BosWash (also referred to as BoWash, BosNYwash, the Northeast Corridor, the BosWash Corridor, or simply the Northeast megalopolis) is a group of metropolitan areas in the northeastern United States, extending from Boston, Massachusetts, to Washington, D.C., including Manchester, New Hampshire; Worcester, Massachusetts; Springfield, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; Hartford, New Haven and Stamford, Connecticut; New York City; Camden, Jersey City and 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).

Taking into account the adjacent localities as well as the main cities, the area stretching from Lewiston, Maine to Fredericksburg, Virginia is essentially a contiguously inhabited corridor that is home to more than 55 million people (based on 2006 population estimates). Were this region a separate country, it would be the 24th most-populous in the world, almost that of the United Kingdom or Italy.

Population-density map of BosWash

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 identified two other megalopolises in the U.S. – ChiPitts and SanSan – but these terms did not achieve wide use.

In an attempt to update Gottmann's work with current trends, Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute outlined a "Northeast" megapolitan area extending beyond Boston and Washington, past Portland, Maine and Richmond, Virginia, and describes it as one of ten such areas in the United States.^[1]

Extent

BosWash extends from extreme southern Maine and New Hampshire south to Northern Virginia, and incorporates a large portion of suburban Washington, D.C. (including Alexandria and Arlington).

Demographics

It has a population of 55 million, or 18 percent of the population of the United States (living on only 3% of the nation's land) and about 0.8 percent of the world population. The region has three global cities (New York City, Washington, and Boston), two developing global cities (Philadelphia and Baltimore^[2]), and four of the world's 70 largest metropolitan areas (New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore-Washington). Over the next generation, the region will add 18 million new residents.

Economy

The region accounts for 20% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.^[3] Were the region a separate country, it would rank either as the 4th (nominal) or 5th (purchasing power parity) largest economy in the world. 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, the New York Times Company, and The Washington Post. The headquarters of many major financial companies ? such as State Street, Citigroup, and Fidelity ? are located within the region, which 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.^[4]

Education

Six of the eight Ivy League Universities are located in the region: Brown University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania and Yale University. Also present are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University, as well as numerous elite liberal arts schools such as Swarthmore College.

Cornell University and Dartmouth College, the other two Ivy League schools, are located just outside the region.

Transportation

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 is a major transportation route within the BosWash area.

List of major cities from north to south

A satellite view of the BosWash region at night. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Several smaller 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

Included or neighboring MSAs not in a CSA

See also

• Blue Banana
• Highways along the BosWash corridor
• List of U.S. multistate regions
• 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.
• Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, the Canadian equivalent
• The Sprawl, a science fiction extension of BosWash which extends from Boston to Atlanta from the books of William Gibson; officially known as "Bama" or the "Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis"
• Taiheiy? Belt

Notes

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

External links

• About.com article on BosWash
• The BostWash Corridor

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