Northeast megalopolis explained

Northeast megalopolis
Settlement Type:Megaregion of the United States
Nickname:Northeast corridor, BosWash, Boston–Washington corridor, Eastern Seaboard,[1] Atlantic Seaboard
Map Alt:Map of the Northeast Megalopolis
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Type1:States
Subdivision Type2:Federal districts
Subdivision Type3:Largest city
Subdivision Name3: New York City (8,804,190)
Unit Pref:US
Population As Of:2022[2]
Population Total:50,244,897
Population Density Sq Mi:894
Area Total Sq Mi:56200
Demographics Type2:GDP
Demographics2 Title1:Total
Demographics2 Info1:$5.229 trillion (2022)
Demographics2 Title2:Per capita
Demographics2 Info2:$104,106 (2022)

The Northeast megalopolis, also known as the Northeast Corridor, Acela Corridor,[3] Boston–Washington corridor, BosWash, or BosNYWash,[4] is the world's largest megalopolis by economic output[5] and the most populous megalopolis exclusively within the United States, with slightly over 50 million residents as of 2022.

Located primarily on the Atlantic Coast in the Northeastern United States, the Northeast megalopolis extends from the northern suburbs of Boston to Washington, D.C., running roughly southwesterly along a section of U.S. Route 1, Interstate 95, and the Northeast Corridor train line.[6] It is sometimes defined more broadly to include other urban regions, including the Richmond and Hampton Roads regions to the south; Portland, Maine, and Manchester, New Hampshire, to the north; and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to the west.[7]

The region includes many of the nation's most populated metropolitan areas, including those of New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore.[8] As of 2010, it contained more than 50 million people, about 17% of the U.S. population on less than 2% of the nation's land area, with a population density of about 1,000 people per square mile (390 people/km2), far more than the U.S. average of 80.5 per square mile[9] (31 people/km2). At least one projection estimates the area will grow to 58.1 million people by 2025.[10]

French geographer Jean Gottmann popularized the term "megalopolis" in his 1961 study of the region, Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States. Gottmann concluded that the region's cities, while discrete and independent, are uniquely tied to each other through the intermeshing of their suburban zones, taking on some characteristics of a single, massive city: a megalopolis, a term he co-opted from an ancient Greek town of the same name that named itself out of aspirations to become the largest Greek city.

Region

The Northeast megalopolis includes many of the financial and political centers of influence in the United States, including the national capital of Washington, D.C., and all or part of 12 states (from north to south): Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. The region is linked by Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1, which start in Miami and Key West, Florida, respectively, in the south, and terminate in Maine at the U.S.-Canadian border. It is also linked by the Northeast Corridor train line, the country's busiest passenger rail line, serving Amtrak and several commuter rail agencies.

As of 2019, the region is home to 52.3 million people, and its metropolitan statistical areas are contiguous from Washington, D.C., in the south to Boston in the north.[11] The region is not uniformly populated between the terminal cities, and there are regions nominally within the corridor yet located away from the main transit lines that have been bypassed by urbanization, such as the Quiet Corner in Connecticut.

The region accounts for 20% of the U.S. gross domestic product.[12] It is home to two of the world's largest stock exchanges, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, and the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City, and the executive, legislative, and judicial centers of the U.S. federal government, the White House, the U.S. Capitol, and the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. The region also is home to the headquarters of most of the nation and some of the world's largest media organizations, including ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR, PBS, Fox, Comcast, The New York Times Company, USA Today, New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, Newsday, The Washington Post, and The Boston Globe.

The global headquarters of many major financial firms, including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Capital One, The Vanguard Group, and Fidelity, are located in the region. Among the world's 500 largest companies, 54 are based in the Northeast megalopolis. Among the 500 largest U.S.-based companies, 162 are headquartered in the region.[13] The region is the center of the global hedge fund industry, which is heavily based in New York City and the suburban Connecticut cities of Greenwich and Stamford.[14]

The Northeast megalopolis is home to hundreds of colleges and universities, including several that rank among world's most elite universities, including Harvard and MIT, both in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Brown in Providence, Rhode Island, Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, Columbia in New York City, Princeton in Princeton, New Jersey, the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, and Georgetown in Washington, D.C.[15]

