Define the BosWash corridor. (to what extent is it's reach?) (college, living in)

[cityboi757]

Obviously the name implies everything between Boston and Washington, but I've seen some define it as everything from Norfolk to Maine. What's your thoughts?

[city_data91]

I'd say it starts in Portland, Maine and ends in NoVa

[ogre]

I'd say Bos and Wash are about the right endpoints of the real corridor. This would extend into northern VA and southern NH, to include the metro areas of the cities at the endpoints. South to about Norfolk and north to maybe a bit north of Portland could be regarded as the outermost fringes of the Northeast Corridor, or as something more like transitional zones between the Corridor and areas that lie entirely outside, sort of part of the Corridor and sort of not.

[215GUY]

Boston to Northern VA

[ki0eh]

I think it's useful to think of the core, the fringe, and the penumbra of the BosWash corridor. I think the core would be the metros of Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, and DC.

Fringe would be, say, Albany, Lancaster, Harrisburg, Hagerstown, Richmond, Norfolk, where much of the economy depends on providing services to the core corridor. The fringe are might be intercommutable at least with the edge cities of the core metros - lets say for example, I know couples living in Gettysburg where one works in Harrisburg and the other in Gaithersburg. I'm not sure where Hartford, Springfield, Providence, Wilmington would fall between "core" and "fringe."

Then the penumbra would be areas beyond the fringe where land values and some services (such as truss and pallet manufacturing, landfills, weekend resorts, etc.) are affected by proximity to the corridor, but beyond the range of normal commuting. Places I'd put in the penumbra would be Staunton VA, Elkins WV, Cumberland MD, State College PA, Glens Falls NY, perhaps all of Vermont.

[grapico]

Boston to Washington... that is why it isn't called PortWash.

[CHIP72]

The northern edge is in southern Maine north of Portland, and the southern edge is in Fredericksburg, VA. The western edge, as was discussed above, includes places like southern New Hampshire, Albany, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Harrisburg, Hagerstown, and Winchester, VA.

Places like Richmond and Hampton Roads/Norfolk area are arguably part of Megalopolis as well (though not BosWash if you use that name).

[HenryAlan]

It is the Boston CSA to the DC CSA, and all other CSAs located along the I-95 corridor between those points. Effectively, each CSA merges with the next, which is why it's considered to be a megalopolis. So Portland is part of it, as is NOVA, but I wouldn't describe it as running from Portland to NOVA.

It is one of the largest urban conglomerations in the world both in terms of area and population.

[cpterp]

Manchester, New Hampshire to Arlington/Alexandria, Virginia.

Does not include Richmond or Tidewater; big distance and culutral gap. I also don't think Western PA, extreme Western MD, or Maine are included.

[Nebat]

Originally Posted by cityboi757

Obviously the name implies everything between Boston and Washington, but I've seen some define it as everything from Norfolk to Maine. What's your thoughts?

Historical definition: Boston to DC. Amended for modern times will come to include Portland, ME to Norfolk, VA. The census designated areas already border from Norfolk to Richmond, and Richmond to DC. The culture and distance argument doesn't quite hold up because the distance between Baltimore and Philly is the same as between DC and Richmond. And you can't say the culture of Boston is the same as DC. Heck I'v heard a million times that Baltimore culture is completely different from DC's, and they're only separated by 38 miles! Between Boston and New York is a little sketchy for unbroken urbanism, but the metros of Hartford and Providence do border to complete the string. If you look at nightime images of the east coast, there is a pretty definable string of lights from Norfolk to north of Boston.