Documents for "Miscellaneous U.S. Geography":

• Abercrombie, Fort see Fort Abercrombie.

• Alcatraz [Sp. Álcatraces =pelicans], rocky island in San Francisco Bay, W Calif, about one mile (1.61 km) north of San Francisco. First visited by the Spanish in 1769, it was named for its large pelican colony. The Spanish...

• America [for Amerigo Vespucci ], the lands of the Western Hemisphere—North America, Central (or Middle) America, and South America. The world map published in 1507 by Martin Waldseemüller is the...

• Andersonville village (1990 pop. 277), SW Ga., near Americus; inc. 1881. In Andersonville Prison, officially known as Camp Sumter, tens of thousands of Union soldiers were confined during the Civil War under conditions so bad that nearly 13,000 soldiers died. Its location is part of Andersonville National Historic Site (495 acres/200 hectares), a national memorial for all American prisoners of war, with a museum dedicated to them. The site also includes Andersonville National Cemetery, which contains more than...

• Andrews Air Force Base U.S. military installation, 4,279 acres (1,732 hectares), central Md., est. 1943. It is the chief military airport of Washington, D.C., as well as the headquarters for the air force's high-priority...

• Angel Island largest island in San Francisco Bay, W Calif. Explored by the Spanish in 1775, it came under U.S. control in 1851. The U.S. army used the island as a base from 1863 to 1946, and from 1955 to 1962 a...

• Arkansas Post community on the Arkansas River, SE Ark. Founded by the French in 1686 as a trading post, it is the oldest white settlement in the state; it became the capital of the Arkansas territory in 1819...

• Arlington National Cemetery 420 acres (170 hectares), N Va., across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.; est. 1864. More than 60,000 American war dead, as well as notables including Presidents William Howard Taft and John...

• Balls Bluff hill on the south bank of the Potomac River, near Leesburg, Va. In the Civil War, Union troops who had crossed the river were severely repulsed there on Oct. 21, 1861. Dissatisfaction with that...

• Barbary Coast waterfront area of San Francisco, Calif., in the years after the 1849 gold rush. Gamblers, gangsters, prostitutes, and confidence men flourished, and the brothels, saloons, and disreputable...

• Battery, the park, 21 acres (8.5 hectares), southern tip of Manhattan island, New York City; site of former Dutch and English fortifications. Castle Clinton, a fort built in 1808 for the defense of New York harbor, was ceded to the city in 1823 and renamed Castle...

• Bedloe's Island see Liberty, Statue of.

• Bermuda Hundred fishing village, on the peninsula at the confluence of the Appomattox and James rivers, SE Va., NE of Petersburg; founded 1613. During the Civil War the Union Army of the James was bottled up there...

• Black Tom part of Jersey City, N.J., also called Black Tom Island. In July, 1916, German saboteurs demolished U.S. munitions stores there; in Jan., 1917, they destroyed the Kingsland, N.J., munitions plant...

• Boonesboro former settlement, central Ky., on the Kentucky River. It was named for Daniel Boone , who in 1775 built a small fort there under orders from the Transylvania Company , organized by the American colonizer Richard Henderson. The seat of the government of Transylvania for several years, Boonesboro was later abandoned because of repeated attacks by Native Americans. The fort has been restored within Fort Boonesboro...

• Bowery, the [Dutch Bouwerie =farm], section of lower Manhattan, New York City. The Bowery, the street that gives the area its name, was once a road to the farm of New Amsterdam Governor Peter Stuyvesant, who is buried at St...

• Brandy Station small trading center, Culpeper co., Va. It was the scene of the greatest cavalry engagement of the Civil War (also called the battle of Fleetwood Hill), fought June 9, 1863. Gen. Alfred...

• Bridger, Fort see Fort Bridger State Park.

• Broadway famous thoroughfare in New York City. It extends from Bowling Green near the foot of Manhattan island N to 262d St. in the Bronx. Throughout its length Broadway is chiefly a commercial street. In...

• Cahokia Mounds approximately 85 Native American earthworks in Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, SW Ill., near East St. Louis; largest group of mounds N of Mexico. Monks' Mound, a rectangular, flat-topped...

• Camino Real, El [Span.,=The Royal Road]. There are Camino Reals in most former Spanish possessions, including four in former Spanish territory in the United States. Probably the best-known American trail of this...

