Northeast megalopolis

"Bos-Wash Corridor" redirects here. For the origin of the term, see BosWash.

41°N 74°W﻿ / ﻿41°N 74°W﻿ / 41; -74

Megaregion of the United States

Northeast megalopolis

Megaregion of the United States

Major cities of the Northeast megalopolis (from top to bottom): Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.

Nickname(s):

Northeast corridor, BosWash, Boston–Washington corridor, Eastern Seaboard,[1] Atlantic Seaboard

Interactive map of the Northeast megalopolis

Core combined statistical areas (CSAs)

Boston–Worcester–Providence, MA–RI–NH

New Haven–Hartford–Waterbury, CT CSA

New York–Newark, NY–NJ–CT–PA CSA

Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington, PA–NJ–DE–MD

Washington–Baltimore, DC–VA–MD–WV–PA

Outlying metropolitan areas

Allentown–Bethlehem, PA–NJ CSA

Scranton–Wilkes-Barre, PA MSA

Harrisburg–York–Lebanon, PA CSA

Lancaster, PA MSA

Portland–Lewiston, ME CSA

Springfield, MA CSA

Salisbury, MD CSA and Seaford, DE MSA

Richmond, VA MSA

Virginia Beach–Norfolk, VA–NC CSA

Non-metropolitan counties in the megaregion

Federal districts|  Washington, D.C.
Largest city|  New York City (8,804,190)
Area

• Total

| 56,200 sq mi (146,000 km2)
Population

(2022[2])

• Total

| 50,244,897
• Density| 894/sq mi (345/km2)
GDP

[3]

• Total| $5.229 trillion (2022)[4]
• Per capita| $104,106 (2022)
Population density in the Northeast megalopolis on the Atlantic seaboard

The Northeast megalopolis, also known as the Northeast Corridor, Acela Corridor,[5] Boston–Washington corridor, BosWash, Bos–Wash corridor or BosNYWash,[6] is the most populous megalopolis exclusively within the United States, with slightly over 50 million residents as of 2022. The nickname "BosWash" for the region was first used by futurist Herman Kahn in a 1967 essay.[7] It is the world's largest megalopolis by economic output.[8]

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.[9] 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.[10]

The region includes many of the nation's most populated metropolitan areas, including those of New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Boston and Baltimore.[11] As of 2020, 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[12] (31 people/km2). At least one projection estimates the area will grow to 58.1 million people by 2025.[13]

Before the term "Megalopolis" became widely used, Walter Hedden identified the growing interdependence of large cities in the Northeast in his 1929 book, specifically regarding the sourcing of milk. [14] French geographer Jean Gottmann then 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

[edit]

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. The development of the interconnected urban corridor in the Northeast initially followed the strategic placement of these rail lines, forming a "railroad spine" before the expansion of the highway systems (such as I-95 and Route 1) and overlapping suburban areas. [15]

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.[16] 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 over 20% of the U.S. gross domestic product.[17] 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's 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.[18] 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.[19]

The Northeast megalopolis is home to hundreds of colleges and universities, including several that rank among the 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.[20]

## Population

[edit]

Largest combined statistical areas (CSAs) within the Northeast megalopolis[2] Rank
(U.S.)  | Combined statistical area
(CSA)  | 2020
census  | 2010
census  | Change

|
|
|
|

1  | New York–Newark, NY–NJ–CT–PA | 22,431,833  | 22,327,454  | +0.47%
3  | Washington–Baltimore–Arlington, DC–MD–VA–WV–PA | 10,028,331  | 9,050,192  | +10.81%
7  | Boston–Worcester–Providence, MA–RI–NH–CT | 8,349,768  | 7,871,570  | +6.08%
9  | Philadelphia–Reading–Camden, PA–NJ–DE–MD | 7,379,700  | 7,067,807  | +4.41%
26  | New Haven-Hartford-Waterbury, CT | 2,659,617  | 2,627,399  | +1.23%
35  | Virginia Beach–Chesapeake, VA–NC | 1,857,542  | 1,779,243  | +4.40%
Total | 50,047,174  | 48,096,266  | +4.06%
Largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) within the Northeast Megalopolis[21] 2020 Rank  | Metropolitan statistical area
(MSA)  | 2020 Census  | 2010 Census  | Change

