Geography

1. Geography By Samantha N Swander 2010-2011

2. New York • Much of New York is built on the three islands of Manhattan, Staten Island, and Long Island, making land scarce and encouraging a high population density. • Manhattan's skyline with its many skyscrapers is universally recognized, and the city has been home to several of the tallest buildings in the world. As of August 2008, New York City has 5,538 highrise buildings,[72] with 50 completed skyscrapers taller than 656 feet (200 m). This is more than any other city in United States, and second in the world, behind Hong Kong.[73]

3. Maine The Charles River separates Boston proper from Cambridge, Watertown, and the neighborhood of Charlestown. To the east lies Boston Harbor and the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area (BHINRA), which includes part of the city's territory, specifically Calf Island, Gallops Island, Great Brewster Island, Green Island, Little Brewster Island, Little Calf Island, Long Island, Lovells Island, Middle Brewster Island, Nixes Mate, Outer Brewster Island, Rainsford Island, Shag Rocks, Spectacle Island, The Graves, and Thompson Island.

4. Maine continued The downtown area and immediate surroundings consist mostly of low-rise brick or stone buildings, with many older buildings in the Federal style. Several of these buildings mix in with modern high-rises, notably in the Financial District, Government Center, the South Boston waterfront, and Back Bay, which includes many prominent landmarks such as the Boston Public Library, Christian Science Center, Copley Square, Newbury Street, and New England's two tallest buildings—the John Hancock Tower and the Prudential Center.[59]

5. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania is 170 miles (274 km) north to south and 283 miles (455 km) east to west.[6] Of a total 46,055 square miles (119,282 km2), 44,817 square miles (116,075 km2) are land, 490 square miles (1,269 km2) are inland waters, and 749 square miles (1,940 km2) are waters in Lake Erie.[7] It is the 33rd largest state in the United States.

6. Connecticut Connecticut is bordered on the south by Long Island Sound, on the west by New York State, on the north by Massachusetts, and on the east by Rhode Island. The state capital is Hartford, and the other major cities (by population) include Bridgeport, New Haven, Stamford, Waterbury, Norwalk, Danbury, New Britain and Bristol. There are 169 incorporated towns in Connecticut.

7. Connecticut continued Despite its size, the state has regional variations in its landscape and culture from the estates of Fairfield County's "Gold Coast" to the rolling mountains and horse-farms of the Litchfield Hills of northwestern Connecticut. Connecticut's rural areas and small towns in the northeast and northwest corners of the state contrast sharply with its industrial cities, located along the coastal highways from the New York border to New Haven, then northward to Hartford, as well as further up the coast near New London. Many towns center around a "green", such as the New Haven Green, Litchfield Green, Simsbury Green, Lebanon Green (the largest in the state), and Wethersfield Green (the oldest in the state). Near the green typically stand historical visual symbols of New England towns, such as a white church, a colonial meeting house, a colonial tavern or "inne", several colonial houses, etc., establishing a scenic historic appearance maintained for both historic preservation and tourism.

8. Massachusetts Massachusetts terrain features a low coastal plain in the east, the New England uplands, the Pioneer Valley, and the Berkshire and Taconic Mountains in the west. Although much of the state had been cleared for agriculture, leaving only traces of old growth forest in isolated pockets, secondary growth has regenerated in many rural areas as farms have been abandoned.[20] Currently, forests cover around 62% of Massachusetts.[21][22] The areas most affected by human development include the Greater Boston area in the east, the smaller Springfield metropolitan area in the west, and the largely agricultural Pioneer Valley.[23] Animals that have become locally extinct over the past few centuries include gray wolves, elk, wolverines, and mountain lions.[24]

9. Massachusetts continued A number of species are doing well, despite, and in some cases because of the increased urbanization of the commonwealth. Peregrine falcons utilize office towers in larger cities as nesting areas,[25] and the population of coyotes, whose diet may include garbage and roadkill, has been increasing in recent decades.[26]White-tailed deer, raccoons, wild turkeys and eastern gray squirrels are also found throughout Massachusetts.[24][27] In more rural areas in the western part of the state, larger mammals such as moose and black bears have returned, largely due to reforestation following the regional decline in agriculture.[28][29]

10. New Jersey New Jersey is bordered on the north and northeast by New York (parts of which are across the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, and the Arthur Kill); on the east by the Atlantic Ocean; on the southwest by Delaware across Delaware Bay; and on the west by Pennsylvania across the Delaware River. Metropolitan statistical areas and divisions of New Jersey; counties shaded in blue hues are in the New York City metro; counties shaded in green hues are in the Philadelphia metro. Mercer County is located in the Greater New York Metropolitan Area and that Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland Counties are in the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area. Warren County is considered part of the Lehigh Valley. New Jersey can be thought of as five regions, based on natural geography and population. Northeastern New Jersey, the Gateway Region, lies within the New York metropolitan area, and some residents commute into the city to work. Northwestern New Jersey, or the "Skylands", is, compared to the northeast, more wooded, rural, and mountainous, but still a popular[citation needed] place to live. The "Shore", along the Atlantic Coast in the central-east and southeast, has its own natural, residential, and lifestyle characteristics owing to its location by the ocean. The central-west and southwest are within metropolitan Philadelphia, and are included in the Delaware Valley. The fifth region is the Pine Barrens in the interior of the southern part. Covered rather extensively by mixed pine and oak forest, it has a much lower population density than much of the rest of the state.

11. Vermont The west bank of the Connecticut River marks the eastern (New Hampshire) border of the state (the river itself is part of New Hampshire).[7]Lake Champlain, the major lake in Vermont, is the sixth-largest body of fresh water in the United States and separates Vermont from New York in the northwest portion of the state. From north to south, Vermont is 159 miles (256 km) long. Its greatest width, from east to west, is 89 miles (143 km) at the Canadian border; the narrowest width is 37 miles (60 km) at the Massachusetts line. The state's geographic center is Washington, three miles (5 km) east of Roxbury. There are fifteen US federal border crossings between Vermont and Canada.

12. Famous places in the northeast Niagara Falls, NY This Is the Empire State building in NYC