Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Location: northern Vermont - previously NM, WA, & MA
10,749 posts, read 23,822,981 times
Reputation: 14665
Advertisements
Lodged between New England and the South on the East Coast, the Mid Atlantic region is rather ambiguous in how it is defined and where its boundaries are. The identity of the region isn't as solid as New England and the tedium of the North/South divide also comes into play. It straddles the area between NYC and DC, but there are only three states that seem to fit within it as a whole; New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. But nobody would really call Buffalo or Pittsburgh the Mid Atlantic. State lines don't fit well in this region
NOVA is endlessly debatable and most of Pennsylvania would be split. How much of New York State would you call Mid Atlantic (basically how far up the Hudson)? Beyond the suburban counties of Philly, how much of PA? Would you call any part of Virginia Mid Atlantic? Geographically it's right at the center of the East Coast, but culturally and historically it's Southern. The Appalachians also bleed into the region, making it a big crossroads of identities rather than a well defined region.
What defines Mid Atlantic to you? How would the characteristics of Mid Atlantic differ from a region like the New England states? I see it as a big overlap of North and South, but how far south does the Mid Atlantic reach?
Mid-Atlantic doesn’t mean anything to me. If I had to say, I’d go DC, Baltimore, Philly metro areas. But really I’d just say it’s a nebulous term used mostly by people that live there to self-describe a region most just see as the East Coast, BoWash corridor, or the North.
The definition most seen and agreed upon seems to be Delaware, Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. It's a subset of broader terms and not meant to be wide-ranging or hyper-inclusive. It also tends to be descriptive of the coastal areas of those states/DC where the vibe is similar.
But to answer OP question -- Mid Atlantic feels like a generic term but I think people have a hard time defining certain areas of the East Coast especially some parts of the Acela corridor. Yes, DC definitely has southern elements to its culture but it's much more fast-pace than Raleigh or Columbia, etc. There's some northern elements to it but that doesn't make it the north so Mid Atlantic is a term to try to bridge that gap, I suppose.
But in the last few years people have gotten carried away, anywhere south of Fredericksburg/anywhere outside of NoVa is not Mid Atlantic... you start getting into the Southern territory beyond that point IMO.
In historic terms, the Mid-Atlantic was conceived as simply a holdover from the "Middle Colonies," which comprised the non-New England Northeast--New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.
I think in more modern times, an understanding of the "Mid-Atlantic" incorporated more points south, with Washington, DC as another focal point, to include Maryland, DC, Virginia, and the eastern part of West Virginia (and more recently, but less commonly, North Carolina).
It's certainly true the boundaries are more nebulous than, say, New England. But in today's terms its bound together most cohesively by the southern two-thirds of the Northeast Corridor south and west of New England.
This region is more temperate climatologically, historically hosted more intense industrialization (i.e., second wave of American manufacturing after the first wave in locales around Boston) and was more religiously, economically, and politically diverse than New England. I think that characterization really still stands to this day.
Lodged between New England and the South on the East Coast, the Mid Atlantic region is rather ambiguous in how it is defined and where its boundaries are. The identity of the region isn't as solid as New England and the tedium of the North/South divide also comes into play. It straddles the area between NYC and DC, but there are only three states that seem to fit within it as a whole; New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. But nobody would really call Buffalo or Pittsburgh the Mid Atlantic. State lines don't fit well in this region
NOVA is endlessly debatable and most of Pennsylvania would be split. How much of New York State would you call Mid Atlantic (basically how far up the Hudson)? Beyond the suburban counties of Philly, how much of PA? Would you call any part of Virginia Mid Atlantic? Geographically it's right at the center of the East Coast, but culturally and historically it's Southern. The Appalachians also bleed into the region, making it a big crossroads of identities rather than a well defined region.
What defines Mid Atlantic to you? How would the characteristics of Mid Atlantic differ from a region like the New England states? I see it as a big overlap of North and South, but how far south does the Mid Atlantic reach?
Pittsburgh is located in the Mid Atlantic. You cannot disconnect Pittsburgh from Pennsylvania or the Mid Atlantic. It’s not that difficult to understand.
Pittsburgh is located in the Mid Atlantic. You cannot disconnect Pittsburgh from Pennsylvania or the Mid Atlantic. It’s not that difficult to understand.
Yes, for sure. Pittsburgh really does take on all of the characteristics of a Mid-Atlantic city. And that's really not well understood by most folks not terribly familiar with the region or Pennsylvania more specifically.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