|
|
|
|

1  | New York–Newark–Jersey City, NY-NJ MSA | 20,140,470  | 18,897,109  | +6.58%
2  | Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA | 6,385,162  | 5,649,540  | +13.02%
3  | Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD MSA | 6,245,051  | 5,965,343  | +4.69%
4  | Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA-NH MSA | 4,941,632  | 4,552,402  | +8.55%
5  | Baltimore–Columbia–Towson, MD MSA | 2,844,510  | 2,710,489  | +4.94%
6  | Virginia Beach–Chesapeake–Norfolk, VA-NC MSA | 1,780,059  | 1,676,822  | +6.16%
7  | Providence–Warwick, RI-MA MSA | 1,676,579  | 1,600,852  | +4.73%
8  | Richmond, VA MSA | 1,314,434  | 1,188,246  | +10.62%
9  | Hartford–West Hartford–East Hartford, CT MSA | 1,213,531  | 1,212,381  | +0.09%
10  | Bridgeport–Stamford–Danbury, CT MSA | 957,419  | 916,829  | +4.43%
11  | New Haven, CT MSA | 864,835  | 862,477  | +0.27%
12  | Worcester, MA MSA | 862,111  | 798,552  | +7.96%
13  | Allentown–Bethlehem–Easton, PA-NJ MSA | 861,889  | 821,623  | +4.90%
14  | Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh, NY MSA | 679,221  | 670,301  | +1.33%
15  | Portland–South Portland, ME MSA | 551,740  | 514,098  | +7.32%
16  | Springfield, MA MSA | 465,825  | 463,490  | +0.50%
17  | Waterbury–Shelton, CT MSA | 450,376  | 448,738  | +0.37%
18  | Reading, PA MSA | 428,849  | 411,442  | +4.23%
19  | Manchester–Nashua, NH MSA | 422,937  | 400,721  | +5.54%
20  | Trenton–Princeton, NJ MSA | 387,340  | 366,513  | +5.68%
21  | Hagerstown–Martinsburg, MD-WV MSA | 293,844  | 269,140  | +9.18%
22  | Norwich–New London–Willimantic, CT MSA | 280,430  | 290,198  | −3.37%
23  | Atlantic City–Hammonton, NJ MSA | 274,534  | 274,549  | −0.01%
24  | Barnstable Town, MA MSA | 228,996  | 215,888  | +6.07%
25  | Kingston, NY MSA | 181,851  | 182,493  | −0.35%
26  | Amherst Town–Northampton, MA MSA | 162,308  | 158,080  | +2.67%
27  | Chambersburg, PA MSA | 155,932  | 149,618  | +4.22%
28  | Vineland, NJ MSA | 154,152  | 156,898  | −1.75%
29  | Lexington Park, MD MSA | 113,777  | 105,151  | +8.20%
Largest cities and towns in the Northeast megalopolis with populations over 100,000[22] 2020
rank  | City/Town  | Region  | 2020
census  | 2010
census  | Change  | Land area  | 2020
population density