Population

Largest combined statistical areas (CSAs) within the Northeast megalopolis[16]
Rank
(U.S.)
Combined statistical area
(CSA)
2020
census
2010
census
Change
1New York–Newark, NY–NJ–CT–PA
3Washington–Baltimore–Arlington, DC–MD–VA–WV–PA
7Boston–Worcester–Providence, MA–RI–NH–CT
9Philadelphia–Reading–Camden, PA–NJ–DE–MD
35Virginia Beach–Chesapeake, VA–NC
Total
Largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) within the Northeast Megalopolis[17] !2020 Rank!Metropolitan statistical area
(MSA)!2020 Census!2010 Census!Change
1New York–Newark–Jersey City, NY-NJ MSA
2Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA
3Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD MSA
4Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA-NH MSA
5Baltimore–Columbia–Towson, MD MSA
6Virginia Beach–Chesapeake–Norfolk, VA-NC MSA
7Providence–Warwick, RI-MA MSA
8Richmond, VA MSA
9Hartford–West Hartford–East Hartford, CT MSA
10Bridgeport–Stamford–Danbury, CT MSA
11New Haven, CT MSA
12Worcester, MA MSA
13Allentown–Bethlehem–Easton, PA-NJ MSA
14Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh, NY MSA
15Portland–South Portland, ME MSA
16Springfield, MA MSA
17Waterbury–Shelton, CT MSA
18Reading, PA MSA
19Manchester–Nashua, NH MSA
20Trenton–Princeton, NJ MSA
21Hagerstown–Martinsburg, MD-WV MSA
22Norwich–New London–Willimantic, CT MSA
23Atlantic City–Hammonton, NJ MSA
24Barnstable Town, MA MSA
25Kingston, NY MSA
26Amherst Town–Northampton, MA MSA
27Chambersburg, PA MSA
28Vineland, NJ MSA
29Lexington Park, MD MSA
Largest cities and towns in the Northeast megalopolis with populations over 100,000[18] !2020
rank!City/Town!Region!2020
census!2010
census!Change!Land area!2020
population density
1New York City301.5sqmi29303/sqmi
2Philadelphia134.2sqmi11937/sqmi
3Hempstead191.7 sq mi (496. km2)6,685/sq mi (2,581/km2)
4Washington61.1sqmi11281/sqmi
5Boston48.3sqmi13977/sqmi
6Baltimore80.9sqmi7235/sqmi
7Brookhaven531.5 sq mi (1,376 km2)1,873/sq mi (724/km2)
8Virginia Beach244.7sqmi1878/sqmi
9Islip162.9 sq mi (422 km2)3,275/sq mi (1,264/km2)
10Newark24.1sqmi12904/sqmi
11Oyster Bay169.4 sq mi (438 km2)1,800/sq mi (690/km2)
12Jersey City14.8sqmi19835/sqmi
13Chesapeake338.5sqmi737/sqmi
14Arlington26sqmi9200/sqmi
15Norfolk53.3sqmi4468/sqmi
16N. Hempstead69.1 sq mi (179 km2)4,441/sq mi (1,714/km2)
17Richmond62.6sqmi3782/sqmi
18Babylon114.2 sq mi (295 km2)4,170/sq mi (1,611/km2)
19Yonkers18sqmi11750/sqmi
20Worcester37.4sqmi5528/sqmi
21Huntington137.1 sq mi (355 km2)2,162/sq mi (835/km2)
22Providence18.4sqmi10373/sqmi
23Newport News69sqmi2700/sqmi
24Paterson8.4sqmi18986/sqmi
25Alexandria15sqmi10681/sqmi
26Springfield31.9sqmi4893/sqmi
27Ramapo61.8 sq mi (160 km2)2,400/sq mi (930/km2)
28Bridgeport16.1sqmi9290/sqmi
29Elizabeth12.3sqmi11145/sqmi
30Hampton51.5sqmi2665/sqmi
31Stamford37.6sqmi3601/sqmi
32Lakewood24.7sqmi5476/sqmi
33New Haven18.7sqmi7170/sqmi
34Allentown17.5sqmi7165/sqmi
35Hartford17.4sqmi6965/sqmi
36Cambridge6.4sqmi18512/sqmi
37Smithtown111.4 sq mi (288 km2)1,000/sq mi (400/km2)
38Manchester33.1sqmi3497/sqmi
39Lowell13.6sqmi8490/sqmi
40Waterbury28.5sqmi4011/sqmi
41Edison30.1sqmi3578/sqmi
42Brockton21.3sqmi4952/sqmi
43Columbia31.9sqmi3278/sqmi
44Woodbridge23.3sqmi4456/sqmi
45Quincy16.6sqmi6133/sqmi
46Lynn10.7sqmi9249/sqmi
47New Bedford20sqmi5054/sqmi

