The BosWash or Bosnywash or Boshington megalopolis is the name for a group of metropolitan areas in the northeastern United States, extending from Boston, MA to Washington, D.C., including Providence, RI, New York City, NY, Philadelphia, PA, and Baltimore, MD. The geographic trend was first identified in the 1961 book Megalopolis: The Urbanized Northeastern Seaboard of the United States by French geographer Jean Gottmann. The cities are also linked economically, and by transportation and communications.

According to Gottman, BosWash "provides the whole of America with so many essential services, of the sort a community used to obtain in its 'downtown' section, that it may well deserve the nickname of Main Street of the nation." He also envisioned the development of two similar megalopolises in the US: ChiPitts from Chicago to Pittsburgh and SanSan from San Francisco to San Diego.

Extent

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BosWash theoretically extends from extreme southern Maine and New Hampshire all the way south to Virginia, where recently, with the explosion of population in the Hampton Roads area, the megalopolis now includes the three largest cities in southeastern Virginia: Virginia Beach, Norfolk, and Chesapeake. The megalopolis contains a reported population of 44 million, or 16% of the population of the United States (0.7% of the world population), three world cities, and four of the world's fifty largest metropolitan areas — Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore-Washington — as well as the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, the White House and US Capitol, the UN Headquarters, the headquarters of ABC, NBC, CBS, and the New York Times Company as well as the Washington Post, and six of the eight Ivy League schools. The high-speed Amtrak train, the Acela Express, runs on the Northeast Corridor, an electrified rail line extending the length of the BosWash area. Interstate 95, arguably one of the most vital highways in the country, is also a major transportation route for the BosWash area.

The major cities in the BosWash megalopolis include the following (North-to-South):

• Portland, Maine
• Manchester, New Hampshire
• Boston, Massachusetts
• Providence, Rhode Island
• Warwick, Rhode Island
• Worcester, Massachusetts
• Springfield, Massachusetts
• New Bedford, Massachusetts
• Fall River, Massachusetts
• Hartford, Connecticut
• New Haven, Connecticut
• Bridgeport, Connecticut
• Stamford, Connecticut
• Yonkers, New York
• New York City, New York (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, The Bronx)
• Long Island, New York (Nassau and Suffolk Counties)
• Jersey City, New Jersey
• Newark, New Jersey
• Paterson, New Jersey
• Edison, New Jersey
• New Brunswick, New Jersey
• Allentown, Pennsylvania
• Princeton, New Jersey
• Reading, Pennsylvania
• Trenton, New Jersey
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Camden, New Jersey
• Atlantic City, New Jersey
• Wilmington, Delaware
• Baltimore, Maryland
• Columbia, Maryland
• Annapolis, Maryland
• Washington, D.C.
• Arlington, Virginia
• Alexandria, Virginia
• Richmond, Virginia
• Norfolk, Virginia
• Virginia Beach, Virginia
• Chesapeake, Virginia

Population statistics

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Rank	Combined Statistical Area	State(s)	2004 Estimate	2000 Population	1990 Population	Percent Change (1990-2000)
1	New York-Newark-Bridgeport	NY-NJ-CT-PA	21,858,830	21,361,797	19,710,239	8.4
4	Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia	DC-MD-VA-WV	8,026,807	7,538,385	6,665,228	13.1
6	Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland	PA-NJ-DE-MD	5,951,797	5,833,585	5,573,521	4.7
8	Boston-Worcester-Manchester	MA-NH	5,809,111	5,715,698	5,348,894	6.9
	Combined		41,646,545	40,449,465	37,297,882	8.4

Included or neighboring MSAs not in a CSA

Rank	Metropolitan Statistical Area	State(s) and/or Territory	1 July 2004 Population Estimate
33	Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News	VA-NC	1,644,250
34	Providence-New Bedford-Fall River	RI-MA	1,628,808
44	Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford	CT	1,184,564
46	Richmond	VA	1,154,317
59	Albany-Schenectady-Troy	NY	845,269
63	Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton	PA-NJ	779,816
70	Springfield	MA	687,973
86	Scranton--Wilkes-Barre	PA	551,531
91	Harrisburg-Carlisle	PA	519,331
96	Portland-South Portland-Biddeford	ME	510,791
99	Lancaster	PA	487,332
117	York-Hanover	PA	401,613
121	Reading	PA	391,640
164	Atlantic City	NJ	268,693
183	Barnstable Town	MA	228,683
216	Charlottesville	VA	180,901
254	Bangor	ME	148,196
268	Dover	DE	138,752
275	Pittsfield	MA	132,486
288	Lebanon	PA	124,489
311	Harrisonburg	VA	111,284
327	Lewiston-Auburn	ME	107,022
	Combined non-CSA MSAs		12,224,733
	Combined CSAs and MSAs		53,871,278

See also

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• List of U.S. multistate regions
• Highways along the BosWash corridor
• Overpopulation
• The Sprawl, a science fiction extension of BosWash which extends from Boston to Atlanta from the books of William Gibson
• Mega-City One, another science fiction megalopolis based on BosWash from the Judge Dredd series
• Northeast Corridor, the railroad line that runs through the region.
• Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, the Canadian equivalent of the Northeast Corridor/BosWash
• Urban sprawl

External links

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• About.com article on BosWash

Geographic portmanteaus | Metropolitan areas of the United States

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