50 Fun Facts About The East Coast

Which state, the easternmost in the contiguous United States, is the only one bordering exactly one other state?

Maine has more forest cover than any other state, with over 80 percent of its area forested or unclaimed.

Which state, the smallest in the United States by area, is officially nicknamed the Ocean State?

Rhode Island sits mostly on the mainland despite its name, and its bays and inlets give it about 400 miles of coastline.

Which of the original thirteen colonies has a Lake Erie waterfront but no shoreline on the Atlantic Ocean?

Pennsylvania counts about 140 miles of waterfront, split between the Great Lake and a tidal river that leads to the ocean.

Which New York Harbor landmark, built around a framework by Gustave Eiffel, was a gift from the people of France?

The Statue of Liberty's head and torch-bearing arm were finished first and exhibited at international expositions for publicity.

Which North Carolina beach town became world-famous when the Wright brothers first flew a powered airplane nearby?

Kitty Hawk was only the nearest named settlement: the flights took off four miles south, where a town was founded 50 years later.

Which Florida city, founded by Spain, is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the contiguous US?

St. Augustine was founded in 1565 by Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, decades before the first lasting English colony.

Which bay, fed by more than 150 rivers and streams, is the largest estuary in the United States?

Chesapeake Bay drains a basin that covers parts of six states and all of Washington, D.C.

Which part of New York, home to both Brooklyn and Queens, stretches about 120 miles east into the Atlantic?

Long Island is the most populous island in any US state or territory, and two of New York City's five boroughs sit on its western end.

Which island city, once home to Ernest Hemingway, is the southernmost city in the contiguous United States?

Key West sits roughly 95 miles north of Cuba, at the western end of the highway that links the Florida Keys.

Which state earned its nickname by becoming the first to ratify the United States Constitution?

Delaware is the second-smallest state, just 96 miles long and never more than 35 miles across.

Which state, the only one where every county is classed as urban, is the most densely populated in America?

New Jersey is mostly suburban despite its crowding, and its roadside diners are an icon of the state.

Which state began as the last and southernmost of the original thirteen colonies, first settled at Savannah?

Georgia's founding trustees planned a colony of small farmers and at first prohibited slavery there.

Which Florida capital was the only Confederate state capital east of the Mississippi not captured by Union forces?

Tallahassee became the capital in 1824, after territorial delegates decided to hold their meetings at a halfway point.

Which city, settled by Dutch fur traders at Fort Orange, is the capital of the state of New York?

Albany took its present name in 1664, when the English captured the Dutch colony and renamed the town for the Duke of Albany, the future King James II.

In which city's harbor did the Sons of Liberty dump about 340 chests of tea to protest the Tea Act?

Boston's tea raiders are usually pictured in costume, but few of the men dumping the tea were actually disguised as American Indians.

In which city did delegates adopt the Declaration of Independence inside the building now called Independence Hall?

Philadelphia's Liberty Bell spent nine months hidden under a church floor during the Revolution, so the British could not recast it into munitions.

Which Massachusetts settlement was founded by the Pilgrims who crossed the Atlantic aboard the Mayflower?

Plymouth stood on a site that Captain John Smith had already surveyed and named before the Pilgrims arrived.

Which Virginia settlement, led for a time by Captain John Smith, was the first permanent English colony in the Americas?

Jamestown nearly died out: only about 60 colonists were still alive after the winter of 1609 to 1610, known as the Starving Time.

Which Florida headland, officially renamed for President Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, is a famous rocket launch site?

Cape Canaveral carries one of the oldest surviving European place names in the United States, from a Spanish word for a bed of reeds or canes.

Which vast Florida wetland, nicknamed the River of Grass, shelters the Florida panther and the American crocodile?

The Everglades are really a slow-moving river about 60 miles wide and over 100 miles long, flowing south to Florida Bay.

Which Massachusetts peninsula, cut off from the mainland by a canal since 1914, juts into the Atlantic Ocean?

Cape Cod kept its wild ocean shore because President John F. Kennedy made it a national seashore in 1961, when it was already slated for housing subdivisions.

Which footpath of almost 2,200 miles passes through 14 states and is walked end to end by thru-hikers?

The Appalachian Trail was conceived by a forester, Benton MacKaye, who wrote his plan for it in 1921.

Which Interstate, the main road link between the cities of the Eastern Seaboard, crosses more states than any other?

I-95 only became one continuous route in 2018, when a new interchange closed a gap left by a cancelled freeway.

Through which New York Harbor immigration station did about 12 million newcomers pass between 1892 and 1954?

Ellis Island's arrivals left a deep mark: by one estimate, two-fifths of Americans may be descended from them.

Which New York City borough, the smallest of the five by area, is home to Wall Street and Central Park?

Manhattan grew from a Dutch trading post that was named New Amsterdam, and it now houses the world's two largest stock exchanges.

Which Florida city, nicknamed the Magic City for its rapid growth, is the only major US city founded by a woman?

Miami stands on land once owned by Julia Tuttle, a citrus grower who had moved there from Cleveland.

