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The 'BosWash' (also referred to as 'Bosnywash', 'Boshington', the 'Northeast Corridor', the 'BosWash Corridor', or simply the 'Northeast megalopolis') is the name for a group of metropolitan areas in the northeastern United States, extending from Boston, Massachusetts, to Washington, D.C., including Providence, Rhode Island; Hartford, New Haven and Stamford, Connecticut; New York City, New York; Newark, New Jersey; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Wilmington, Delaware; and Baltimore, Maryland. The geographic trend was first identified in French geographer Jean Gottmann's book ''Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States'' (1961). The cities are also linked economically, and by transportation and communications.

According to Gottmann, BosWash "provides the whole of America with so many essential services, of the sort a community used to obtain in its 'downtown' section, that it may well deserve the nickname of Main Street of the nation." He also identified two other megalopolises in the U.S., ChiPitts and SanSan, but these terms did not achieve wide use.

Contents

Extent

Population statistics

Included or neighboring MSAs not in a CSA

References

See also

External links

Extent

BosWash extends from extreme southern Maine and New Hampshire south to Northern Virginia, which includes a large portion of suburban Washington DC, including Alexandria and Arlington. It has a reported population of 44 million, or 16 percent of the population of the United States (about 0.7 percent of the world population), three World Cities (New York, Washington, and Boston), and four of the world's 70 largest metropolitan areas (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore-Washington).
The region is home to the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, the White House and United States Capitol, the UN Headquarters, the headquarters of ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX and the New York Times Company as well as the ''Washington Post'', and six of the eight Ivy League Universities. The headquarters of many major financial companies such as State Street, Citigroup, and Fidelity are located within the region. The region accounts for 1/5 of the economic activity in the US and it is home to 58 of the Fortune Global 500 companies.
Amtrak's fastest train, the Acela Express, runs on the Northeast Corridor, an electrified rail line extending the length of the BosWash area. Interstate 95, one of the most vital highways in the country, is also a major transportation route for the BosWash area.
The major cities in the BosWash megalopolis include the following (listed north to south):
{|
| valign=top |

★ Portland, Maine

★ Manchester, New Hampshire

★ Nashua, New Hampshire

★ Cambridge, Massachusetts

★ 'Boston, Massachusetts'

★ Providence, Rhode Island

★ Warwick, Rhode Island

★ Cranston, Rhode Island

★ Worcester, Massachusetts

★ Springfield, Massachusetts

★ New Bedford, Massachusetts

★ Fall River, Massachusetts

★ Hartford, Connecticut

★ New Haven, Connecticut

★ Bridgeport, Connecticut

★ Stamford, Connecticut

★ Albany, New York

★ 'New York, New York'

★ Paterson, New Jersey

★ Jersey City, New Jersey

★ Newark, New Jersey

★ Elizabeth, New Jersey

★ Allentown, Pennsylvania

★ Reading, Pennsylvania

★ 'Philadelphia, Pennsylvania'

★ Atlantic City, New Jersey

★ Vineland, New Jersey

★ Camden, New Jersey

★ Wilmington, Delaware

★ 'Baltimore, Maryland'

★ 'Washington, D.C.'

★ Arlington, Virginia

★ Alexandria, Virginia

★ Richmond, Virginia
★

★ Newport News, Virginia
★

★ Hampton, Virginia
★

★ Norfolk, Virginia
★

★ Virginia Beach, Virginia
★

★ ''Not always included in Boswash, usually considered part of the South'')
Several small and medium-sized metropolitan areas near the southwestern end of the corridor, including Lancaster, Harrisburg, and York, Pennsylvania and Hagerstown and Frederick, Maryland, are also sometimes considered part of the region, though opinions vary from geographer to geographer as to which cities are included or excluded.

