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Again, not everyone's definition of Mid Atlantic excludes the South. Is it part of the Northeast, part of the Southeast, overlapping both, or is it part of neither the Northeast nor the Southeast but its own region? Different people have different opinions on this. I consider the Mid Atlantic to be part of the Northeast, and therefore Virginia to me is not part of the Mid Atlantic. I suspect those who include Virginia in their definition of the Mid Atlantic tend to think of the Mid Atlantic as being part of the northeast and southeast (overlapping the two regions) or its own region apart from either the northeast or the southeast. Again, see your thread in the Hampton Roads forum for the opinions of people who live in southeastern Virginia.
I think North/South is the wrong way to look at it. The Mid Atlantic is really a combination of both. At the end of the day, Newport News, VA and Newark, NJ are part of the same region. They are both culturally Mid Atlantic. No question about it.
And if you look at the Baltimore forum, a majority of respondents don't view themselves as "northeastern." So in that sense, Baltimore and Richmond are quite similar.
I doubt you would see a similar result in the Philly forum, for example.
Besides, if a city has rowhouses, you can rest assured its not in the South. Richmond also had industry much like Baltimore. You can see its industrial heritage when passing through on I-95.
Maryland and Virginia are both Mid Atlantic states with strong northeastern influences. Historically, these two states have been fused together at the hip. The same is still true today. The metros in both states are economically linked by the Northeast Regional.
Also, Petersburg, VA is where I-95 becomes 3 to 4 lanes. As I'm driving from the South, I feel like I'm passing through the Gateway to the Northeast. It's nothing but VA, MD, PA, NJ and NY tags at that point. And the traffic is bonkers, which signifies I'm entering the fast-paced East Coast.
Again, not everyone's definition of Mid Atlantic excludes the South. Is it part of the Northeast, part of the Southeast, overlapping both, or is it part of neither the Northeast nor the Southeast but its own region? Different people have different opinions on this. I consider the Mid Atlantic to be part of the Northeast, and therefore Virginia to me is not part of the Mid Atlantic. I suspect those who include Virginia in their definition of the Mid Atlantic tend to think of the Mid Atlantic as being part of the northeast and southeast (overlapping the two regions) or its own region apart from either the northeast or the southeast. Again, see your thread in the Hampton Roads forum for the opinions of people who live in southeastern Virginia.
That is true. Places close to one another are usually more similar to one another than places much farther apart, even if there is a regional boundary between them. Richmond is more similar to DC (100 miles away) than it is to Savannah (500 miles away) or Birmingham (nearly 700 miles away).
Richmond is also more similar to Raleigh or Greensboro than it is to Bangor ME or Burlington VT.
Turns out the bolded is true. The Mid-Atlantic is where the Northeast and Southeast come together. And its been like that for a long time.
The oldest map I have seen on the Mid-Atlantic (Map of 1872, Middle Atlantic States )dates to 1872 and shows the Mid-Atlantic as everything from New York to Virginia.
In addition, a few years later US geographer James Monteith created a 1883 map of the Mid-Atlantic Map which again shows everything from New York to Virginia. Both maps also include West Virginia as Middle Atlantic.
This gives us several clues.....
* The Census definition probably is from a older more original version of the Middle Atlantic (Mid-Atlantic = Middle State = Middle Colony).
* However the term "Middle States" were already expanding southward in the mid 1800s and possibly earlier.
* Since these old maps were right after after the Civil War, its obvious that Virginia was still a Southern state and so being part of the North was not necessary to be considered Middle Atlantic.
* North Carolina was not part of the Middle Atlantic
I think North/South is the wrong way to look at it. The Mid Atlantic is really a combination of both. At the end of the day, Newport News, VA and Newark, NJ are part of the same region. They are both culturally Mid Atlantic. No question about it.
And if you look at the Baltimore forum, a majority of respondents don't view themselves as "northeastern." So in that sense, Baltimore and Richmond are quite similar.
I doubt you would see a similar result in the Philly forum, for example.
Besides, if a city has rowhouses, you can rest assured its not in the South. Richmond also had industry much like Baltimore. You can see its industrial heritage when passing through on I-95.
I consider the Chesapeake Bay and Delmarva to be the core Mid-Atlantic.
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Middle Atlantic