|
|
|
|
|
|
|

1  | New York City |  New York | 8,804,190  | 8,175,133  | +7.69% | 301.5 sq mi (781 km2)  | 29,303/sq mi (11,314/km2)
2  | Philadelphia |  Pennsylvania | 1,603,797  | 1,526,006  | +5.10% | 134.2 sq mi (348 km2)  | 11,937/sq mi (4,609/km2)
3  | Hempstead |  New York | 793,409  | 759,757  | +4.43% | 191.7 sq mi (496. km2)  | 6,685/sq mi (2,581/km2)
4  | Washington |  District of Columbia | 689,545  | 601,723  | +14.60% | 61.1 sq mi (158 km2)  | 11,281/sq mi (4,356/km2)
5  | Boston |  Massachusetts | 675,647  | 617,594  | +9.40% | 48.3 sq mi (125 km2)  | 13,977/sq mi (5,397/km2)
6  | Baltimore |  Maryland | 585,708  | 620,961  | −5.68% | 80.9 sq mi (210 km2)  | 7,235/sq mi (2,793/km2)
7  | Brookhaven |  New York | 485,773  | 486,040  | −0.05% | 531.5 sq mi (1,376 km2)  | 1,873/sq mi (724/km2)
8  | Virginia Beach |  Virginia | 459,470  | 437,994  | +4.90% | 244.7 sq mi (634 km2)  | 1,878/sq mi (725/km2)
9  | Islip |  New York | 339,938  | 335,543  | +1.31% | 162.9 sq mi (422 km2)  | 3,275/sq mi (1,264/km2)
10  | Newark |  New Jersey | 311,549  | 277,140  | +12.42% | 24.1 sq mi (62 km2)  | 12,904/sq mi (4,982/km2)
11  | Oyster Bay |  New York | 301,332  | 293,214  | +2.77% | 169.4 sq mi (438 km2)  | 1,800/sq mi (690/km2)
12  | Jersey City |  New Jersey | 292,449  | 247,549  | +18.14% | 14.8 sq mi (38 km2)  | 19,835/sq mi (7,658/km2)
13  | Chesapeake |  Virginia | 249,422  | 222,209  | +12.25% | 338.5 sq mi (877 km2)  | 737/sq mi (285/km2)
14  | Arlington[a] |  Virginia | 238,643  | 207,627  | +14.94% | 26 sq mi (67 km2)  | 9,200/sq mi (3,600/km2)
15  | Norfolk |  Virginia | 238,005  | 242,803  | −1.98% | 53.3 sq mi (138 km2)  | 4,468/sq mi (1,725/km2)
16  | N. Hempstead |  New York | 237,639  | 226,322  | +5.00% | 69.1 sq mi (179 km2)  | 4,441/sq mi (1,714/km2)
17  | Richmond |  Virginia | 226,610  | 204,214  | +10.97% | 62.6 sq mi (162 km2)  | 3,782/sq mi (1,460/km2)
18  | Babylon |  New York | 218,223  | 213,603  | +2.16% | 114.2 sq mi (295 km2)  | 4,170/sq mi (1,611/km2)
19  | Yonkers |  New York | 211,569  | 195,976  | +7.96% | 18.0 sq mi (47 km2)  | 11,750/sq mi (4,540/km2)
20  | Worcester |  Massachusetts | 206,518  | 181,045  | +14.07% | 37.4 sq mi (97 km2)  | 5,528/sq mi (2,134/km2)
21  | Huntington |  New York | 204,127  | 203,264  | +0.42% | 137.1 sq mi (355 km2)  | 2,162/sq mi (835/km2)
22  | Providence |  Rhode Island | 190,934  | 178,042  | +7.24% | 18.4 sq mi (48 km2)  | 10,373/sq mi (4,005/km2)
23  | Newport News |  Virginia | 186,247  | 180,719  | +3.06% | 69.0 sq mi (179 km2)  | 2,700/sq mi (1,000/km2)
24  | Paterson |  New Jersey | 159,732  | 146,199  | +9.26% | 8.4 sq mi (22 km2)  | 18,986/sq mi (7,331/km2)
25  | Alexandria |  Virginia | 159,467  | 139,966  | +13.93% | 15.0 sq mi (39 km2)  | 10,681/sq mi (4,124/km2)
26  | Springfield |  Massachusetts | 155,929  | 153,060  | +1.87% | 31.9 sq mi (83 km2)  | 4,893/sq mi (1,889/km2)
27  | Ramapo |  New York | 148,919  | 126,595  | +17.63% | 61.8 sq mi (160 km2)  | 2,400/sq mi (930/km2)
28  | Bridgeport |  Connecticut | 148,654  | 144,229  | +3.07% | 16.1 sq mi (42 km2)  | 9,290/sq mi (3,590/km2)
29  | Elizabeth |  New Jersey | 137,298  | 124,969  | +9.87% | 12.3 sq mi (32 km2)  | 11,145/sq mi (4,303/km2)
30  | Hampton |  Virginia | 137,148  | 137,436  | −0.21% | 51.5 sq mi (133 km2)  | 2,665/sq mi (1,029/km2)
31  | Stamford |  Connecticut | 135,470  | 122,643  | +10.46% | 37.6 sq mi (97 km2)  | 3,601/sq mi (1,390/km2)
32  | Lakewood |  New Jersey | 135,158  | 92,843  | +45.58% | 24.7 sq mi (64 km2)  | 5,476/sq mi (2,114/km2)
33  | New Haven |  Connecticut | 134,023  | 129,779  | +3.27% | 18.7 sq mi (48 km2)  | 7,170/sq mi (2,770/km2)
34  | Allentown |  Pennsylvania | 125,845  | 118,032  | +6.62% | 17.5 sq mi (45 km2)  | 7,165/sq mi (2,766/km2)
35  | Hartford |  Connecticut | 121,054  | 124,775  | −2.98% | 17.4 sq mi (45 km2)  | 6,965/sq mi (2,689/km2)
36  | Cambridge |  Massachusetts | 118,403  | 105,162  | +12.59% | 6.4 sq mi (17 km2)  | 18,512/sq mi (7,148/km2)
37  | Smithtown |  New York | 116,296  | 117,801  | −1.28% | 111.4 sq mi (288 km2)  | 1,000/sq mi (400/km2)
38  | Manchester |  New Hampshire | 115,644  | 109,565  | +5.55% | 33.1 sq mi (86 km2)  | 3,497/sq mi (1,350/km2)
39  | Lowell |  Massachusetts | 115,554  | 106,519  | +8.48% | 13.6 sq mi (35 km2)  | 8,490/sq mi (3,280/km2)
40  | Waterbury |  Connecticut | 114,403  | 110,366  | +3.66% | 28.5 sq mi (74 km2)  | 4,011/sq mi (1,549/km2)
41  | Edison |  New Jersey | 107,588  | 99,967  | +7.62% | 30.1 sq mi (78 km2)  | 3,578/sq mi (1,381/km2)
42  | Brockton |  Massachusetts | 105,643  | 93,810  | +12.61% | 21.3 sq mi (55 km2)  | 4,952/sq mi (1,912/km2)
43  | Columbia[b] |  Maryland | 104,681  | 93,810  | +11.59% | 31.9 sq mi (83 km2)  | 3,278/sq mi (1,266/km2)
44  | Woodbridge |  New Jersey | 103,639  | 99,585  | +4.07% | 23.3 sq mi (60 km2)  | 4,456/sq mi (1,720/km2)
45  | Quincy |  Massachusetts | 101,636  | 92,271  | +10.15% | 16.6 sq mi (43 km2)  | 6,133/sq mi (2,368/km2)
46  | Lynn |  Massachusetts | 101,253  | 90,329  | +12.09% | 10.7 sq mi (28 km2)  | 9,249/sq mi (3,571/km2)
47  | New Bedford |  Massachusetts | 101,079  | 95,072  | +6.32% | 20.0 sq mi (52 km2)  | 5,054/sq mi (1,951/km2)