Economy

Total GDP of Northeast megalopolis is $5.2 trillion of which around $2.2 trillion is New York metropolitan area. If Northeast megalopolis was a sovereign nation (2022), it would rank in terms of nominal GDP as the world's third largest economy, ahead of Japan ($4.231 trillion).

Largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) by GDP within the Northeast Megalopolis!2022
Rank!Metropolitan statistical area
(MSA)!GDP
(billions US$)
1New York–Newark–Jersey City, NY-NJ MSA2,163.209
2Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA660.626
3Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA-NH MSA571.667
4Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD MSA518.485
5Baltimore–Columbia–Towson, MD MSA241.339
6Virginia Beach–Chesapeake–Norfolk, VA-NC MSA116.686
7Hartford–West Hartford–East Hartford, CT MSA114.887
8Richmond, VA MSA109.513
9Providence–Warwick, RI-MA MSA105.571
10Bridgeport–Stamford–Danbury, CT MSA104.368
11New Haven, CT MSA61.456
12Worcester, MA MSA60.343
13Allentown–Bethlehem–Easton, PA-NJ MSA54.323
14Trenton–Princeton, NJ MSA49.620
15Portland–South Portland, ME MSA43.764
16Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh, NY MSA42.862
17Springfield, MA MSA40.110
18Manchester–Nashua, NH MSA34.533
19Reading, PA MSA23.751
20Norwich–New London–Willimantic, CT MSA22.049
21Atlantic City–Hammonton, NJ MSA16.851
22Kingston, NY MSA16.351
23Hagerstown–Martinsburg, MD-WV MSA13.990
24Amherst Town–Northampton, MA MSA9.175
25Barnstable Town, MA MSA9.053
26Lexington Park, MD MSA8.849
27Vineland, NJ MSA7.831
28Chambersburg, PA MSA7.457
Northeast megalopolis5,228.729

History

Due to its proximity to Europe, the Eastern coast of the United States was among the first regions of the continent to be widely settled by Europeans. Over time, the cities and towns founded on the East Coast had the advantage of age over most other parts of the U.S. However, it was the Northeast in particular that developed most rapidly, owing to a number of fortuitous circumstances.

While possessing neither particularly rich soil—one exception being New England's Connecticut River Valley—nor exceptional mineral wealth, the region still supports some agriculture and mining. The climate is temperate and not particularly prone to hurricanes or tropical storms, which increase further south. However, the most important factor was the "interpenetration of land and sea," which makes for exceptional harbors, such as those at the Chesapeake Bay, the Port of New York and New Jersey, Narragansett Bay in Providence, Rhode Island, and Boston Harbor. The coastline to the north is rockier and less sheltered, and to the South is smooth and does not feature as many bays and inlets that function as natural harbors. Also featured are navigable rivers that lead deeper into the heartlands, such as the Hudson, Delaware, and Connecticut rivers, which all support large populations and were necessary to early settlers for development. Therefore, while other parts of the country exceeded the region in raw resource value, they were not as easily accessible, and often, access to them necessarily had to pass through the Northeast first.

Modern history

The Northeast played a significant role in the foundation of the United States during the late colonial era and in the American Revolutionary War. Pre-revolutionary events like the Gaspee affair, the Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party, and the First Continental Congress all occurred in the region. In 1775, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first major battle of the Revolution, occurred in Massachusetts a few miles away from Boston. Many of the most significant battles took place in the region, including the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Battle of Monmouth, the Battle of Trenton, the Battle of Princeton, as well as several significant military campaigns such as the Philadelphia Campaign, the New York and New Jersey Campaign, the Boston Campaign, and the Yorktown Campaign. The surrender of the British occurred in the south end of the megalopolis after the Siege of Yorktown in 1781. Other significant events that occurred during the Revolution at this time in the region include the Second Continental Congress, the creation of the Articles of Confederation, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitutional Convention.

