East Coast of the United States

"Eastern Seaboard" redirects here. For region in Thailand, see Eastern Seaboard of Thailand.

A map of the East Coast of the United States.

  States belonging to the East Coast region

  States belonging to the East Coast region that are also considered part of the South (and more particularly, the Southeast), while the states in dark red are usually considered part of New England or the Mid-Atlantic states (collectively called the Northeast). Note that the western part of Florida is considered the Gulf Coast.

The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S. states of (from north to south): Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Although they do not border the Atlantic Ocean itself, Pennsylvania, which borders on the tidal southern reaches of the Delaware river; Connecticut, which borders Long Island Sound, but is bounded to the east at sea by New York and Rhode Island; and Vermont, claimed before statehood by New Hampshire and in 1764 declared by King George III a part of New York state, are normally included in this grouping.

The population of the East Coast states, extending from Maine to Florida, was 112,642,503 as of the 2010 Census (36% of the country's total population). The seaboard is susceptible to hurricanes in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30.

The primary roadways linking the entire coast are U.S. Route 1 and Interstate 95. Much of the coast is also connected via the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

Major cities

See also: Northeast megalopolis

Astronaut photograph of the East Coast at night. Clockwise from bottom: Hampton Roads, Richmond-Petersburg, Washington D.C., Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, and New York City.

A map showing the limits of western expansion of the Thirteen Colonies according to the Proclamation of 1763

Major metropolitan areas on the East Coast include (from north to south):

• Portland
• Burlington
• Albany
• Boston
• Springfield
• Providence
• Hartford
• New Haven
• Bridgeport
• New York
• Jersey City
• Newark
• Pittsburgh
• Philadelphia
• Wilmington, Delaware
• Baltimore
• Washington, D.C.
• Richmond-Petersburg
• Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News (Hampton Roads)
• Raleigh-Durham
• Charlotte
• Charleston, SC
• Columbia
• Atlanta
• Savannah
• Jacksonville
• Orlando
• Miami (South Florida)

Physical geography

Significant bodies of water and regions along the East Coast include (from south to north):

• Cape Canaveral
• Sea Islands
• Crystal Coast and Outer Banks

• Cape Lookout
• Cape Hatteras

• Chesapeake Bay
• Delmarva Peninsula and Eastern Shore of Virginia and Eastern Shore of Maryland
• Delaware Bay
• Jersey Shore
• New York Bight and Lower New York Bay
• Outer Lands

• Long Island and Long Island Sound
• Outer barrier
• Block Island and Block Island Sound
• Greenwich Bay
• Nantucket and Nantucket Sound
• Martha's Vineyard and Vineyard Sound
• Buzzards Bay
• Cape Cod and Cape Cod Bay

• Massachusetts Bay
• Casco Bay
• Gulf of Maine

See also

• Atlantic Canada and the Maritimes - Eastern coast of Canada
• Atlantic Coastal Plain
• Atlantic Seaboard fall line
• Gulf Coast of the United States
• West Coast of the United States