1. ^ County
2. ^ Census Designated Place

## Economy

[edit]

The total GDP of the Northeast megalopolis is $5.6 trillion, of which around $2.3 trillion is from the New York metropolitan area.[4] As of 2023, the Northeast megalopolis would have the third-highest GDP of any nation if it was its own country, ahead of Germany ($4.7 trillion).

Largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) by GDP within the Northeast Megalopolis  2023
Rank  | Metropolitan statistical area
(MSA)  | GDP
(billions US$)[4]

|
|

1  | New York–Newark–Jersey City, NY-NJ MSA | 2,298.868
2  | Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA | 714.685
3  | Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA-NH MSA | 610.486
4  | Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD MSA | 557.601
5  | Baltimore–Columbia–Towson, MD MSA | 259.690
6  | Virginia Beach–Chesapeake–Norfolk, VA-NC MSA | 127.459
7  | Hartford–West Hartford–East Hartford, CT MSA | 122.805
8  | Richmond, VA MSA | 116.960
9  | Bridgeport–Stamford–Danbury, CT MSA | 116.031
10  | Providence–Warwick, RI-MA MSA | 111.840
11  | New Haven, CT MSA | 65.232
12  | Worcester, MA MSA | 64.135
13  | Allentown–Bethlehem–Easton, PA-NJ MSA | 59.891
14  | Trenton–Princeton, NJ MSA | 53.003
15  | Portland–South Portland, ME MSA | 48.037
16  | Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh, NY MSA | 44.457
17  | Springfield, MA MSA | 42.356
18  | Manchester–Nashua, NH MSA | 36.597
19  | Reading, PA MSA | 25.975
20  | Norwich–New London–Willimantic, CT MSA | 23.910
21  | Atlantic City–Hammonton, NJ MSA | 18.727
22  | Barnstable Town, MA MSA | 18.187
23  | Hagerstown–Martinsburg, MD-WV MSA | 15.286
24  | Kingston, NY MSA | 9.905
25  | Lexington Park, MD MSA | 9.883
26  | Amherst Town–Northampton, MA MSA | 9.766
27  | Vineland, NJ MSA | 8.209
28  | Chambersburg, PA MSA | 8.149
| Northeast megalopolis | 5,598.130

