other industrial consumers of large quantities of steel located their plants in and around Pittsburgh . Nearby cities also benefited from the powerful pull of steel at Pittsburgh . Youngstown , Canton , and Steubenville in Ohio , Wheeling and Weirton in West Virginia , and New Castle and Johnstown in Pennsylvania shared to some degree in the industrial growth of this region and obtained steel and steel products industries. Urban-industrial growth did not occur solely at the source region of coal. The iron ore shipped across the lake system had to be transferred to railroads at points along the Lake Erie shore for final movement to the Pittsburgh region. Figure 1.3.9 The Lake Erie Cleveland was the largest of the Lake Erie port cities. Cleveland 's initial growth was stimulated by a canal connecting the narrow and winding Cuyahoga River with a tributary of the Ohio River . Although the city quickly outgrew this small initial advantage, it was enough to give Cleveland a head start on its nearby urban competitors. The diverse industrial base that resulted took advantage of the accessibility offered by the lakes and by the major east-west railroads connecting New York with Chicago and the Agricultural Core to the west. Cleveland's growth also spilled over into adjacent ports, such as Lorain, Ashtabula, and Conneaut, Ohio, and perhaps as far east as Erie, Pennsylvania, and as far west as Toledo, Ohio, as well as to complementary growth centers inland, such as the rubber-producing city of Akron, Ohio. Buffalo , New York , is located at the eastern end of Lake Erie . Wheat from the Plains states is brought to the western Great Lakes and carried in bulk to Buffalo for refining. The same factors that generated steel and metals manufacturing elsewhere along the lakeshore helped ensure that a significant portion of the city's manufacturing would be connected to this type of industry. The harnessing of nearby Niagara Falls for hydroelectric power attracted chemical and aluminum industries. The city on the narrow water passage between Lakes Huron and Erie , Detroit , grew rapidly only early in the 20th century because it is located more than 80 kilometers north of the primary New York-Chicago rail connection. was not until the rise of the industry that fostered the railroads' It chief land transport competitor—motor vehicles—that Detroit developed the character for which it is best known. The most successful automobile manufacturers concentrated in Detroit and nearby cities, and the demand for automobiles skyrocketed, drawing a variety of component suppliers to southeastern Michigan . Figure 1.3.10 Michigan Figure 1.3.11 Michigan Avenue bridge The smaller of the two remaining metropolitan centers along the southern Great Lakes margin is Milwaukee . In addition to its industrial mix of heavy industry and motor vehicle manufacturing, Milwaukee is one of the leading centers of the brewing industry, a result of the large number of German immigrants who settled in Wisconsin during the late 19th century. A significant food processing industry is also present in Milwaukee , because it is a major focus for the middle Dairy Belt of the state. Figure 1.3.12 Milwaukee Located along the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan , Chicago occupies the optimum location for the transfer of people and goods between lake transportation and the rich agricultural region to the west and southwest. The advantageous location has made it the greatest transportation center in the country ever since the beginning of the settlement. The Illinois and Michigan Canal , located in part through the heart of the city, was completed in 1848 to link the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River system. Four years later, Chicago was connected to New York by rail and became the primary regional rail focus in the Midwest . Chicago is easily the dominant city of the interior Manufacturing Core. So important did this city become that, for many years it was called the “ Second City ,” recognizing Chicago 's population ( 2,725,979 in 1990) as second only to that of New York City . Although Los Angeles now outranks Chicago in population, the informal “capital” of the Midwest persists as the strongest urban focus of the United States ' interior. As a chief railway center for the U.S.A, with a harbor opening to ocean traffic by the ST.Lawrence Seaway, it is now a commercial, financial and industrial center of the Midwest region. Its most important industries are steel and meat packing. Figure 1.3.13 Chicago Chicago absorbed thousands of immigrants throughout the later 19th century and spawned a radial network of rail lines into Illinois , Wisconsin , and the agricultural states beyond. Meatpacking developed around the city's large stockyards. Other industries, such as furniture and clothing manufacturers, located there to take advantage of the growing local market and good access to markets farther west. After the turn of the century, the steel industry was introduced to the Chicago region, south of the city itself but still along the lakeshore in Illinois and Indiana and easily accessible to the city's unparalleled railroad network. Figure 1.3.14 Indiana Already a city of 1 million by 1890, Chicago doubled in size before 1910 and exceeded 3 million by the mid-1920s. The volume of Chicago 's manufacturing activities today is matched only by the immense diversity of products manufactured, making the city at least partly an effective regional counterbalance to the intense economic nodes in Megalopolis. The beef processing industry has expanded into many smaller Plains communities during the last three decades. Formerly, the industry had been concentrated in the Midwest , where facilities were large and complex. Changing technology in the slaughter industry, the growth of feedlots on the Plains, and more diversified marketing patterns gradually made smaller plants located near the new feedlots of smaller Plains towns more economical. Transportation routes on the Plains were originally built to cross the area rather than to serve it. Thus, most major highways and railroads pass east-west across the Plains, with few lines running