During the Civil War, while most of the region did not experience fighting, there were many significant battles in the southern end of the region, particularly in Virginia. Major battles such as the Battle of Gettysburg, the Battle of Antietam, the Battles of Bull Run, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, and the Battles of Petersburg all occurred in the region. Additionally, Richmond acted as the capital of the Confederacy.

By 1800, the region included the only three U.S. cities with populations of over 25,000: Philadelphia, New York City, and Baltimore. By 1850, New York City and Philadelphia alone had over 300,000 residents while Baltimore, Boston, Brooklyn (at that time a separate city from New York), Cincinnati, and New Orleans had over 100,000: five were within one 400-mile strip while the last two were each four hundred miles away from the next closest metropolis. The immense concentration of people in one relatively densely packed area gave that region considerable sway through population density over the rest of the nation, which was solidified in 1800 when Washington, D.C., only 38 miles southwest of Baltimore, was made the nation's capital. According to Gottmann, capital cities "will tend to create for and around the seats of power a certain kind of built environment, singularly endowed, for instance, with monumentality, stressing status and ritual, a trait that will increase with duration."[19] The transportation and telecommunications infrastructure that the capital city mandated also spilled over into the rest of the strip.

Additionally, the proximity to Europe, as well as the prominence of Ellis Island as an immigrant processing center, made New York City and cities nearby a "landing wharf for European immigrants," who represented an ever replenished supply of diversity of thought and determined workers. By contrast, the other major source of trans-oceanic immigrants was China, which was farther from the U.S. West Coast than Europe was from the East, and whose ethnicity made them targets of racial discrimination, creating barriers to their seamless integration into American society. By 1950, the region held over one-fifth of the total U.S. population, with a density nearly 15 times that of the national average.

The region has been home to the richest city in the nation for over 200 years: Hartford, Connecticut held the title from the pre–Civil War industrial era until about 1929, and New York City has held it since. Loudoun and Fairfax County, Virginia are the wealthiest counties in the country, and Connecticut's Gold Coast has one of the highest population densities of families worth over $30 million USD.

Concept

The concept of megalopolises originated with Jean Gottmann, a French geographer who wrote Megalopolis, a book whose central theory was that the cities between Washington, D.C., and Boston together form a sort of cohesive, integrated "supercity." He took the term megalopolis from a small Greek town that was settled in the Classical Era with the hope it would "become the largest of the Greek cities". The city still exists today, but is largely a sleepy agricultural community. However, the dream of the city's founders, Gottmann argued, was being realized in the Northeastern U.S. in the 1960s with the ascent of the region to global political, academic, and economic prominence.

Gottmann defined two criteria for a group of cities to be a true megalopolis: "polynuclear structure" and "manifold concentration:" that is, the presence of multiple urban nuclei, which exist independently of each other yet are integrated in a special way relative to sites outside their area.

Twin cities, such as Minneapolis–Saint Paul in Minnesota would not be considered a megalopolitan area since both cities are fairly integrated, even though both cities have distinct city borders and large central business districts. Large communities on the outskirts of major cities, such as Silver Spring or Bethesda in Maryland outside of Washington, D.C., are clearly distinct areas with even their own downtowns. However, they are not in any way independent of their host city, being still considered suburbs that would almost certainly not have developed in the ways that they have without the presence of Washington.

On the other hand, while the major cities of the Northeast megalopolis all are distinct, independent cities, they are closely linked by transportation and telecommunications. Neil Gustafson showed in 1961 that the vast majority of phone calls originating in the region terminate elsewhere in the region, and it is only a minority that are routed to elsewhere in the United States or abroad. In 2010 automobiles carried 80% of Boston-Washington corridor travel; intercity buses 8–9%; Amtrak 6%; and airlines 5%.[20] Business ventures unique to the region have sprung up that capitalize on the interconnectedness of the megalopolis, such as airline shuttle services that operate short flights between Boston and New York City and New York City and Washington, D.C. that leave every half-hour,[21] Amtrak's Acela Express high-speed rail service from Washington to Boston, and the Chinatown bus lines, which offer economy transportation between the cities' Chinatowns and elsewhere. Other bus lines operating in the megalopolitan area owned by national or international corporations have also appeared, such as BoltBus and Megabus. These ventures indicate not only the dual "independent nuclei"/"interlinked system" nature of the megalopolis, but also a broad public understanding of and capitalization on the concept.

