Talk:East Coast of the United States

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This article is within the scope of WikiProject U.S. regions.

Contents 1 "Neutrality dispute" 2 "Back East" 3 The southern states 4 Colours and appearance 5 Segregated list 6 Original Colony descrancy 7 History

[edit] "Neutrality dispute"

I am new to editing wikipedia, but I think the following is very biased towards american superiority: The "East Coast," "Eastern Seaboard," or "Atlantic Seaboard" are terms referring to the easternmost coastal states in the United States.

Terms such as "East Coast" do not always refer to the eastern coastal area of the USA, like the article claims. For an example, I might say "Australia's East Coast" or, for short, "The East Coast", depending on context. --User:Lord fabs 19:20, 3rd December 2006 (Australian Eastern DST)

The article is on the East Coast of the United States. This establishes that we are talking about the United States and what the article is about. If you want, you can create an article about the Australian East Coast. Harryboyles 12:21, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Back East"

From TFA: "People elsewhere in the United States sometimes refer to the East Coast colloquially as "back east" - You know, I have NEVER heard that term come out of anyone's mouth? lol --Goatrider 18:21, 8 May 2006 (UTC)

I guess you havne't spent much time "Out West." Where I'm from, California, people always say, "Back East." Now that I live "Out East," I'm always thinking about "Back West."

I'm from California and even "back east" I never have heard anyone talking about the "Western Seaboard." Isn't this some sort of discrimination?Trisler 00:53, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The southern states

The "East Coast" always refers to New York, New Jersey, and other northeastern states. No one ever refers to, for instance, coastal Georgia, as the "East Coast". - 65.218.235.243

I think you're right for the most part, though in some contexts the southern states would be included. Perhaps they should be a different shade. -- Kjkolb 04:41, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

I agree with that as well. Everything from Maryland down should be a different color. You could almost argue that the East Coast should link to the article on the Northeast United States.--Looper5920 04:44, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

Yeah. But I disagree with including Vermont at all (they're a mountain state, not coastal), and the same with Upstate NY and western PA. No one would ever really call VT, Buffalo, Syracuse or Pittsburgh as East Coast. They're Eastern but not East Coast. So maybe we should have a procedure for including/shading only parts of states. Bayberrylane 21:32, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

I have heard people from Gulf Coast states refer to Georgia and the Carolinas as the East Coast. It is true that culturally, the Southeast is not "East Coast," but geographically, it certainly is. --CKozeluh 19:26, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Geographically speaking, I've always considered Maine to Florida the East Coast. Culturally, there is a vast difference though.

[edit] Colours and appearance

I have made a proposal to change the colour of the map box, please see the discussion at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject U.S. regions --Qirex 05:36, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Segregated list

I would like to see a column of state names, maybe divided into consensus states and more ambiguous states. Example:

The following states are widely recognized as East Coast:

Maine

Massachusetts

etc.

These states are less clearly included:

Florida

Vermont

etc.

I think this would make the page easier to read and the links easier to find. --CKozeluh 19:26, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Maybe based off of the image? Solid states in the "widely recognized" and striped states in "less clearly included". --- Kpavery (talk | contribs) 00:52, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Original Colony descrancy

The article states that this region normally includes all of the original 13 colonies. However, many are shown in the image as striped. Which is it? Will 05:06, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

I think that it's stated in the article that the geographical term East Coast refers to the whole Eastern Seaboard, but the cultural East Coast refers to only the costal Northeast. If there's a better way to bring this out of the article, maybe we should. CSZero 14:38, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Agreed, what the east coast refers to depends on wether you consider the whole physical coastline or just what would be considered the "cultural" east coast (Northeast states, NY, NJ, CN, MA, so on). Maybe to re-write the structure so that it talks about the culture of the northeast and the east coast as a coastline seperately? --- Kpavery (talk | contribs) 00:51, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] History

I reverted edits today deleting the History section, since I think it's a large part of the article and needs work, not removal.

Currently, the History reads, uncited, as such:

Culturally it is also where most of the first wave of immigrants from Europe, Africa, and Asia settled before America began its western expansion. The Appalachian Trail runs through most of these states from Maine through Georgia. Historically the Mason-Dixon Line cuts this area in half at the northern border of Maryland, which still indicates a cultural change. Through the course of early United States history, the Eastern Coast was divided over many issues including slavery. In the 1860's this came to a head and the Civil War broke out. This war was fought mostly in states that would be considered East Coast states^[1], including Maryland, Virginia, and North and South Carolina.

My comments:

The first sentence is important - The early urbanization of the East Coast and the waves of immigrants that passed through here really shaped America.

The Appalachian Trail is a factoid bit that I don't think hurts, although Wikipedia is not a collection of facts. Perhaps expansion of that section based around the range's role in shaping the nation would be good?

The Mason/Dixon I think is mentionable, although by the Civil War, there was more to the North and South than the coasts - I don't know how to reconcile that. If it is in fact true that most battles were fought in these states, that may be mentionable as well. But, the 1860 population center for the US was in Ohio, so even by then, the interior of America was somewhat important.

Of course, there's plenty other historical things about the East Coast that should be mentioned as well, or instead of some of these.

Thanks,

CSZero 02:45, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

the history section is quite poor. The immigrant sentence is wrong (Africans are not called immigrants--they were slaves), Asians almost all came thru west coast. Appalachian trail is trivia. Mason-Dixon is about slavery which does not get mentioned exce[pt as a political issue. There is nothing about economics, ciommerce, ports, Atlantic connection. It does not make sense--and it ends 140 years ago. There are no sources and few links. Most of all there is no sense of history. Rjensen 03:05, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. However, I don't think what is there is harmful so I don't think we should whipe the section when there should be a history section. I tagged it for now CSZero 14:54, 27 November 2006 (UTC)