north-south. Chapter IV Map of America 1. Map Figure 1.4.1 Map of America AL - Alabama AK – Alaska AZ - Arizona AR – Arkansas CA - California CO - Colorado CT – Connecticut DE – Delaware FL - Florida GA - Georgia HI - Hawaii ID - Idaho IL – Illinois IN - Indiana IA - Iowa KS - Kansas KY – Kentucky LA - Louisiana ME - Maine MD - Maryland MA - Massachusetts MI - Michigan MN - Minnesota MS - Mississippi MO - Missouri MT - Montana NE - Nebraska NV - Nevada NH - New Hampshire NJ - New Jersey NM - New Mexico NY - New York NC - North Carolina ND - North Dakota OH - Ohio OK - Oklahoma OR - Oregon PA - Pennsylvania RI - Rhode Island SC - South Carolina SD - South Dakota TN - Tennessee TX - Texas UT - Utah VT - Vermont VA - Virginia WA -Washington WV - West Virginia WI - Wisconsin WY - Wyoming DC - District of Columbia 2. Principal Cities Washington D.C. , the capital of the U.S. , is situated on the Potomac River and covers an area of over 174 square kilometers. It has a population of over 800,000 and ranks ninth in size. Washington is a beautiful city of wide streets, broad avenues, plazas and public buildings, such as the United States Capitol, the White House, and the Pentagon Building . The city is now the seat of the federal government as well as a leading cultural and a center of world affairs. Figure 1.4.2 Washington D.C. Potomac river New York City , the largest city and chief port of the United States lying at the mouth of the Hudson River in New York State , has a population of 8 million in the urban area and another 8 million in the suburbs. The five boroughs ( Manhattan , Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Richmond ) that comprise the city are separated by waterways lined by docks. It leads the whole country in business, manufacturing, communications, transportation and entertainment. Figure 1.4.3 New York City Manhattan Island , the central part of the city today, was “ brought” by the Dutch from the Indians in 1626, and was called New Amsterdam . The then Dutch settlement was conquered by the English fleet sent by the English Duke of York in 1664 and was renamed New York . The city took a leading part in the War of American Independences, and its economic expansion was marked by the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. The city's development became rapid only in the 19 th century. Now it has developed into an international city with the tallest buildings in the world. New York Harbor , with 840 kilometers of waterfront, is one of the largest harbors in the world. It handles 35% the nation's international shipping. The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the French people in 1886, was placed on Liberty Island, directly I the center of New York Harbor . Figure 1.4.4 comfort inn mahattan Figure 1.4.5 Manhattan Chicago , the second largest city in the U.S. , lies on the southwest shore of Lake Michigan , with a population of nearly 3.5 million. The advantageous location has made it the greatest transportation center in the country ever since the beginning of the settlement. As a chief railway center for the U.S. with a harbor opening to ocean traffic by the St. Lawrence Seaway, it is now a commercial, financial and industrial center of the Midwest region. Its most important industries are steel and meat packing. Figure 1.4.6 Chicago skyline Figure 1.4.7 Chicago at night Los Angeles , a seaport in southwest California , is the third largest city of the U.S. with a population of 2.8 million. The city has now developed into the world's largest metropolitan area. With its man-made harbor at San Pedro Bay , Los Angeles serves as an important shipping, industrial, communications and aviation center. It leads the country in the manufacture of aircraft and parts. The city has also become an important electronic center and the film center of the United States . Philadelphia , the fourth largest city of the U.S. , has a population of over 2 million. It was founded by Willam Penn in 1682 As a Quaker settlement and was once the largest of all American cities in the colonial days and the seat of the Continental Congress during the War of Independence and served as the national capital for 10 years from 1790 to 1800. It is now an international port, a commercial and industrial center on the Delaware River, East Pennsylvania . The major historical shrines in Philadelphia are clustered in the Independence Hall or State House. It was in this hall that the American Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776 and the United States Constitution was framed. Figure 1.4.8 P hiladelphia Figure 1.4.9 red roof Philadelphia airport Houston , the largest city in the state of Texas and the sixth largest city in the United States , is the center of the petrochemical industry. It not only manufactures oil field equipment but also ranks first in the country as a refinery center. With the Manned Spacecraft Center , Houston has won the name “ Space City , USA .” Figure 1.4.10 Houston W university Figure 1.4.11 Sheration north Houston San Francisco , a chief port and financial center on the Pacific Coast in North California , serves as one of the principal gateways to the Orient. The San Francisco Bay , which connects the Pacific through the Golden Gate , ranks among the largest natural harbors of the world. The city and its surrounding countries comprise the San Francisco-Oakland metropolitan The Chinatown in San Francisco is the largest Chinese settlement area. in the United States . Figure 1.4.12 San Francisco golden gate Figure 1.4.13 San Francisco by night Figure 1.4.14 Fairmont San Francisco Boston , the capital of Massachussetts with a fine natural harbor, is one of America 's great seaports and the largest leather, shoe and wool market of the country. First settled in 1630, Boston was one of the centers of resistance to the British rule during the American Revolution; several noteworthy events took place in Boston, among which were the Boston Tea Party, the first shot in the War of Independence fired in Lexington, and the first real battle of the Revolution fought on Bunker Hill on June 17 th , 1775. Figure 1.4.15 East Boston camps Figure 1.4.16 Boston area diving