Population statistics

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Combined Statistical Area (CSA)
! State(s)
! 2006 Estimate
! 2000 Population
! Percent Change
(1990-2000)
|-
| New York-Newark-Bridgeport
| NY-NJ-CT-PA
| align=right | 21,976,224
| align=right | 21,361,797
| align=right | 8.4
|-
| Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia
| DC-MD-VA-WV
| align=right | 8,211,213
| align=right | 7,572,647
| align=right | 13.1
|-
| Boston-Worcester-Manchester
| MA-NH-RI
| align=right | 7,465,634
| align=right | 7,298,695
| align=right | 6.9
|-
| Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland
| PA-NJ-DE-MD
| align=right | 6,382,714
| align=right | 6,207,223
| align=right | 4.7
|-
| Combined
|
| align=right | 44,035,785
| align=right | 42,440,362
| align=right |
|}

Included or neighboring MSAs not in a CSA

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! valign=bottom | Rank
! valign=bottom | Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)
! valign=bottom | State(s) and/or Territory
! valign=bottom | 1 July 2004
Population Estimate
|-
| align=center | 43
| Richmond
| VA
| align=right | 1,194,008
|-
| align=center | 44
| Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford
| CT
| align=right | 1,184,564
|-
| align=center | 59
| Albany-Schenectady-Troy
| NY
| align=right | 845,269
|-
| align=center | 63
| Allentown - Bethlehem - Easton
| PA-NJ
| align=right | 779,816
|-
| align=center | 70
| Springfield
| MA
| align=right | 687,973
|-
| align=center | 86
| Scranton--Wilkes-Barre
| PA
| align=right | 551,531
|-
| align=center | 91
| Harrisburg - Carlisle
| PA
| align=right | 519,331
|-
| align=center | 96
| Portland-South Portland-Biddeford
| ME
| align=right | 510,791
|-
| align=center | 99
| Lancaster
| PA
| align=right | 487,332
|-
| align=center | 117
| York-Hanover
| PA
| align=right | 401,613
|-
| align=center | 121
| Reading
| PA
| align=right | 391,640
|-
| align=center | 164
| Atlantic City
| NJ
| align=right | 268,693
|-
| align=center |
| Norwich-New London
| CT
| align=right | 265,918
|-
| align=center | 183
| Barnstable
| MA
| align=right | 228,683
|-
| align=center | 216
| Charlottesville
| VA
| align=right | 180,901
|-
| align=center | 254
| Bangor
| ME
| align=right | 148,196
|-
| align=center | 268
| Dover
| DE
| align=right | 138,752
|-
| align=center | 275
| Pittsfield
| MA
| align=right | 132,486
|-
| align=center | 288
| Lebanon
| PA
| align=right | 124,489
|-
| align=center | 311
| Harrisonburg
| VA
| align=right | 111,284
|-
| align=center | 327
| Lewiston-Auburn
| ME
| align=right | 107,022
|-
| align=center |
| Ocean City
| NJ
| align=right | 100,263
|-
| align=center |
| Combined non-CSA MSAs
|
| align=right | 12,224,733
|-
| align=center |
| Combined CSAs and MSAs
|
| align=right | 53,871,278
|}

References

★ Gottmann, Jean (1961), ''Megalopolis: the Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States''. ISBN 0-527-02819-3

★ Gottmann, Jean (1987), ''Megalopolis Revisted — 25 Years Later''. ISBN 0-913749-04-4

★ Swatridge, L.A. (1971), ''The Bosnywash megalopolis: A region of great cities''. ISBN 0-07-092795-2

See also

★ List of U.S. multistate regions

★ Highways along the BosWash corridor

★ Megacity

★ Mega-City One, another science fiction megalopolis based on BosWash from the Judge Dredd series

★ Northeast Corridor, the railroad line that runs through the region.

★ Overpopulation

★ Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, the Canadian equivalent of the Northeast Corridor/BosWash

★ The Sprawl, a science fiction extension of BosWash which extends from Boston to Atlanta from the books of William Gibson

★ Urban sprawl

External links

★ About.com article on BosWash