Talk:East Coast of the United States

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"Neutrality dispute"

I am new to editing wikipedia, but I think the following is very biased towards american superiority: The "East Coast," "Eastern Seaboard," or "Atlantic Seaboard" are terms referring to the easternmost coastal states in the United States.

Terms such as "East Coast" do not always refer to the eastern coastal area of the USA, like the article claims. For an example, I might say "Australia's East Coast" or, for short, "The East Coast", depending on context. --User:Lord fabs 19:20, 3rd December 2006 (Australian Eastern DST)

The article is on the East Coast of the United States. This establishes that we are talking about the United States and what the article is about. If you want, you can create an article about the Australian East Coast. Harryboyles 12:21, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

"Back East"

From TFA: "People elsewhere in the United States sometimes refer to the East Coast colloquially as "back east" - You know, I have NEVER heard that term come out of anyone's mouth? lol --Goatrider 18:21, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

I guess you havne't spent much time "Out West." Where I'm from, California, people always say, "Back East." Now that I live "Out East," I'm always thinking about "Back West."

I'm from California and even "back east" I never have heard anyone talking about the "Western Seaboard." Isn't this some sort of discrimination?Trisler 00:53, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

The southern states

The "East Coast" always refers to New York, New Jersey, and other northeastern states. No one ever refers to, for instance, coastal Georgia, as the "East Coast". - 65.218.235.243

I think you're right for the most part, though in some contexts the southern states would be included. Perhaps they should be a different shade. -- Kjkolb 04:41, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

I agree with that as well. Everything from Maryland down should be a different color. You could almost argue that the East Coast should link to the article on the Northeast United States.--Looper5920 04:44, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Yeah. But I disagree with including Vermont at all (they're a mountain state, not coastal), and the same with Upstate NY and western PA. No one would ever really call VT, Buffalo, Syracuse or Pittsburgh as East Coast. They're Eastern but not East Coast. So maybe we should have a procedure for including/shading only parts of states. Bayberrylane 21:32, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

I have heard people from Gulf Coast states refer to Georgia and the Carolinas as the East Coast. It is true that culturally, the Southeast is not "East Coast," but geographically, it certainly is. --CKozeluh 19:26, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Geographically speaking, I've always considered Maine to Florida the East Coast. Culturally, there is a vast difference though.

First major cities do exist below Maryland and they definitely contribute to the culture and history of the east coast including Virginia beach-Norfolk, Wilmington, charleston, and Miami. As someone who comes from Virginia beach, we definitely refer to ourselves as east coast, especially when put in comparison with the beachside communities of the west coast. I think that's what really the point is about defining the east coast- that the cultures and communities that developed along the east coast are quite different than the west coast. I think the terms south, mid-Atlantic, and new england describe broad cultural traditions that developed between states, but the term east coast specifically refers to the unique cultural history that is shared among communities that developed along the Atlantic coast. Even though these communities may be affected by the cultural aspects of the state they are located in, these Oceanside communities also share culture not defined by the states- including seafood, maritime traditions, and the tradition of the boardwalk which exists as far down as Georgia. So I think it is a fallacy to assume that the east coast refers only to northeastern states. East coast shouldn't really refer to states at all but more to the communities that are located on the Atlantic ocean —Preceding unsigned comment added by 32.165.50.27 (talk) 16:21, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

don't forget about lacross that gose down south but not to the west.--J intela (talk) 22:07, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Maryland is always considered "East Coast", and the phrase "eastern establishment" refers to New York and DC. MD isn't lumped in with the Carolinas or Georgia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.49.242.212 (talk) 05:03, 6 July 2010 (UTC)

If a city has port access to the Atlantic Ocean, and it is a member of the union (whether or not it wanted to be), then it is by definition on the "east coast". -127.0.0.1 24 Feb 2011

I concur that the entire Atlantic coast is covered by the term "east coast". The reasons I see are thus:

