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Delaware Valley

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The Delaware Valley is a term used widely to refer to the metropolitan area centered on the city of Philadelphia in the United States. The term is derived from the Delaware River, which flows through it. The Office of Management and Budget officially defines the region as the Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The Delaware Valley is composed of several counties in Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, and contains a population of 5.83 million (as of the 2006 Census Bureau estimate). Philadelphia, being the region's major commercial, cultural, and industrial center, maintains a rather large sphere of influence that affects those counties that immediately surround it. The majority of the region's populace resides in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the United States and is located towards the southern end of the BosWash megalopolis, the name given for a group of metropolitan areas in the northeastern United States, extending from Boston to Washington, D.C.

Based on commuter flows, the OMB also defines a wider labor market region known as the Philadelphia–Camden–Vineland Combined Statistical Area (CSA). This wider region adds the metropolitan areas of Vineland and Reading and has a total population of 6.38 million.

Additionally, the counties of Lancaster, Lehigh, and Northampton, all in Pennsylvania, and Mercer, in New Jersey, are within the Philadelphia media zone. Philadelphia ranks #4, behind only New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, in Nielsen Media Market size rankings.

Character

The area has extensive suburban sprawl. King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and Cherry Hill, New Jersey, are two of the largest suburban edge cities. Philadelphia's suburbs contain a high concentration of malls, including the King of Prussia Mall, the largest on the East Coast, and the Cherry Hill Mall in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, the first enclosed mall on the East Coast. Malls, office complexes, strip shopping plazas, expressways, and tract housing are common sights, and more and more continue to replace rolling countryside, farms, woods, and wetlands. However, thanks to recent opposition by residents and political officials, many acres of land have been preserved throughout the Delaware Valley. Sprawling forests and farms can still be found throughout the region, providing a haven for pristine nature seekers. Older small towns and large boroughs such as Norristown, Jenkintown and West Chester, retain distinct community identities while engulfed in suburbia. The fastest-growing counties are Chester, Montgomery, Bucks, and Gloucester.

The region also has a large and growing ethnic population. The Delaware Valley is home to growing numbers of African Americans, Europeans, Asians, Arabs, Hispanics, and West Indians.

Counties making up the Delaware Valley

Delaware

Maryland

New Jersey

Atlantic County, New Jersey and Cape May County, New Jersey are generally considered part of the Delaware Valley. These Counties, along with Ocean County, while home to Philadelphia commuters, are also home to an extensive tourism industry. The most notable of these tourist towns is Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Ocean County, New Jersey, while officially designated as part of the New York Metropolitan Area, is strongly affiliated with the Delaware Valley. Ocean County, while theoretically in the New York Metro Area, is actually in the Southern part of New Jersey and is home to many Philadelphia commuters. Large numbers of Philadelphia commuters have started to migrate into Ocean County as the Delaware Valley has grown.

Mercer County, New Jersey, while part of the New York Metropolitan Area, has traditionally also been affiliated with the Delaware Valley. Mercer County, located next to the Northern fringe of the Delaware Valley, is home to both New York and Philadelphia commuters. In recent years, however, growing numbers of New York commuters have migrated into Mercer. The two main towns in Mercer County are Princeton, located in the northern part of the county and Trenton, located in the southern part of the county. Generally speaking, Princeton identifies strongly with New York while Trenton, New Jersey's capital, still possesses a mixed identity comprising of both New York and Philadelphia influences.

Pennsylvania

Primary Cities

Transportation

Many residents commute to jobs in Philadelphia, Camden, Wilmington with the help of expressways and trains. Commutes from one suburb to another are also common, as office parks have sprung up in new commercial centers such as King of Prussia, Fort Washington, Cherry Hill, and Plymouth Meeting.

Commuter Rail

  • SEPTA Regional Rail

    • R1 Airport Route connecting Central Philadelphia with Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia and Delaware Counties and R1 Glenside route serving North Philadelphia and Montgomery County
    • R2 Marcus Hook/Wilmington/Delaware route connecting the Wilmington, DE area (with limited weekday service to Newark, DE), via Chester City and Delaware County and R2 Warminster route serving southeastern Montgomery County.
    • R3 West Trenton connecting Central Philadelphia northern to the Trenton, NJ area, serving Bucks County, PA between Jenkintown, PA and Yardley, PA, with the final stop in West Trenton, NJ. R3 Media/Elwyn (southern) route connecting Philadelphia to central Delaware County.
    • R5 Paoli/Downingtown/Thorndale route connecting Philadelphia with the affluent Main Line area and western Chester County near Coatesville and R5 Lansdale/Doylestown connecting Philadelphia with Lansdale in central Montgomery County and Doylestown in Bucks County.
    • R6 Norristown route connecting Philadelphia with Conshohocken and Norristown in Montgomery County and R6 Cynwyd route connecting Philadelphia with Bala Cynwyd on the Philadelphia/Montgomery County line.
    • R7 Trenton Route connecting Philadelphia to the Trenton, NJ, serving Bucks County and R7 Chestnut Hill East line connecting Central Philadelphia with Chestnut Hill area of the city.
    • R8 Chestnut Hill West route connecting Central Philadelphia to Chestnut Hill area and R8 Fox Chase connecting Central Philadelphia with Fox Chase area in Philadelphia.

  • New Jersey Transit

    • Atlantic City Line connecting Philadelphia to Atlantic City, NJ with connections to PATCO Speedline in Lindenwold, NJ
    • River Line connecting Camden (NJ) to Trenton (NJ) running along the east bank of the Delaware River

  • PATCO Speedline connecting Philadelphia to Lindenwold, NJ in Camden County with connections to NJT's Atlantic City Line

Major highways

Airports

Colleges and Universities

Delaware

New Jersey

Pennsylvania

Lexicon note

Some believe that the term "Delaware Valley" is subtly different than "Greater Philadelphia." "Greater Philadelphia" implies that the region is centered on the city in an economic and cultural context, while "Delaware Valley" is a more generic geographic term that doesn't imply that any part is of more consequence than any other. Several organizations, such as KYW Radio and the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, consciously use the term "Greater Philadelphia" to assert their view that Philadelphia is the center of the region, and that the suburbs are only relevant as, in GPTMC's terms, "Philadelphia's countryside."

Many who work and live in the suburbs and rarely if ever visit the city don't agree and tend to use the term "Delaware Valley," which lacks the dominant city vs. dependent suburbs subtext..

WPVI-TV uses the slogan, "The Delaware Valley's leading news program" for their Action News broadcast, since that program has led the ratings for news programs in the Philadelphia market for over 30 years.

The Delaware Valley is also sometimes called "the Tri-State area," referring to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

References

External links



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Last updated on Thursday March 13, 2008 at 17:21:05 PDT (GMT -0700)
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