copyright Alan A. Lew, 2004, all rights reserved
Chapter 4 - THE MID-ATLANTIC AND MEGALOPOLIS
Mid-Atlantic Virtual Field Trips - to New York city and Philadelphia (including Amish Pennsylvania)
Note: Links marked with an asterisk (*) are optional.
Introductory Maps
Physical Geography
Human Geography
Other Items of Interest
Megalopolis
The Mid-Atlantic region stretches from Maryland to New York. It is dominated by what French geographer Jean Gottman referred to as "Megalopolis," or the Mega-Metropolis of North America. A metropolis is an urban area which extends beyond the political boundaries of a single city. Many large American cities are actually composed of several cities that have no distinct boundary other than a line drawn on a map. This phenomenon is also referred to as a "conurbation" of cities.
The US at Night map (Notice the bright lights concentrated in the Megalopolis Region in this satellite image. I have inverted the colors to reduce the amount of black ink that would be required to print this map)
World Agricultural Population Agglomerations
The population of the world* is estimated to have passed the 6 billion mark by 2000. Approximately 66% of this number live in Asia and 5% live in the US. There are four major population agglomerations (or concentrations) in the world. East Asia and South Asia contain the largest of these. The riverine lowlands of the North China Plain and the Indus-Ganges Plain in India and Pakistan have supported very large, agriculturally based populations for over 2,000 years. These regions contain some of the world's largest cities, yet only about 30% of Asia's population reside in urban areas. The rest are rural agriculturalists.
World Industrial Population Agglomerations
The other two major world population centers are relatively recent phenomena, resulting from the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century. Unlike the Asian agglomerations, the large population concentration in northern Europe and the northeastern US extends from coastal trading ports into mountainous areas which provided the raw materials for the early industrial revolution. Furthermore, over 70% of the populations in Europe and the US reside in urban areas.
Prominence of Megalopolis
The Atlantic Coastal Plain portion of the Mid-Atlantic region contains a series of conurbations centered on five major metropolitan areas:
With a population of 41 million (1980), Megalopolis contains 17.5% of the people in the United States, in only 1.5% of the country's land area. In addition, it contains
Site and Situation
In real estate it is said that the three most important factors influencing the value of property are "location, location, and location." There are actually two aspects of location, each of which offered obstacles and opportunities for the development of a place: site and situation. Site refers to the internal characteristics of a place. The term situation is used by geographers to refer to the relationship of a place with other places. "Relative location" is synonymous with "situation."
Site Characteristics of Megalopolis
The site characteristics of the northern Atlantic Coastal Plain include a relatively narrow, flat coastal plain, interpenetrated with numerous bays, rivers, and estuaries. These make for a very long coastline within a very short distance and enhances water access and transportation. The middle Atlantic Coastal region provided early settlers with numerous opportunities for the development of deep-water, ocean-oriented port cities. Rising above the coastal plain to the west is the Appalachian Mountain Range.
Coast Formation
The many bays, estuaries, and promontories in the region were formed between 1 million and 10,000 years ago during the ice ages. The lower sea levels during the ice ages caused the rivers flowing out of the glaciers and off of the Appalachian Mountains to cut deeply into the sedimentary rock east of the Piedmont. When the glaciers melted and sea levels rose, the waters filled in the river valleys, and mountain peaks became islands and peninsulas. Some of the land features were formed by the deposition of rock and dirt at the edges or end of the glaciers. Long Island and the southern part of Cape Cod are both "moraine" features of this type. Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay are former valleys that were filled in to form "estuaries."
The Piedmont and the Fall Line
Between the Appalachians and the Coastal Plain is the Piedmont. The Piedmont is an area of low rolling hills. It is composed of hard rock which has been relatively resistant to erosion. This results in a series of waterfalls and rapids where rivers come out of the Appalachians and onto the coastal plain. The location of these waterfalls is known as the "Fall Line."
Fall Line Cities
Trenton (New Jersey), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), Wilmington (Delaware), Baltimore (Maryland), Washington (DC), Richmond (Virginia), Raleigh (North Carolina), Columbia (South Carolina), and Augusta and Macon (Georgia) were all founded on the Fall Line that marked the edge between the Piedmont and the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Montreal, on the St. Lawrence River, was founded on a similar fall location.
Two Advantages of the Fall Line
There were two reasons for locating cities at the Fall Line. The first is that it was the farthest point upriver that a boat could sail. Floating goods on a ship is one of the cheapest forms of transportation possible. However, ships can go only as far up a river as is navigable. The "head of navigation" marks the farthest point they can go, and on the Atlantic Coastal Plain this was the Fall Line. The second was that waterfall locations provided potential sources of energy.
Break-in-Bulk Points
Ships would have to stop at the Fall Line to break down their large, bulky shipments into smaller parcels for land transportation. Places where this change in transportation occurs are known as "break-in-bulk" points. Denver, for example, is the major break-in-bulk point between the Great Plains and the mountainous West. Most of the major cities on the Atlantic Coastal Plain are break-in-bulk cities.