1. From a purely descriptive term, East Coast distinguishes from the West Coast and from the Gulf, and encompasses little cultural elements.
2. In terms of physical geography, the Eastern Continental Divide seems to provide a really good guideline, using watershed data alone; it aligns neatly and exactly to include the disputed territories, and no more.
3. The Navbox categorizes this article under "physical geography: coast", not purely a cultural definition
4. Geographic regions (unlike political jurisdictions) are not necessarily mutually exclusive. E.g. Florida is both East Coast and Gulf Coast, in physical terms. Inclusiveness would not hurt.
5. In reference to the referred to areas, "Northeast" is a valid term that refers to these upper places, and in some contexts, the eastern megalopolis / chain of Metro areas spanning from Boston to Norfolk (where a major city is no more than two hours from another major city).
6. In terms of history and the derivative culture, the thirteen original English colonies spanned the whole section of it, not just the northeast. While there are some cultural divides between them (as a result, in part of which English sub-groups settled where), there are equal if not greater cultural divides between those along the coast, and the later inland states; hearkening back to the English colonial towns and cities(and in the case of Florida, coastal spanish),(versus forts or trading posts) is a phenomenon that is largely limited to the East Coast (the exception of missions and forts in the southwest noted), yet encompasses all these states; similarly, they all share a relationship with the Atlantic Ocean (see comment above about port access to the Atlantic ocean).
7. Many of the cultural objects seem exaggerated, as often there is a spectrum of gradiated change. For instance, Maryland is not disputed, yet it is culturally very similar and intertwined with Virginia, which is (both were tobacco-heavy economies in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, sharing the Chesapeake Bay cultures). Indeed, Virginia and Pennsylvania have considerable cultural links (see e.g. "peace church" populations in the Shenandoah Valley areas, colonial sympathies, urban histories). Likewise, there are cultural divides within the undisputed region: compare Maryland and Mass. Given these considerations, the "Grit Line" alone should not be sufficient.
8. From personal experience, having grown up in central Virginia and North Carolina, we always saw it as the East coast / Atlantic seaboard, etc, especially in relation to anyone west of the Alleghenies; thus making the defining element the relationship with the Atlantic ocean.

Morgan Riley (talk) 15:17, 15 March 2011 (UTC)

Colours and appearance

I have made a proposal to change the colour of the map box, please see the discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject U.S. regions --Qirex 05:36, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Segregated list

I would like to see a column of state names, maybe divided into consensus states and more ambiguous states. Example:

The following states are widely recognized as East Coast:

Maine

Massachusetts

etc.

These states are less clearly included:

Florida

Vermont

etc.

I think this would make the page easier to read and the links easier to find. --CKozeluh 19:26, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Maybe based off of the image? Solid states in the "widely recognized" and striped states in "less clearly included". --- Kpavery (talk | contribs) 00:52, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Original Colony descrancy

The article states that this region normally includes all of the original 13 colonies. However, many are shown in the image as striped. Which is it? Will 05:06, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

I think that it's stated in the article that the geographical term East Coast refers to the whole Eastern Seaboard, but the cultural East Coast refers to only the costal Northeast. If there's a better way to bring this out of the article, maybe we should. CSZero 14:38, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Agreed, what the east coast refers to depends on wether you consider the whole physical coastline or just what would be considered the "cultural" east coast (Northeast states, NY, NJ, CN, MA, so on). Maybe to re-write the structure so that it talks about the culture of the northeast and the east coast as a coastline seperately? --- Kpavery (talk | contribs) 00:51, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

It seems wrong to me that the wording that includes non-original states like Maine, Vermont and Washington are lumped with Florida. Maine was originally part of Massachusetts, and is of course classic East Coast, for example. Can anyone think of a way to concisely reword this? CSZero 13:41, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

History

I reverted edits today deleting the History section, since I think it's a large part of the article and needs work, not removal.

Currently, the History reads, uncited, as such:

Culturally it is also where most of the first wave of immigrants from Europe, Africa, and Asia settled before America began its western expansion. The Appalachian Trail runs through most of these states from Maine through Georgia. Historically the Mason-Dixon Line cuts this area in half at the northern border of Maryland, which still indicates a cultural change. Through the course of early United States history, the Eastern Coast was divided over many issues including slavery. In the 1860's this came to a head and the Civil War broke out. This war was fought mostly in states that would be considered East Coast states, including Maryland, Virginia, and North and South Carolina.

My comments:

The first sentence is important - The early urbanization of the East Coast and the waves of immigrants that passed through here really shaped America.

The Appalachian Trail is a factoid bit that I don't think hurts, although Wikipedia is not a collection of facts. Perhaps expansion of that section based around the range's role in shaping the nation would be good?

The Mason/Dixon I think is mentionable, although by the Civil War, there was more to the North and South than the coasts - I don't know how to reconcile that. If it is in fact true that most battles were fought in these states, that may be mentionable as well. But, the 1860 population center for the US was in Ohio, so even by then, the interior of America was somewhat important.

