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BosWash

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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 Worcester, Massachusetts; Springfield, Massachusetts; 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.

Among speakers within the US, the term "BosWash" is rarely used as a reference either colloquially or generally to mark the area. US speakers are much more likely to use the terms "Northeast Corridor" or "the Northeast" when discussing the region described in this article.

Taking into account the adjacent localities as well as the main cities, the area streching from Bangor, Maine to Hampton Roads, Virginia is essentially a contiguously inhabited corridor that is home to more than 55 million people (based on 2006 population estimates). For comparison purposes, were this region a separate country, it would be the the 24th most-populous in the world, being almost as large as the United Kingdom or Italy.

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.

Beyond Megalopolis by Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute, an attempt to update Gottmann's work with current trends, defines a Northeast megapolitan area extending beyond Boston and Washington past Portland, Maine and Richmond, Virginia, as one of ten such areas in the United States.

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 City, Washington, and Boston), two developing World Cities (Philadelphia and Baltimore) 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 54 of the Fortune Global 500 companies. The region is also the center of the global hedge fund industry, with 47.9% of $2.48 trillion of hedge fund assets being managed in its cities and suburbs.

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.

List of major cities from north to south

The major cities in the BosWash megalopolis include the following (listed by state north to south, listed alphabetically within each state); largest cities in bold:

* 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 Harrisburg, Lancaster, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and York, Pennsylvania and Frederick and Hagerstown, 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

Combined Statistical Area
(CSA) 		State(s) Estimate
2006 		Census
2000 		Growth
1990s
New York-Newark-Bridgeport NY-NJ-CT-PA 21,976,224 21,361,797 8.4%

Washington-Baltimore-N. Virginia DC-MD-VA-WV 8,211,213 7,572,647 13.1%

Boston-Worcester-Manchester MA-NH-RI 7,465,634 7,298,695 6.9%

Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland PA-NJ-DE-MD 6,382,714 6,207,223 4.7%

Combined 44,035,785 42,440,362

Included or neighboring MSAs not in a CSA

Rank
(US) 		Metropolitan Statistical Area
(MSA) 		State
(s) 		Estimate
2006/7/1
33 Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News VA 1,649,457
43 Richmond VA 1,194,008
44 Hartford-W. Hartford-E. Hartford CT 1,188,841
59 Albany-Schenectady-Troy NY 845,269
63 Allentown - Bethlehem - Easton PA-NJ 850,957
70 Springfield MA 686,174
86 Scranton--Wilkes-Barre PA 550,841
91 Harrisburg - Carlisle PA 525,380
96 Portland-S. Portland-Biddeford ME 510,791
99 Lancaster PA 513,667
117 York-Hanover PA 401,613
121 Reading PA 416,322
164 Atlantic City NJ 271,620
Norwich-New London CT 263,293
183 Barnstable MA 224,816
216 Charlottesville VA 190,278
254 Bangor ME 147,180
268 Dover DE 147,601
275 Pittsfield MA 131,117
288 Lebanon PA 126,883
311 Harrisonburg VA 113,449
327 Lewiston-Auburn ME 107,552
Ocean City NJ 97,724
Combined non-CSA MSAs 11,154,833
Combined CSAs and MSAs 55,190,618

References

  • Gottmann, Jean (1961), Megalopolis: the Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States. ISBN 0-527-02819-3
  • Gottmann, Jean (1987), Megalopolis Revisited — 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

External links



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