## History

[edit]

A satellite view of the Northeast megalopolitan region at night in November 2021

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.[23] 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,"[24] 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 rocky and little sheltered, whereas to the south it is smooth and does not feature as many bays or inlets that might 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

[edit]

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.

In 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."[25] 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.[26] 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.[27]

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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]

## Concept

[edit]

Map of the 11 megaregions of the United States, with the Northeast megalopolis highlighted in red in the upper right Herman Kahn, co-author of The Year 2000: A Framework for Speculation on the Next Thirty-Three Years, in which the term BosWash first appeared.

The concept of megalopolises originated with Jean Gottmann, a French geographer who wrote the 1961 book Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States, 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.[28]

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.

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.[29] In 2010 automobiles carried 80% of Boston-Washington corridor travel; intercity buses 8–9%; Amtrak 6%; and airlines 5%.[30] 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,[31] 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. Their ideas were part of a study commissioned in 1965 by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which published the results of the commission's findings in 1967 as "Toward the Year 2000: Work in Progress", a special issue of their journal Dædalus.[32]`[33] In their portion, Kahn and Wiener, discussing urbanization, began by writing:[34]

> The United States in the year 2000 will probably see at least three gargantuan megalopolises. We have labeled these—only half frivolously—"Boswash," "Chipitts," and "SanSan."

BosWash was described as "the megalopolis that will extend from Washington to Boston" along "an extremely narrow strip of the North Atlantic coast."[34] ChiPitts, mentioned as being from Chicago to Pittsburgh but extending east to Rochester, New York, was laid out as "on Lake Erie and the southern and western shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Ontario" and SanSan as "an even more narrow strip on the West Coast" from either Santa Barbara or San Francisco to San Diego in California.[34]

The three terms gained use in the period immediately following publication of The Year 2000, with Newsweek using them in 1967[35] and Changing Times featuring them in 1968.[36] However, the names are currently not used in any official capacity, and, of the three, only BosWash is described in Random House Dictionary as informal.[37] BosNYWash is a variant term that specifically references New York City,[38] which is a central hub and has long been by far the largest metropolis in the region and the country. In 1971, The Bosnywash Megalopolis was published.[39]

Isaac Asimov predicted in 1964 that by 2014, "Boston-to-Washington, the most crowded area of its size on the earth, will have become a single city with a population of over 40,000,000".[40]

In a 2005 study titled Beyond Megalopolis, researchers at Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute views the Northeast Megapolitan Area as extending beyond Boston and Washington – past Portland, Maine and Richmond, Virginia – and described it as one of ten such areas in the United States. The authors analyzed Google search results to determine plausible names for the regions, rejecting terms such as BosWash, stating: "We decided that combined place names seemed contrived and offered little chance for eventual adoption. Therefore, labels such as 'BosWash' to refer to the Northeast or 'SanSac' in reference to the combined San Francisco and Sacramento metropolitan areas were not considered."[41]

## See also

[edit]

* Conurbation
* East Coast of the United States
* Megaregions of the United States
* Mid-Atlantic (United States)
* Northeast Corridor
* Quebec City–Windsor Corridor, a densely populated corridor in Canada

