The Mid-Atlantic

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland

Major Cities: New York, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland

Literature: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Gertrude Stein, J.D. Salinger, Bernard Malamud, Anne Tyler, August Wilson

If New England provided the brains and the dollars for 19th-century American expansion, the Mid-Atlantic States provided the muscle. The region’s largest states, New York and Pennsylvania, became centers of heavy industry producing iron, glass, and steel.

Annapolis, Maryland, is the state capitol and home to the United States Naval Academy.

The Mid-Atlantic region was settled by a wider range of people than New England. Dutch immigrants moved into the lower Hudson River Valley in what is now New York State. Swedes went to Delaware. English Catholics founded Maryland, and an English Protestant sect, the Friends (Quakers), settled Pennsylvania. In time, all these settlements fell under English control, but the region continued to be a magnet for people of diverse nationalities, including a large German community.

Early settlers were mostly farmers and traders, and the region served as a bridge between North and South. Philadelphia, midway between New England and the southern colonies, was home to the Continental Congress, the convention of delegates from the original colonies that organized the American Revolution. The same city was the birthplace of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the U.S. Constitution in 1787. New York City and Philadelphia were the first two capitals of the United States.

The historical importance of the region is shown by the location of the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, and the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Also, Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the entry point for millions of immigrants in the early 20th century.

As heavy industry spread throughout the region, rivers such as the Hudson and Delaware were transformed into vital shipping lanes. Cities on waterways—New York on the Hudson, Philadelphia on the Delaware, and Baltimore on the Chesapeake Bay—grew dramatically. New York is still the nation’s largest city, its financial hub, and its cultural center.

Among New York’s countless cultural institutions are the Metropolitan Opera, the New York City Opera, the New York City Ballet, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Museum. The region’s literary greats include short story writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe, poet Walt Whitman, dramatist Arthur Miller, and the contemporary novelists John Updike and Philip Roth.

Like New England, the Mid-Atlantic region has seen much of its heavy industry relocate elsewhere. Other industries, such as pharmaceutical manufacturing and communications, as well as the service sector, have taken up the slack.

Regional foods include Manhattan clam chowder, Maryland crabs, Philly cheesesteak sandwiches, chicken pot pie, apple cider, New York bagels, and New York-style cheesecake.

A Brief Tour of the United States — The South