Water Power
The second benefit the Fall Line provided to early American cities was as a source of water power to run water mills. Early industry in the US was located in mill towns, which depended on the diversion of falling water into canals to turn the machinery. In the mid-1800s, the rivers supplied water for the steam engines that replaced the water mills.
Soils and Climate
Most of the other site characteristics of the northern Atlantic Coastal Plain were not very conducive to the growth of large populations. Soils were generally poor, except for southern New Jersey and the Delmarva (Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia) peninsula. The climate was harsh and cold in the winter, and hot and humid in the summer.
The Situation of Megalopolis: Northern Europe
Northern Europe has played an important role in the "situation" or "relative location" characteristics of the Megalopolis region since the first settlers arrived in the early sixteenth century. Both the ocean currents and wind patterns in the northern Atlantic Ocean circulate in a clockwise direction. For early sailing ships, the easiest route to take from Europe to the New World was the southerly route to the Caribbean (sometimes stopping in Africa en route.) This was the route that Columbus took four times between 1492 and 1502.
Ocean Currents map
Great Circle Route
In addition to wind and water currents, the shortest direct route from the Caribbean to northern Europe was to sail straight up the East Coast of the US. This route is on a "Great Circle." (Great Circles are the shortest distance between two points on the surface of the earth. These circles also split the earth into two equal halves. A segment on a Great Circle is the shortest distance between any two points on a globe. When a round globe is made into a flat map, these circles often appear as a circular line, curved toward either the North or South Pole. This is why the shortest route from Los Angeles to Paris is over Greenland.) The Great Circle route, supported by the prevailing ocean currents and wind patterns, brought most European traders through the ports of Megalopolis cities before leaving the New World.
Economic Development on the Atlantic Coast
In this way, cotton grown in the southern states was brought to the early textile mills of New England and across to the markets of Europe. Other industries developed along the northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Fall Line which created more jobs, attracting further immigration. This, in turn, stimulated retail and services industries, creating additional jobs and population growth.
Resource Access
A second situation factor for megalopolis
cities was access to resources for development. Initially, the major cities
of Megalopolis depended on the resources available in their immediate surroundings.
Later, access to the rapidly developing industrial and agricultural activities
in the Midwest became an important influence in the development of cities in
the Mid-Atlantic.
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT
Boston
Boston was the largest city in the US up to 1750. Its early growth was based on the rich fishing industry off the coast of New England and access to inland forest products for shipbuilding. Its economy today is largely related to the importance of high technology, as well as research and development activities related to the large number of higher education institutions located in the city.
Philadelphia
Philadelphia eclipsed Boston as the largest city in the US in the 1750s. Along with Baltimore, its early growth was a result of access to the only rich agricultural lands in the region, in southern New Jersey and on the Delmarva Peninsula. By 1760, the population of Philadelphia was 18,756, while that of Boston was 15,631.
Washington, DC
Washington, DC, is located on the Fall Line but was never a major port or transport city. It was built in 1800 in a neutral location (between the slave-owning South and nonslave North) as the new capital of the United States. Its growth has been the result of federal government activity, which ties it to virtually every part of the country.
Maps of Washington, DC* - from the US House of Representatives
New York City
If Megalopolis is the metropolitan core of the United States, New York is the core of Megalopolis. There are 9.1 million people in New York's incorporated area and 17.9 million in the entire New York metropolitan area, making it one of the largest cities in the world. Everything about New York is overwhelming. It receives 17.5 million visitors a year--more than any other city in the world. It has over 100,000 hotel rooms, 350 theaters, 120 museums, 400 art galleries, and 36 single-spaced pages in the restaurants section of the yellow pages. It is the gateway to the US, housing the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the second largest Chinatown in the US, Little Italy, Broadway (the theater capital of the world), the United Nations, and the former twin 110-floor towers of the World Trade Center.
National Geographic Commentary on the symbolism of Washington & New York* (Oct 08, 2001)
Washington Post article on rebuilding New York after Sept. 11, 2001* (Oct 07, 2001)
Infrared Satellite Image of New York - red = heat from vegetation
Religious and Ethnic Diversity in New Amsterdam
Giovanni da Verrazano, sailing for France, was the first European to land on Staten Island in 1524. However, it was the Dutch who purchased Manhattan Island from the Native Americans in 1624. They established the colony of New Amsterdam where Wall Street is located today. From its very founding, New Amsterdam had a reputation for religious and political freedom beyond that which already existed in the colonies. The New Amsterdam governed by Peter Stuyvesant was described in 1634 as a place of
4 or 500 men of different religious sects and nations... speaking 18 different languages. ...The people seem not concerned what religion their neighbor is of, or whether he has any faith at all.
This was quite different from the rest of colonial America, where religion was an important factor in the founding of towns and even states, such as Catholic Maryland and Quaker Pennsylvania. In 1664, England was at war with The Netherlands. King Charles of England, not recognizing the Dutch claim to Manhattan, gave the site of New Amsterdam to the Duke of York. Under pressure from merchants, Peter Stuyvesant surrendered to the British without a fight, and New Amsterdam became New York.