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Eastern Seaboard". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved December 25, 2015.
2. ^ a b Excerpted from Table of United States Combined Statistical Areas
3. ^ "Gross Domestic Product by County and Metropolitan Area", fred.stlouisfed.org
4. ^ a b c "Gross Domestic Product by County and Metropolitan Area", fred.stlouisfed.org
5. ^ After the Amtrak train lines connecting its cities, viz. Burns, Alexander (October 2, 2017). "Zippy Amtrak Train Gets Tangled in 'the Swamp'". The New York Times., Naughton, Kevin (April 27, 2020). "Keeping the lockdown: Science or Acela Corridor parochialism?". The Hill., Franck, Matthew (October 28, 2016). "Calling All Acela Corridor Conservatives". National Review.
6. ^ Swatridge, L. A. (1971). The Bosnywash Megalopolis: A Region of Great Cities. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-092795-2.
7. ^ Jessica, Wright; Robert, Ackley; Sucharita, Gopal; Nathan, Phillips (July 27, 2022). "The BosWash Infrastructure Biome and Energy System Succession". Infrastructures. 7 (7). doi:10.3390/infra (inactive July 1, 2025).`{{cite journal}}`: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of July 2025 (link)
8. ^ Florida (February 28, 2019). "The Real Powerhouses That Drive the World's Economy". Bloomberg.com.
9. ^ Rottmann, Jean (1961). Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States. New York: The Twentieth Century Fund. p. 3.
10. ^ "Northeast". America 2050. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
11. ^ Gottman, J. (1957). "Megalopolis or the Urbanization of the Northeastern Seaboard". Economic Geography. 33 (3): 189–200 (p. 191). doi:10.2307/142307. JSTOR 142307.
12. ^ Short, John Rennie (2007). Liquid City: Megalopolis and the Contemporary Northeast. Washington, D.C.: Resources for the Future. p. 23.
13. ^ Todorovich, Petra; Hagler, Yoav (January 2011). "High Speed Rail in America" (PDF). America 2050. Retrieved May 5, 2011.
14. ^ Analysis, Chad Fisher | NUTR 342 | Food Systems Modeling & (May 10, 2023). "Feeding the Megalopolis". ArcGIS StoryMaps. Retrieved April 24, 2025.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
15. ^ Ames, Gayley, McNeil, Oswald, David, Rebekah, Sue, Michelle. "Evaluating the Current State of the BOSWASH Megapolitan Transportation Corridor and Indicators of Resiliency". University Transportation Center, University of Delaware (1): 17.`{{cite journal}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
16. ^ "Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States and Puerto Rico". United States Census Bureau. December 2009.
17. ^ "America 2050 Prospectus" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 20, 2007. Retrieved January 11, 2010.
18. ^ "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. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
19. ^ "Home" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on March 27, 2009.
20. ^ "2020 Best National Universities - US News Rankings". U.S. News & World Report. February 6, 2015. Retrieved December 26, 2019.
21. ^ Excerpted from Table of United States Metropolitan Statistical Areas
22. ^ "U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: United States". www.census.gov. Retrieved September 14, 2019.
23. ^ Gottmann (1961), p. 8.
24. ^ Gottmann (1961), pp. 81–82.
25. ^ Gottmann, Jean (1990). Harper, Robert A. (ed.). Since Megalopolis: The Urban Writings of Jean Gottman. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 63–64\. ISBN 0-8018-3812-6.
26. ^ Gottmann (1961), p. 45.
27. ^ Short (2007), p. 23
28. ^ Gottmann (1961), p. 4.
29. ^ Gottmann (1961), pp. 583–593.
30. ^ O'Toole, Randal (June 29, 2011). "Intercity Buses: The Forgotten Mode". Policy Analysis (680).
31. ^ Clabaugh (2002). "American Eagle plans N.Y.-D.C. shuttle". Washington Business Journal. Retrieved December 25, 2015.
32. ^ Bell, Daniel; et al. (Summer 1967). "Toward the year 2000: work in progress". Dædalus. 96 (3). Cambridge, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences: 718–719\. ISBN 9780262522373. OCLC 36739595. Retrieved October 24, 2009.
33. ^ Commission On The Year 2000, American Academy of Arts Sciences (1997). Book overview: Toward the year 2000: work in progress. By Daniel Bell, Stephen Richards Graubard. MIT Press. ISBN 9780262522373. Retrieved October 24, 2009.
34. ^ a b c Bell, Daniel; et al. (Summer 1967). "Toward the year 2000: work in progress". Dædalus. 96 (3). Cambridge, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences: 718–719\. ISBN 9780262522373. OCLC 36739595. Retrieved October 24, 2009.
35. ^ McCamy, James Lucian (January 15, 2002). The Quality of the Environment. Simon and Schuster. p. 42\. ISBN 0-7432-3633-5. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
36. ^ "The Good Life, 1970's Style". Changing Times. 22 (1). Washington, D.C.: Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. January 1968. ISSN 1528-9729. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
37. ^ "Boswash Definition". Random House Dictionary. 2009. Retrieved October 20, 2009.
38. ^ Jones, Richard C. (1982). Immigrants outside megalopolis: ethnic transformation in the heartland. Lexington Books. p. 3\. ISBN 978-0-7391-1919-8.
39. ^ Swatridge, L. A. (1971). The Bosnywash Megalopolis. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-092795-2.
40. ^ Asimov, Isaac (August 16, 2016). "Visit to the World's Fair of 2014". The New York Times. Retrieved November 3, 2016.
41. ^ Lang, Robert E. & Dhavale, Dawn (July 2005). "Beyond Megalopolis: Exploring America's New "Megapolitan" Geography" (PDF). Census Report Series. 05 (1). Blacksburg, Virginia: Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 27, 2009.

