Physical and Manmade Features of the U'S'

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Physical and Man-made Features of the U.S.
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The Atlantic Coastal Plain

• The Atlantic Coastal Plain is the flat stretch of
  land that borders the Atlantic Ocean (including
  the Gulf of Mexico).
• It is approximately 2,200 miles long, stretching
  from Cape Cod, through the southeast United
  States and through Mexico, ending with the
  Yucatán Peninsula.
• The western border of the coastal plain is
  defined as the fall line, to the west of which
  lies the Piedmont Plateau and then the
  Appalachian Mountains.

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• The Atlantic Coastal Plain in the U.S.
• Currently, the coastal plain is very wet,
  including many rivers, marsh, and swampland. It
  is primarily used for agriculture.

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Great Plains

• The Great Plains is the broad expanse of prairie
  and steppe which lies east of the Rocky Mountains
  in the United States and Canada.
• This area covers parts of the U.S. states of
  Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico,
  North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and
  Wyoming, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta,
  Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

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Continental Divide

• A continental divide is a line of elevated
  terrain which forms a border between two
  watersheds such that water falling on one side of
  the line eventually travels to one ocean or body
  of water, and water on the other side travels to
  another, generally on the opposite side of the
  continent. Moreover, some rivers empty into
  deserts or inland seas, and thus do not end up in
  the oceans.

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North America has four continental divides

• The Great Divide
• The Northern Divide
• The St. Lawrence Seaway Divide
• The Eastern Continental Divide

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• The Great Divide, also called the Continental
  Divide separates the watersheds of the Pacific
  Ocean from those of the Atlantic or Arctic
  Oceans. It runs from the Seward Peninsula in
  Alaska, through western Canada along the crest of
  the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico. From there, it
  follows the crest of Mexico's Sierra Madre
  Oriental and extends to the tip of South America.
  It is crossed by the Panama Canal.

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The Great Basin

• The Great Basin is a large, arid region of the
  western United States. Its boundaries depend on
  how it is defined. Its most common definition is
  the contiguous watershed, roughly between the
  Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, that has
  no natural outlet to the sea.

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• The 200,000 square mile plateau covers most of
  Nevada and over half of Utah, as well as parts of
  California, Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming.
• The Great Basin is not a single basin, but rather
  a series of contiguous watersheds

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Death Valley

• Death Valley is a valley in the U.S. state of
  California, and is the location of the lowest
  elevation in North America. Located southeast of
  the Sierra Nevada range in the Great Basin and
  the Mojave Desert, it comprises much of Death
  Valley National Park. It has an area of about
  3,000 square miles
• Temperatures in the Valley can range from up to
  130F (54 C) in the day in the summer, to below
  freezing at night in the winter.
• Many of Death Valley's narrow, serpentine roads
  were built in the 1930s and cannot be driven at
  high speed.

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Gulf of Mexico

• The Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of
  water in the world. It is an ocean basin largely
  surrounded by the North American continent and
  the island of Cuba. It connects with the Atlantic
  Ocean through the Florida Straits between the
  U.S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea (with
  which it forms the American Mediterranean Sea)
  via the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba.

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St. Lawrence River

• The Saint Lawrence River (In French fleuve
  Saint-Laurent) is a large west-to-east flowing
  river in the middle latitudes of North America,
  connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic
  Ocean.

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The Great Lakes

• The Great Lakes are a group of five large lakes
  in North America on or near the Canada-United
  States border. They are the largest group of
  fresh water lakes on Earth. The Great Lakes-St.
  Lawrence system is the largest fresh-water system
  in the world. They are sometimes referred to as
  inland seas.

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• The Great Lakes are
• Lake Superior (the largest by volume and deepest,
  larger than Scotland or South Carolina)
• Lake Michigan (the second-largest by volume and
  third-largest by area the only one entirely in
  the U.S.)
• Lake Huron (the third-largest by volume the
  second largest in area)
• Lake Erie (the smallest by volume and most
  shallow of all the great lakes)
• Lake Ontario (the second-smallest in volume and
  smallest in area, much lower elevation than the
  rest)

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New York City, NY

• New York City (officially the City of New York)
  is the most populous city in the United States of
  America. Its business, financial and trading
  organizations are significant players in the
  nation's economy and in the world.1 The city is
  also one of the world's most important cultural
  centers with hundreds of world-class museums,
  galleries, and performance venues. Home of the
  United Nations, the city is also perhaps the
  world's largest diplomatic center.

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New York City

• The city is divided up into five boroughs (The
  Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten
  Island) and has a population of 8.2 million (2005
  estimate)2 within a land area of 321 square
  miles (830 km²).3 With a population of 22.4
  million, the New York metropolitan area is one of
  the largest urban areas in the world.4

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   The Statue of Liberty in New York
Harbor, a World Heritage Site, has greeted
millions of immigrants.
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Empire State Building

• Take a virtual tour of the Empire State Building

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Boston, MA

• Boston is the capital and most populous city of
  the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in
  1630, it is the largest city in New England.
  Boston was the location of several major events
  during the American Revolution, and was a major
  shipping port and manufacturing center. Today,
  the city is a center of higher education and
  health care. Its economy is also based on
  research, finance, and technologyprincipally
  biotechnology.

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Philadelphia, PA

• The city of Philadelphia is the largest city in
  Pennsylvania, the fifth most populous city in the
  United States1 It is colloquially referred to
  as Philly, and known as The City of Brotherly
  Love.
• Philadelphia is the second-largest city on the
  U.S. East Coast, and a major commercial,
  educational, and cultural center for the nation.
• The Philadelphia metropolitan area is the fourth
  largest in the U.S. by the current official
  definition, with some 5.8 million people.

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• Philadelphia is one of the oldest and most
  historically significant cities in the United
  States. During part of the 18th century, the city
  was the first capital and most populous city of
  the United States. At that time, it eclipsed
  Boston and New York City in political and social
  importance, with Benjamin Franklin taking a large
  role in Philadelphia's rise. The city was the
  geographic center of the 18th century thinking
  and activity that gave birth to the American
  Revolution and subsequent American democracy and
  independence.

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• Philadelphia was a major center of the
  independence movement during the American
  Revolutionary War. The Declaration of
  Independence and US Constitution were drafted
  here and signed in the city's Independence Hall.
  Tun Tavern in the city is traditionally regarded
  as the location where, in 1775, the United States
  Marine Corps was founded.
• During the American Revolutionary War
  Philadelphia's population was split between
  Loyalists and Patriots. When the British Army
  took the city in 1777 many Loyalists lined the
  streets and sang 'God Save the King'.

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Erie Canal

• The Erie Canal (currently part of the New York
  State Canal System) is a canal in New York State,
  United States, that runs from the Hudson River to
  Lake Erie, connecting the Great Lakes with the
  Atlantic Ocean. The Erie Canal was the first
  transportation route faster than carts pulled by
  draft animals between the Eastern Seaboard of the
  United States and the western interior, and cut
  transport costs into what was then wilderness by
  about 95. The Canal resulted in a massive
  population surge in western New York, and opened
  regions further west to increased settlement.

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1853 Map of the Erie Canal.
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• Historical Images of the Erie Canal
• Images of the Erie Canal in Lockport
• Images of the Erie Canal from Buffalo to
  Spencerport