East Coast of the United States

• 1. Introduction

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  The East Coast of the United States has always played a major socioeconomic role in the development of the country, and the numbers make that claim hard to dispute. By 2010, the states with shoreline on this coast held more than 112 million people, roughly 36% of the entire national population. Seventy-one of the world's Fortune 500 companies headquarter in New York City alone. The Acela Express running along this corridor is the only high-speed rail service in the Americas. How did one edge of a continent come to concentrate so much of a nation's people, power, and commerce? The answers run from a Spanish explorer naming a peninsula after the Easter season, to a 200-year-old Gullah culture persisting on the coastal islands of Georgia and South Carolina, to a cruise port in Miami that moves more than 5.5 million passengers every single year. This is the story of a coastline that stretches from Maine to Florida, carries four distinct names, and has shaped the United States from its colonial origins forward.

• 2. Names and Borders

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  The region carries four names in common use: the East Coast, the Eastern Seaboard, the Atlantic Coast, and the Atlantic Seaboard. Each of those names points to the same geographic logic. The contiguous 48 states are bracketed by two major coastlines, one on the west and one on the east, and this is the eastern edge where land meets the Atlantic Ocean. Fourteen states have an actual shoreline on that ocean, running from Maine in the north down through New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, all the way to Florida. Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. appear on most definitions of the East Coast despite having no ocean frontage. Pennsylvania borders the Delaware River and Washington, D.C. borders the Potomac River; both rivers are tidal arms of the Atlantic, which earns them a place in the regional grouping. Vermont and West Virginia round out the landlocked states typically included in East Coast definitions, bringing the full count to 14 Atlantic-facing states plus four additional inland ones.

• 3. Colonial Roots

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  All of the original Thirteen Colonies of Great Britain lay on or near this coastline, a fact that positioned the East Coast as the nation's founding ground. Two present-day East Coast states fell outside that original colonial framework. Maine was absorbed into Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1677, and Florida followed a more tangled path. Spain held Florida until the end of the French and Indian War, when Britain took control. Spain reclaimed it under the name New Spain until 1821. The first written records of Florida came from Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León during his voyage of 1513. He called the peninsula La Pascua Florida, a name that honored both the green landscape and the fact that he arrived during the Easter season. Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania followed a different colonial route entirely. The Dutch colonized those territories as New Netherland before ceding them to the British in the mid- to late-17th century. Vermont took yet another path, existing as a fully independent republic from 1777 to 1791 before joining the United States.

• 4. Climate From North to South

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  Maine and New Hampshire see at least one month per year with a mean temperature below 0 degrees Celsius, anchoring the cold continental zone that stretches from the Canadian border south to southern Rhode Island and western Maryland. That humid continental band covers most of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York State, northern New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and western Maryland. Summers in this zone run warm to occasionally hot; winters bring cold temperatures and frequent snow, especially across Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire. South of coastal Rhode Island, the climate shifts to warm temperate, reaching across Long Island, New York City, most of New Jersey, most of Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and western North Carolina. Here the coldest month stays at or above 0 degrees Celsius on average, and at least one month climbs above 22 degrees Celsius. Further south still, from the southern Delmarva Peninsula through central Florida, the climate turns humid subtropical, with hot summers, nearly daily brief thundershowers, and milder, drier winters. At least eight months of the year average above 10 degrees Celsius in that zone. Florida south of the mid-state line and running down to the Florida Keys holds the only tropical climate on the continental United States, staying frost-free and warm all year with all twelve months averaging above 18 degrees Celsius. The rarest climate on the entire seaboard is the oceanic type, which appears only on Block Island, Nantucket, the Outer Cape and Chatham on Cape Cod, and patches of the southern Appalachian Mountains.

• 5. Landforms and Weather Hazards

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  Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, Block Island, and Fishers Island all owe their existence to Pleistocene glaciation, which sculpted the far northern reaches of the East Coast. From northern New Jersey southward, the coastal plain broadens gradually, separated from the Piedmont region by the Atlantic Seaboard fall line. That fall line marked the head of navigation on East Coast rivers and became a magnet for cities. The Florida Keys are made entirely of limestone coral and host the only coral reefs on the U.S. mainland. From Long Island south to Florida, barrier islands front much of the coastal zone, producing the long sandy beaches that define the region's shoreline. The Outer Banks of North Carolina and Cape Canaveral in Florida are among the larger capes that are technically barrier islands. The Eastern Seaboard is exposed to Atlantic hurricanes during the season that officially runs from the 1st of June to the 30th of November, though storms can arrive outside those dates. Hurricanes Hazel, Hugo, Bob, Isabel, Irene, Sandy, Florence, Isaias, Henri, and Ida number among the more significant storms to have struck the region.

• 6. Cities and Commerce

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  New York City is both the largest city on the East Coast and the largest metropolitan area, with a 2018 city population estimate of roughly 8.4 million. Midtown Manhattan held 400 million square feet of office space in 2018, making it the largest central business district in the world. Jacksonville, with an estimated city population of more than 903,000 in 2018, is the second-largest East Coast city by that measure. Philadelphia exceeded 1.58 million residents by the same estimate. Washington, D.C. serves as the federal capital and draws defense contractors, lobbying firms, trade unions, and professional associations that want proximity to the federal government. Miami carries distinct economic weight on the southern end of the seaboard. It holds one of the largest concentrations of international banks in the United States and a skyline with over 439 high-rises, 68 of which exceed 490 feet. The Port of Miami is the busiest cruise port in the world by both passenger count and cruise line volume, with more than 5.5 million cruise passengers moving through annually. Florida is also the second-largest producer of oranges in the world, trailing only Brazil. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden in Miami serves as the national center for tropical plant culture and research.

• 7. Transportation Arteries

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  Interstate 95, completed in 2018, is the primary highway running the length of the East Coast, taking over from the older U.S. Route 1, also called the Atlantic Highway, which was the original federal road traversing nearly all East Coast states except Delaware. Water travel along the coast runs through the Intracoastal Waterway, sometimes called the East Coast Canal. It connects the Annisquam River in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to Miami, Florida, and was completed in 1912. Amtrak's Downeaster and Northeast Regional provide the main passenger rail service along the seaboard. The Acela Express holds a different status: it is the only high-speed rail passenger service in the entire Americas. Between New York and Boston specifically, the Acela captures up to 54% of the combined train-and-air passenger market. The East Coast also concentrates some of the nation's largest airports, including John F. Kennedy International in Queens, Logan International in Boston, Newark Liberty in New Jersey, Philadelphia International, Baltimore-Washington International, Dulles near Washington, D.C., Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, Miami International, Charlotte Douglas, Tampa International, and Orlando International.

• 8. Cultural Layers

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  The Gullah culture of the low-country coastal islands of Georgia and South Carolina has persisted for more than 200 years, representing one of the oldest living cultural traditions on the seaboard. The East Coast's position as the primary point of arrival for immigrants, combined with its geographic closeness to Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin America, produced a depth of cultural diversity that distinguishes it from most of the country. Strong English, German, Italian, Irish, and French influences shape the Mid-Atlantic cities. Southern Florida carries a strong Latin culture, made visible in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. New York City contains numerous Chinatowns. Miami's international character extends to its role as a top domestic and international travel destination, aided by its status as the warmest major city in the continental United States during winter months. That warmth draws international visitors year-round and feeds the city's tourism industry, which operates alongside the Port of Miami's record-setting cruise traffic of more than 5.5 million passengers per year.