The Eastern United States or the American East, is today defined by some as the states east of the Mississippi River., and is traditionally divided by the Ohio River and Appalachian Mountains into the South, the Old Northwest and the East. The first two tiers of states west of the Mississippi have traditionally been considered part of the West, but can be amalgamated with states of the Old Northwest into what the Census Beaureau defines as the Midwestern United States. It has been considered part of the Eastern United States in regional models that exclude a Central region.
As of 2011, the estimated population of the 26 states east of the Mississippi (not including the small portions of Minnesota and Louisiana that are east of the river) plus the District of Columbia totals 179,948,346 out of 308,745,358 in the whole nation (excluding the territory of Puerto Rico), or 58.28% of the U.S. population.
The Eastern United States is home to several airlines, including Delta Air Lines in Atlanta, Georgia, US Airways in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, AirTran Airways in Orlando, Florida, United Airlines in Chicago, Illinois, Spirit Airlines in Miami, Florida, and JetBlue Airways in New York City. Major airports in the Eastern U.S. include Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, Logan International Airport in Boston, Miami International Airport in Miami, Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh International Airport in Pittsburgh, Washington-Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., Charlotte Douglas International Airport and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. The Eastern U.S. is also home to Amtrak, an intercity passenger train service provider. The East did not represent a unified culture, due to its initial settlement by disparate European cultures and the vast number of immigrants who flooded the region from the mid-19th century to the present day.
Read more about Eastern United States: The South, New England, The Midwest, Major Population Centers
Famous quotes containing the words united states, eastern, united and/or states:
“An inquiry about the attitude towards the release of so-called political prisoners. I should be very sorry to see the United States holding anyone in confinement on account of any opinion that that person might hold. It is a fundamental tenet of our institutions that people have a right to believe what they want to believe and hold such opinions as they want to hold without having to answer to anyone for their private opinion.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“But we are spirits of another sort.
I with the morning’s love have oft made sport,
And like a forester the groves may tread
Even till the eastern gate, all fiery-red,
Opening on Neptune with fair blessèd beams,
Turns unto yellow gold his salt green streams.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Fortunately, the time has long passed when people liked to regard the United States as some kind of melting pot, taking men and women from every part of the world and converting them into standardized, homogenized Americans. We are, I think, much more mature and wise today. Just as we welcome a world of diversity, so we glory in an America of diversity—an America all the richer for the many different and distinctive strands of which it is woven.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“On 16 September 1985, when the Commerce Department announced that the United States had become a debtor nation, the American Empire died.”
—Gore Vidal (b. 1925)