New York and the Midwest
By the 1810 US census, New York had become the largest city in the country. This was a direct result of its relative location (or "situation") to settlement and industrialization west of the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachians were a major barrier to westward transportation and expansion. None of the early cities had good access across the mountain range, with the exception of New York. The Hudson River extends north from New York for about 150 miles, where it is joined by its major tributary, the Mohawk River. The Mohawk River originates near Lake Ontario to the west, cutting a broad valley between the Appalachians and Adirondacks.
New York state physiographic map
Erie Canal
The construction of the Erie Canal in 1825 provided a direct water connection between the Great Lakes and New York. Most of the industrial and agricultural products from the Midwest destined for Megalopolis and Europe came through the port of New York.
19th Century European Migrations
In the nineteenth century, New York became the major entry point for European immigration. It is estimated that 40% of Americans either came through or are descendants of people who came through Ellis Island in New York's harbor. While many moved farther westward, others stayed and established the distinct ethnic clusters characteristic of the large metropolitan cities of the Atlantic Coastal Plain.
Twentieth-Century Urban Congestion
The population densities of the Megalopolis region present serious problems of congestion. Each morning, 1.5 million people from the suburbs of New York and New Jersey cross into the lower half of Manhattan. The waterways that enhanced transportation access in the past have become major obstacles in the automobile era. Twenty major tunnels and bridges connect Manhattan to surrounding areas. Fourteen bridges cross the rivers in Washington (DC), and 22 bridges cross the rivers in Philadelphia. Highways have been widened to 12 and 16 lanes or are built parallel to one another to carry the heavy flow of traffic.
Urban Decline in Megalopolis
The 1950s witnessed the outmigration of middle- and upper-income workers from the central areas of northeastern metropolitan cities. In the 1960s and 1970s, many secondary industries also migrated out of the cities and into the suburbs, followed by service industries (especially financial) in the 1980s. This has resulted in central cities being composed of large numbers of urban poor.
Gentrification
Gentrification (the return of the middle class to the inner city) has occurred since the 1960s in most cities. Usually, the gentrification of older apartment buildings by young, white-collar professionals results in higher rents and the displacement of lower-income residents. However, overall, there has been a total population decline in both the cities and the entire Megalopolis region, as residents follow industrial migration to the Sunbelt regions of the US.
The "Continental Hinge"
Thus, without any of the traditional
natural resources which contribute to population growth and urbanization elsewhere
in the world, a Megalopolis developed on the north Atlantic Coastal Plain of
the US, based on its good ports and relative location between Europe and the
Manufacturing Midwest. Jean Gottman called Megalopolis the "Continental Hinge"
between US and European economic exchange. Despite recent population declines,
its financial, political and educational prominence in the US will remain,
as will its role as the metropolitan center of the country.
Agriculture in Megalopolis
While the general image of Megalopolis is of a single, dense urban region, it also contains very important agricultural areas. The largest farmer's market in the US occurs every morning in New Jersey. In an area the size of two football fields, dairy products, perishable vegetables, and fruits are wholesaled for city delivery. High-valued "table crops" consume 25% of the land area between the five conurbations that constitute Megalopolis. Just west of Philadelphia is the rich agricultural region settled by the "Pennsylvania Dutch" (or Deutsch, meaning "German"). The "Amish" are one of the more traditional farming peoples of this region.
US Agriculture - 1992
Crop Specialization
These areas specialize in crops such as tomatoes and lettuce, which are highly perishable and command a relatively high market price. Being located close to the metropolitan markets, farmers are able to reduce the high transportation costs of perishable crops, which gives them a relative advantage over a farmer growing tomatoes in a cheaper, yet more distant location. Less valuable and less perishable crops cannot afford the high cost of land so near to large urban centers.
Von Thunen's Land Use Model
The relationship among (1) the market price, (2) cost of production, and (3) cost of transportation to market was first explained by Johann H. Von Thunen in 1826. Von Thunen was trying to understand the distribution of different types of land uses extending beyond cities in southern Germany. To do this, he developed a land use model which assumed a flat plain with a single city and no outside influences. (A model is used to simplify reality in order to isolate the most fundamental factors which influence a process.)
With these assumptions, Von Thunen found that products near the city marketplace were either goods with high transportation costs or high production costs. Dairy products, which have both high production and transportation costs, were located closest to the city. Truck vegetables, which were brought to market on a daily basis (high transportation costs), were in the next ring out from the market. Forests, to provide wood for cooking and heating nineteenth-century homes, were in the next ring out from the city, due to their high transportation costs. Farthest from the market center were extensive agriculture (mostly grains) and grazing (cattle and sheep). Grazing animals have the lowest transportation costs, since they can be walked to the market center.
Megalopolis as America's Marketplace
The cities of Megalopolis exert a major influence on agricultural land use on the northern Atlantic Coastal Plain. This influence, however, also extends across most of the US. Megalopolis is a nationwide marketplace for agricultural goods. The closer the agricultural region is to Megalopolis, the more intensive is the crop produced. Mixed farming and pen-fed livestock are found in the eastern portions of the Midwest, while grains production and grazing are the farthest removed from the heavily urbanized northern Atlantic Coastal Plain. (A similar pattern can be seen in Europe, where the urban core extends from central England to the Ruhr Valley of Germany.)
