Journeying Geographer: Day 29: Megalopolis

Megalopolis (short for "Mega Metropolis") is a term first used around 1960 by a French geographer, Jean Gottmann, to describe the heavily populated northeastern seaboard of the U.S. Sometimes the region is referred to as BosWash or BosNyWash, since it extends from just north of Boston, MA to just south of Washington, DC, with New York City near the center. Though it only covers about 2% of America's land area, it is home to about 20% of Americans, and is one of the most densely populated regions in the world. I drove through part of it today, and it would seem that most of the residents of the region were on the road with me! Driving along I-495 west of Boston this afternoon (during rush hour, as usual) it was nearly bumper-to-bumper traffic in all three (sometimes up to five) lanes, although there wasn't a lot of slowing. For someone like me who prefers wilderness and solitude, it was definitely not the highlight of the trip.

The region, however, contains plenty of forests, farms, and rural areas and is definitely not all urban. The rural areas are quite densely populated themselves, though, with driveways spaced about 100 feet apart along even the more remote highways I traveled today in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. I only drove 272 miles today (4,889 miles total now; I somehow miscalculated and have been off by 103 miles for awhile), yet passed through parts of five states: ME, NH, MA, RI, and CT. I started at the very northern end of Megalopolis this morning (just north of Portland, ME), and am near the center now. Tomorrow I'll venture further south into NY and PA.