The Ridge and Valley section in Pennsylvania
Infrared Image of eastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey, separated by the Delaware River (with Philadelphia). From Left to Right can be seen: Ridge and Valley section, The Great Valley (the wide, flat strip running diagonally down the middle of the image from upper right to lower left), a thin line of the Blue Ridge mountains (which are much larger further south), then the Piedmont (to the right of the Great Valley), and the Atlantic Coastal Plain (consisting of the southern part of New Jersey. Atlantic City is on the coast.
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Through the Ridge and Valley section of the Appalachian Range (in Pennsylvania)
Entering the Great Valley in Maryland - just north of Washington, DC
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania topographic map showing the Susquehanna River, whose course was shaped by ancient mountains that no longer exist, cutting through the ridges in Ridge and Valley section of the Appalachian Range.
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Diagram of the Susquehanna River - Harrisburg, Pennsylvania area
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Infrared, Highway, Topographic and Geologic Maps of the Susquehanna River and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
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The Cumberland Gap in Cumberland, Maryland. Both rail and road take advantage of this river-cut gap in the Appalachian range. US Highway 40 -- the first highway in the US -- takes this route.
Road Cut showing the underlying geology of the Appalachian Mountains.
Scars from open vein coal mining from the past. This is how coal veins that were exposed at the surface were mined. Deeper coal required underground mining to get out.
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Truck carrying coal north of Birmingham, Alabama at the southern end of the Appalachian range. Coal in this area helped bring about an industrial revolution to the Birmingham-Atlanta-Chattanooga area after the Civil War.
The Eastern Continental Divide (in Maryland here) separates waters that flow into the Atlantic Ocean from those that flow into the Gulf of Mexico.
Horse-drawn barges on canals like this one were the original means of transportation over the Appalachians
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Allegheny Plateau area in Pennsylvania
Sinkhole in Kentucky
Geology of limestone landscapes, such as those found in parts of the plateau regions of the Appalachian Mountains. Limestone was formed by the accumulation of small crustaceans (shell fish) on former coastlines.
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Pockmarked limestone landscape near Mammoth Caves National Monument in Kentucky; and view of the stalactites inside Mammoth Cave.
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Abraham Lincoln's Log Cabin - This part of Kentucky is also where Abraham
Lincoln was born. The cabin is inside the marble building -- though there is
not total agreement that this was the original. The family's water well is where
the people are standing in the lower left.
This was probably Abraham
Lincoln's childhood cabin.
Below is a copy of the original land survey of the Lincoln family property, using the British Metes and Bounds survey system
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The Great Smoky Mountain National Park -- the most visited National Park in the US. The Smoky's are the highest mountains in the eastern US and are part of the Blue Ridge section of the Appalachians.
The popular Appalachian Trail
Gatlinburg, Tennessee -- a resort community in the Smoky Mountains
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee - a huge tourist trap - with the Smoky Mountain National Park in the background.
Hillbilly Village in Pigeon Forge
Cherokee, North Carolina. Like Pigeon Forge, the Cherokee Reservation taps into visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Small farms in the southern Appalachians near the Great Smoky Mountain National Park
Near the southern end of the Appalachian Range. The Piedmont lies below and Atlanta is off in the distance from this viewpoint.
Audio Clip: Carolinas
Re-Survey Border from National Public Radio's All Things Considered
(28 March 2003). This story reports on a project to re-survey the boundary between
North and South Carolina. The states are undertaking the effort to ease confusion
about the last survey, done in 1815. The story relates to the area pictured
above along the North Carolina-South Carolina border where property and state
boundaries are not well defined. <RealPlayer
version>