Of course, there's plenty other historical things about the East Coast that should be mentioned as well, or instead of some of these.

Thanks,

CSZero 02:45, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

the history section is quite poor. The immigrant sentence is wrong (Africans are not called immigrants--they were slaves), Asians almost all came thru west coast. Appalachian trail is trivia. Mason-Dixon is about slavery which does not get mentioned except as a political issue. There is nothing about economics, ciommerce, ports, Atlantic connection. It does not make sense--and it ends 140 years ago. There are no sources and few links. Most of all there is no sense of history. Rjensen 03:05, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. However, I don't think what is there is harmful so I don't think we should whipe the section when there should be a history section. I tagged it for now CSZero 14:54, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

What the hell?

Why are Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Flordia only striped on the map? The isn't the Northeast article, this is about the Atlantic coast!

This question is repeatedly asked about this article. My *understanding*, not being super well versed in this matter (I'm a Bostonian by the way) is that south of Maryland, when I-95 jogs significantly inland, that that happens for a reason. I'm not sure if it's related to hurricane problems, land being so low that it's basically a swamp, or simply a lack of good harbors versus navigable rivers, but I don't believe that there is a single sizable city on the southeastern coast. Savannah and Charleston are right on the coast but not very large cities (Under 200,000 residents), especially compared to the Megalopolis Northestern port cities. Something more concrete and researched about why the larger cities in the south are significantly inland (and keeping the South from being considered part of the "East Coast" as most people recognize it - a center for population, education, culture, trade, etc) would be interesting to add. CSZero 05:20, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

I missed the Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC MSA in Southeastern VA, but in general, this probably has to do with the fall line being so far inland in most of the South? CSZero 15:57, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

The reason those states are striped is because they are more culturally linked to the South than to the rest of the East Coast. Yes, they fit into the East Coast from a strict geographical standpoint, but they fit into the South from a geographical and cultural standpoint. 68.40.65.164 05:53, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

No, they fit into both the East Coast & the South both culturally and geographically. From a cultural standpoint, states like South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, etc. fit in quite nicely in that they were among the original thirteen colonies, have Atlantic beaches, Atlantic maritime traditions, stronger connections with Europe than non-East Coast states, etc. They do not fit into the region commonly understood as the "Northeast," but that is not what this article is supposed to be about. To be frank, the map & its false nuance make the article look dumb. --Peter ^Talk 21:31, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Culture or Geography (or both)

The article is muddling the fact (debated above) that Maryland on down to Florida clearly contain coasts with ocean to their East, and thus are geographically on the East Coat of the US. (No duh). Perhaps a section on Geography should be listed first, with caveats later on in the article speaking on the cultural usages (east coast code, east coast liberals, etc). --Patrick Arnett 21:10, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Jewish Influence

How is this even a section? can someone explain to me the significance? This is something very strange included here, can we delete it? Somekindofpastry (talk) 19:07, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Atlantic Seaboard

Is "atlantic seaboard" some kind of regional term? I've never heard it before (I'm from Philadelphia). I tried googling for the etymology, but only came up with a few associations and some weather sites. 199.111.194.67 (talk) 22:58, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Question?

How can Pennsylvania and Vermont be considered as "The East Coast" when they do not even border the Atlantic Ocean? Shouldn't these states be, at least, stripped in the map? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.233.213.47 (talk) 21:07, 21 March 2010 (UTC)

north south axess

THe fact is that with migration from the north in addition to popular culter all the south eastern states are being brought into a closser culteral fold along a north south axes, in adion to their origional commonalities of being the location of the estableshment where the founding of the country was and the general greater conservitism and sophistication that comes with it, and other quirks like lacrose. The north south difference is more significant but their is also common differences along longetudes. --J intela (talk) 22:24, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

Your spelling could use improvement. It is actually hard to determine what you are saying, when the spelling errors get to a certain point.--Atikokan (talk) 04:54, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

Population

You should mention that, while the East Coast represents about 36% of America's population, this proportion is declining with each Census for at least the last half-century. 2010 is no exception.
--Atikokan (talk) 05:04, 13 February 2011 (UTC)

For the moment actually, it's still 36% as of 2010, I did the math. In any case, it's not as if it's declining in population or going to stop growing anytime soon, is it really worth mentioning?Red Hair Bow (talk) 23:19, 18 March 2011 (UTC)