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:
“I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother’s side was not an Indian chief.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“Midway the lake we took on board two manly-looking middle-aged men.... I talked with one of them, telling him that I had come all this distance partly to see where the white pine, the Eastern stuff of which our houses are built, grew, but that on this and a previous excursion into another part of Maine I had found it a scarce tree; and I asked him where I must look for it. With a smile, he answered that he could hardly tell me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“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)