Megalopolis: Your Mental

Image?

What is Megalopolis?

• Historical background– Initially coined by French Geographer, Jean

Gottmann in 1961– The large population agglomeration which

extended from Boston to Washington• Traditionally BosNyWash, but now incorporates

Philadelphia and Baltimore too!

• Today: any agglomeration of coalescing super cities

Megalopolis

Physical Geography

• Three physiographic regions– Atlantic Coastal Plain– Piedmont– Appalachians

• Traversed by numerous rivers

• Temperate (C) and Continental (D) climates

• Occasional hurricanes

• SNOW!

Physical Geography

• Coastal location• Numerous estuaries• Soils are variable (3 distinct categories)

– Baltimore to the Philadelphia area– New York City's surrounding area– Boston vicinity

• Relatively flat or gently rolling terrain• Fall line provided early water power

Fall Line Cities

• Situated along boarder between Piedmont and Atlantic coastal plain

• Where river rapids and falls occur

• Examples…

Relative Location

• To Europe, for trade and immigration

• Good routes to interior

• Along the Europe-Caribbean-South American trade route

• Good accessibility resources – Good harbors– Routes to interior (natural & man-made)– Great stop off/service point for others conducting

trade

Historical Settlement

• Mainly Europeans

• Many Native Americans

• The Dutch• William Penn

William Penn’s Map of Philadelphia, PA

Establishing a

Megalopolis

Largest US cities, 1790

Population increase due to immigration

Ellis Island

Statue of Liberty, from Ellis Island

Urban Land-Use Change

Megalopolis Today

• Urbanness - the dominant theme• Comprised of 10 major metropolitan areas of

over one million people and numerous smaller cities

• 17.5% of the total U.S. population• 1.5% of the total land area • 17% of all U.S. export trade passes through its

six major ports• A region of international significance

Key Ideas Related to Megalopolis

• Metropolitan Coalescence• Conurbation• Central Business District

(CBD)• Urban Sprawl• Gentrification

Baltimore Harbor

Washington, D.C.

L’Enfant’s Plan for US Capitol

Urban Landscapes

Major Components1. Spatial Interaction

2. Functional Complexity

3. Public Services

4. Accessibility

5. Intensity of Change

Major Components

• Spatial Interaction– People, via

sidewalks, parking lots, subways

– Information, via communication lines, wires, terminals

– Utilities, including sewage, water, electricity, and gas

Major Components

• Functional Complexity– Residential

– Industrial

– Commercial

– Recreational

Major Components

• Public Services

– Provide water, sewage, garbage pick-up, police protection, fire protection, public schools, road works, health care, and etc.

Major Components• Accessibility

– Created and maintained to ensure access to the core from the periphery and along periphery

– Accomplished via bypasses, beltloops, parkways, and limited access expressways

Major Components• Intensity of Change

– The dynamic nature of the urban landscape– “Nothing seems permanent”

• Economic ventures• Shifts in transportation networks• Developments and declines in residential areas

Where’s Megalopolis?

1990 2000

Readings & Discussion• Reading: Heterolocalism• Reading: Revitalization of Atlantic City• Reading: Denevan, William M. 1992. “The

Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the American in 1492,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 82: 369–385.– Disputes the common thought that Native Americans

did not adversely affect the landscape before Columbus’ arrival.

Why did Megalopolis emerge very early as the political-economic core of North America?

How does Gentrification affect a city?

Related Book

• Domosh, Mona. 1996. Invented Cities: The Creation of Landscape in Nineteenth-Century New York and Boston. New Haven: Yale University Press.– A good read. Just what the title says.

WebSources

• Digital Atlas of Megalopolishttp://www.umbc.edu/ges/student_projects/digital_atlas/credits.htm

• Boswash: The Metropolitan Area from Boston to Washington, D.C.http://geography.about.com/cs/urbansprawl/a/megalopolis.htm

• Ellis Island in New York City (searching for your family roots?)http://www.ellisisland.org/

• An Outline of American Geography: Megalopolishttp://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/geography/geog04.htm

• Climate in Megalopolis: Insights from Northeast Snowstormshttp://www.infoplease.com/ce6/world/A0832515.html