Short answers, pulled from the story.
The East Coast includes 14 states with Atlantic Ocean shoreline: Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. are also generally included despite lacking direct ocean frontage.
In 2010, the population of the Atlantic-facing East Coast states was estimated at 112,642,503, representing about 36% of the total US population. New York City is the largest city on the coast, with a 2018 population estimate of approximately 8.4 million.
Florida was named by Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León, who called the peninsula La Pascua Florida during his 1513 voyage. The name honored the verdant landscape and the Easter season during which he arrived.
The Acela Express is Amtrak's high-speed rail service running along the East Coast seaboard and is the only high-speed rail passenger service in the Americas. Between New York and Boston, it captures up to 54% of the combined train and air passenger market.
The Intracoastal Waterway, also known as the East Coast Canal, was completed in 1912. It connects the Annisquam River in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to Miami, Florida.
Miami holds one of the largest concentrations of international banks in the United States and a skyline of over 439 high-rises. The Port of Miami is the busiest cruise port in the world, handling more than 5.5 million cruise passengers per year, and the city hosts Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the national center for tropical plant culture and research.