Which river flows past Washington, D.C., and George Washington's home at Mount Vernon?

The Potomac forms a boundary, with Maryland and the capital on one bank and Virginia and West Virginia on the other.

Which river, explored in 1609 by an Englishman sailing for the Dutch, flows from the Adirondacks to New York Bay?

The Hudson's lower half is a tidal estuary lying in a fjord that was carved out by glaciers.

In which Massachusetts town were nineteen people hanged after the witch trials of 1692 and 1693?

Salem's condemned were hanged, never burned: the idea that witches were burned in America is popular but false.

Which seaside resort, whose street names fill the American Monopoly board, hosted the Miss America pageant from 1921?

Atlantic City built its first boardwalk in 1870 to help hotel owners keep sand out of their lobbies.

Which New England state has the shortest ocean coastline of any coastal state, at only about 18 miles?

New Hampshire may barely touch the sea, but it is well known for holding the first primary of every presidential election cycle.

Which city's Fort McHenry withstood a 25-hour British bombardment that inspired the United States national anthem?

Baltimore's defense was watched by Francis Scott Key, whose poem about the fort's flag became the national anthem in 1931.

Which South Carolina port city, known for Rainbow Row and the Battery, saw the Civil War begin at nearby Fort Sumter?

Charleston was founded in 1670 as Charles Town, in honor of King Charles II, and Fort Sumter was still unfinished when Confederate forces attacked it.

Which Virginia capital, where Patrick Henry gave a famous speech on liberty, was also capital of the Confederacy?

Richmond stands at the James River's fall line, where Captain Christopher Newport led English explorers upriver in 1607.

Which Maryland capital, home of the United States Naval Academy, briefly served as the national capital in 1783?

Annapolis is where Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris, the agreement that ended the Revolutionary War.

Which North Carolina capital, known as the City of Oaks, was an early American example of a planned city?

Raleigh is named after Sir Walter Raleigh, the Elizabethan courtier who sponsored an early English attempt to settle the Carolina coast.

Which 200-mile string of barrier islands off North Carolina borders waters nicknamed the Graveyard of the Atlantic?

The Outer Banks grew out of a tall ridge of sand dunes that survived the melting of the glaciers, and hundreds of ships have been wrecked along them.

Which national park on Mount Desert Island contains Cadillac Mountain, the tallest peak on the US Atlantic coast?

Acadia was the first national park east of the Mississippi River, and the first created from private lands given to the public.

At which Virginia port did Cornwallis's British army surrender to George Washington and his French allies in 1781?

Yorktown's surrender ceremony went ahead without Cornwallis himself, and the capture of more than 7,000 British soldiers opened the way to peace talks.

Which wetland on the Virginia–North Carolina border did George Washington try to drain through a company he co-founded?

The Great Dismal Swamp was also a refuge for maroons, people who had escaped slavery, and for Native Americans escaping colonial expansion.

Which warm, swift Atlantic current, charted by Benjamin Franklin, flows up the eastern coastline of the United States?

The Gulf Stream was found by Europeans on Juan Ponce de León's expedition, and Spanish ships then used it to sail home from the Caribbean.

Which type of winter storm, fed by warm Atlantic water and cold Canadian air, regularly batters the New England coast?

A nor'easter is driven by winds blowing in from the northeast, and the upper Atlantic coast is generally hit by a few of them each winter.

On which North Carolina island did a 1587 English settlement vanish, earning the name the Lost Colony?

Roanoke was found abandoned by a ship in 1590, and its missing settlers included Virginia Dare, the infant granddaughter of their leader John White.

Which pirate, who captained Queen Anne's Revenge, was killed in battle at Ocracoke Inlet off North Carolina?

Blackbeard was reported to have tied lit fuses under his hat to frighten his enemies.

On which Massachusetts island, a popular and affluent summer colony, did Steven Spielberg film the movie Jaws?

Martha's Vineyard was once known as a place where everyone signed, after three centuries of unusually common hereditary deafness.

Which boundary, surveyed in the 1760s by two English astronomers, became known as the divide between North and South?

The Mason–Dixon line was drawn to settle a border conflict between colonies, decades before it became shorthand for the split between slave and free states.

Which North Carolina peak, named for a professor who fell to his death nearby, is the highest east of the Mississippi?

Mount Mitchell was the highest mountain in the whole United States until the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 added the taller peaks of the Rockies.

Which Virginia port city, the historic center of the Hampton Roads area, is home to the world's largest naval base?

Norfolk's naval station was established in 1917, after a large naval review at an exposition had shown off the site's favorable location.

Which barrier island, split between Maryland and Virginia, is best known for its herds of feral horses?

Assateague's horses go by two names: the Assateague horse on the Maryland side and the Chincoteague pony in Virginia.

Which sheltered route of canals, bays and sounds lets boats travel the Eastern Seaboard without facing the open sea?

The Intracoastal Waterway is kept dredged by the US Army Corps of Engineers, and it links natural inlets and saltwater rivers with artificial canals.