### Sources

[edit]

* Gottmann, Jean (1961). Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States. New York: The Twentieth century fund. ISBN 978-0-262-57003-9. OCLC 1150290806 – via Internet Archive. `{{cite book}}`: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
* Republished as Megalopolis. The MIT Press. March 15, 1964. doi:10.7551/mitpress/4537.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-262-36793-6. OCLC 551546201. `{{cite book}}`: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Northeast megalopolis.

* v
* t
* e

Northeast megalopolis major urban regions

Core cities are metropolitan core cities of at least a million people. The other areas are urban areas of cities that have an urban area of 150,000+ or of a metropolitan area of at least 250,000+. Satellite cities are in italics.

Mid-Atlantic|

| Core cities|

* Baltimore
* city
* Delaware Valley
* Philadelphia
* Camden
* Wilmington
* Hampton Roads
* Virginia Beach
* Norfolk
* Newport News
* New York
* city
* Newark
* Jersey City
* Paterson
* Elizabeth
* Richmond
* city
* Washington
* city
* Arlington
* Alexandria

|

Other areas|

* Atlantic City
* Hagerstown
* city
* Harrisburg
* city
* Lancaster
* Lehigh Valley
* Allentown–Bethlehem-Easton
* Northeastern Pennsylvania
* Scranton/Wilkes-Barre
* Poughkeepsie–Newburgh
* city 1
* city 2
* Reading
* Salisbury
* city
* Trenton
* York

Combined areas|

* Washington–Baltimore

New England|

| Core cities|

* Boston
* city
* Cambridge
* Hartford
* city
* Providence
* city

|

Other areas|

* Barnstable
* Bridgeport–Stamford–Norwalk
* city 1
* city 2
* city 3
* Danbury
* city
* Manchester
* Nashua
* New Bedford
* New Haven
* city
* Norwich–New London
* Portland
* city
* Springfield
* city
* Waterbury
* Worcester

Combined areas|

* Boston–Providence
* Bridgeport–Stamford–New Haven
* Hartford–Springfield

Other megaregions

* v
* t
* e

Northeastern United States

Topics|

* Culture
* Geography
* Government
* History

States|

* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Maine
* Maryland
* Massachusetts
* New Hampshire
* New Jersey
* New York
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* Vermont

Federal districts|

* District of Columbia

Major cities|

* Allentown
* Alexandria
* Arlington
* Baltimore
* Boston
* Bridgeport
* Brockton
* Buffalo
* Burlington
* Cambridge
* Elizabeth
* Erie
* Hartford
* Jersey City
* Lowell
* Manchester
* New Haven
* New York City
* Newark
* Paterson
* Philadelphia
* Pittsburgh
* Portland
* Providence
* Quincy
* Reading
* Rochester
* Scranton
* Springfield
* Stamford
* Syracuse
* Washington, D.C.
* Waterbury
* Wilmington
* Worcester

State capitals|

* Albany
* Annapolis
* Augusta
* Boston
* Concord
* Dover
* Hartford
* Harrisburg
* Montpelier
* Providence
* Trenton

See also|

* Northeast megalopolis

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template