Massachusetts is the northern most state in New England that is entirely considered a part of this region. Megalopolis is a collection of metropolitan areas in which there are large, heavily populated areas on the east coast. Megalopolis is made up of a group of "cultural hearths" of which the three major ones are New England, Mid Atlantic and Tidewater.
The natural resources and geography of Massachusetts enabled it to become a center for Megalopolis. The coastline allowed for natural harbors and the forests offered materials for shipbuilding. This allowed for oversea trade and fishing to build from early on.
Technology
Even though Massachusetts still has some very large areas of open land and forests, it qualifies as a part of "Megalopolis" because of the number of large, technologically advanced cities. The largest of these cities is Boston. Boston is the capital of Massachusetts and it is also the economic capital of New England. The city is full of early American historical sites, such as the Old North Church, the Paul Revere House, the Boston Commons and the Boston Tea Party ship. For a ridiculous fee, you can throw a box overboard in the Boston Harbor and pretend to be a part of the original tea party.
Boson has the oldest hub transit system in the country. This included a series of ferries, horse draw carriages and ox carts. One of the earliest feats of the modern age was the Boston Mass Transit Authority subway system. The first underground train ran under the city of Boston on September 1,1897. A very funny song was written about the cost of the subway in 1949 as part of a political campaign. The fares used to require exit fees. This song talks about a man named "Charlie" who could never return because he didn't have the nickel to get out of the subway. Please enjoy this version by the Kingston Trio.
Some
of the technology and advancements include the underwater tunnels that
connect peninsular areas of Boston and surrounding cities to the mainland of
the city. These include the Sumner Tunnel
in 1934 and the Callahan Tunnel in 1961. Between
1991 and 2006 the city planned and completed a major project unofficially known
as ‘The Big Dig”. It added additional
underwater tunnels, bridges and greenways in and around the city. This was considered a great engineering accomplishment
but was also the most expensive highway project in the history of the United
States.
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is one of two major capes located on the west coast of Massachusetts. Cape Ann is a much smaller cape to the north and is much less developed.Cape Cod is a peninsular area of land extending out at the south eastern end of the state of Massachusetts. A manmade canal was built in the early 1900s and has made Cape Cod an island technically. Bridges were built to connect the mainland to the Cape. It’s a little over 400 square miles and has a year-round population of about 215,000 people. That number swells in the summertime due to tourism when the "maximum sustainable yield" of the area is completely overused.
Stories state that sailors from as early as the Vikings explored Cape Cod but the only evidence shows that it was probably first founded in the early 1600s by European explorers and then the pilgrims. The pilgrims actually landed at the point now known as Provincetown before they settled in the Plymouth Plantation. The land was once more forested but the settlers used the trees and other natural materials to build houses, create farmlands and raise livestock.
The shape of Cape Cod (a “lobstah” tail) provides a natural protection for harbors and protected the early communities from the threat of war. This also encouraged development of the area and added to the population. It was a whaling port in the past but has recently become a very popular vacation spot, a home for artist colonies and home to a thriving gay and lesbian community (Provincetown). The historic value and the mild climate bring more than 6,000,000 tourists to this area each year.
The Islands
Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket are two small islands off the south coast of Cape Cod. They are sometimes referred to as “twins that were separated at birth”. They were both created by glacial outwash and therefore have no rocky coastal areas. Besides erosion, the major problems for the islands is the high cost of living and an overload of tourists that the natural resources and manmade locations cannot support. The people who live on the islands year round look for solitude and a quiet lifestyle. Unfortunately it’s hard to find on the Cape or islands any longer.
My grandfather built a number of small homes on both Cape Cod and the Vineyard. All of these homes have since been sold but my family was lucky enough to stay on Monomoscoy Island in Mashpee back in the summer of 2000. Monomoscoy is also actually a peninsula that is covered off and on by water, making it a temporary island sometimes.
Unintended Consequences
Massachusetts used to be covered with thousands of acres of wetlands and marshes. These areas were seen as a problem for the growth of civilization for the early settlers because they wanted to bring the agriculture and lifestyle that they left behind in Europe. As early as the 15th century the wetland were drained and filled with soil so that the settlers could build towns, plant crops and create roads.
What the people didn’t realize was that these wetlands and marshes were natural protection for flooding and other land issues. It was nature’s way of “fighting back” against the unnatural approach to human development. The high cost of flooding and rebuilding eventually caught the attention of local politicians who have started to realize it might be better to reclaim the wetlands rather than to continuously pay for new homes and rebuild towns.
In more recent years some environmental groups and government officials have become even more aware of what the wetlands mean to protecting the natural environment of Massachusetts. Bills have been passed (like the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act) and projects (Alewife Wetlands Restoration Project in Cambridge) have begun to reclaim this fragile environment from human interference. Specific information on current programs and protection agencies can be found at http://www.thebeatnews.org/history-federal-wetland-protection/
There are marshes and wetlands all
along the coast and inland areas of Massachusetts. For a brochure about the areas in Massachusetts
that are defined as wetlands and why they are important, please visit the following link from the Town
of Essex, MA Conservation Commission
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