In 2007, Gottmann's "megalopolis" concept was largely supported by John Rennie Short, who authored an update to Gottmann's book, Liquid City: Megalopolis and the Contemporary Northeast. National Geographic Society released a map in 1994 of the region at the time of the American Revolutionary War and in present day, which borrowed Gottmann's book's title. U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell wrote a book, Megalopolis Unbound in 1966, which summarized and expanded on Gottman's original book to outline his vision for a cohesive transportation policy in the region, including his state of Rhode Island. In 1967, futurists Herman Kahn and Anthony Wiener coined the term "BosWash" to predict that the region would emerge as the sort of megalopolis initially described by Gottmann.[22]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Encyclopedia: Eastern Seaboard . Encyclopædia Britannica . December 25, 2015 .
  2. Excerpted from Table of United States Combined Statistical Areas
  3. After the Amtrak train lines connecting its cities, viz. News: Burns . Alexander . Zippy Amtrak Train Gets Tangled in 'the Swamp' . . October 2, 2017., News: Naughton . Kevin . Keeping the lockdown: Science or Acela Corridor parochialism? . The Hill . April 27, 2020., News: Franck . Matthew . Calling All Acela Corridor Conservatives . National Review . October 28, 2016.
  4. Book: Swatridge, L. A. . 1971 . The Bosnywash Megalopolis . McGraw-Hill . 0-07-092795-2 .
  5. News: The Real Powerhouses That Drive the World's Economy . Bloomberg.com. February 28, 2019.
  6. Book: Rottmann, Jean . Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States . New York . The Twentieth Century Fund . 1961 . 3 .
  7. Web site: Northeast . America 2050 . August 6, 2018 .
  8. Gottman . J. . 1957 . Megalopolis or the Urbanization of the Northeastern Seaboard . Economic Geography . 33 . 3 . 189–200 (p. 191) . 10.2307/142307 . 142307.
  9. Book: Short, John Rennie . Liquid City: Megalopolis and the Contemporary Northeast . Washington, D.C. . Resources for the Future . 2007 . 23 .
  10. Web site: Todorovich . Petra . Hagler, Yoav . High Speed Rail in America . America 2050 . January 2011 . May 5, 2011 .
  11. Web site: Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States and Puerto Rico . . December 2009 .
  12. Web site: America 2050 Prospectus . January 11, 2010 .
  13. Web site: Building America's Future Chairmen Bloomberg and Rendell Testify for Developing High-Speed Rail for the Northeast Corridor in Congressional Hearing . Building America's Future Educational Fund . January 27, 2011 . September 4, 2013 .
  14. Web site: Home . https://web.archive.org/web/20090327033218/http://www.hedgefundintelligence.com/images/590/55595/Global%20hedge%20fund%20assets%20$2.48trillion.pdf . March 27, 2009 .
  15. Web site: 2015-02-06 . 2020 Best National Universities - US News Rankings . 2019-12-26 . U.S. News & World Report.
  16. Excerpted from Table of United States Combined Statistical Areas
  17. Excerpted from Table of United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas
  18. Web site: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: United States. www.census.gov. en. 2019-09-14.
  19. Book: Gottmann, Jean . Since Megalopolis: The Urban Writings of Jean Gottman . Robert A. . Harper . Baltimore . The Johns Hopkins University Press . 1990 . 0-8018-3812-6 . 63–64 .
  20. Intercity Buses: The Forgotten Mode . O'Toole . Randal . Policy Analysis . June 29, 2011 . 680 .
  21. Web site: American Eagle plans N.Y.-D.C. shuttle . Washington Business Journal . December 25, 2015 .
  22. Bell . Daniel . Summer 1967 . Toward the year 2000: work in progress . Dædalus . American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Cambridge, MA . 96 . 3 . 718–719 . 36739595 . October 24, 2009 . etal . 9780262522373 .