• Camp David U.S. presidential retreat, located in Catoctin Mountain Park (see National Parks and Monuments , table), in NW Md. The Camp David accords , the terms of a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, were...

• Camp LeJeune U.S. marine corps base, 82,969 acres (33,576 hectares), SE N.C., SE of Jacksonville; est. 1941. It is the major East Coast training center and support base for the Atlantic Fleet Marine Force.

• Caroline, Fort see Fort Caroline.

• Castle Pinckney fortification at the harbor entrance of Charleston, S.C.; built in 1797, when war with France seemed imminent; named for the American diplomat Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. It was a factor in the confrontation...

• Central Park 840 acres (340 hectares), the largest park in Manhattan, New York City; bordered by 59th St. on the south, Fifth Ave. on the east, 110th St. on the north, and Central Park West on the west. The...

• Cimarron, Territory of now the Panhandle of Okla. It was settled in the early 1800s by cattle ranchers, many of them squatters. To protect their claims they attempted, in 1887, to create a separate territorial government...

• Coney Island beach resort, amusement center, and neighborhood of S Brooklyn borough of New York City, SE N.Y., on the Atlantic Ocean. The tidal creek that once separated the island from the mainland has been...

• Connecticut Reserve see Western Reserve.

• Constitution Island in the Hudson River opposite West Point, SE N.Y.; part of the U.S. Military Academy. The ruins of Fort Constitution, built in 1775, are there. During the American Revolution, a chain was stretched...

• Crazy Horse Memorial memorial to the Oglala Souix chief Crazy Horse and Native Americans, under construction at Thunderhead Mt., near Custer, S.Dak., in the Black Hills. When finished it will consist of an equestrian statue of Crazy Horse, 563 ft (172 m) high and 641 ft (196 m) long, carved in the round out of the mountainside; it will be the largest statue in the...

• Dearborn, Fort see Fort Dearborn.

• Dix, Fort see Fort Dix.

• Donelson, Fort see Fort Donelson.

• Drewry's Bluff high ground on the southern bank of the James River, E Va., S of Richmond; scene of two engagements in the Civil War. On May 15, 1862, the Confederates, positioned on the bluff, repulsed Union...

• Duquesne, Fort see Fort Duquesne.

• Edwards Air Force Base U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway...

• Ellis Island island, c.27 acres (10.9 hectares), in Upper New York Bay, SW of Manhattan island. Government-controlled since 1808, it was long the site of an arsenal and a fort, but most famously served...

• Fifth Avenue famous north-south street of the borough of Manhattan, New York City. It begins at Washington Square and ends at the Harlem River. Between 34th and 59th streets, Fifth Ave. is lined with...

• Fisher, Fort see Fort Fisher.

• Fishers Hill bluff, near Strasburg, Va., in the Shenandoah Valley; site of Union Gen. Philip Sheridan's defeat of Gen. Jubal Early on Sept. 22, 1864, during the Civil War.

• Fort Abercrombie U.S. army post on the west bank of the Red River, at Abercrombie, N.Dak.; est. 1858. Built to protect settlers in the Red River valley from attacks by the Dakotas, the fort played an important...

• Fort Benning U.S. army post, 189,000 acres (76,500 hectares), W Ga., S of Columbus; est. 1918. One of the largest army posts in the United States, it is the nation's largest infantry training center and the...

• Fort Bliss U.S. army post, 1,122,500 acres (454,300 hectares), W Tex., E of El Paso; est. 1849 and named for Col. William Bliss, Gen. Zachary Taylor's adjutant in the Mexican War. Originally strategically...

• Fort Bragg U.S. army base, 11,136 acres (4,507 hectares), E N.C., N of Fayetteville; est. 1918. Originally an artillery post, it is now the principal U.S. army airborne-training center and the site of the...

• Fort Bridger State Park on Blacks Fork of the Green River, SW Wyo. The supply post, founded by U.S. fur trader James Bridger in 1843, was an important station on the Oregon Trail. The Mormons held Fort Bridger from 1853 until...

• Fort Dix U.S. army training center, 32,000 acres (12,950 hectares), central N.J., SE of Trenton; est. 1917 as Camp Dix and named for U.S. statesman John A. Dix. In 1939 it was made a permanent garrison and...

• Fort George G. Meade U.S. army post, 13,500 acres (5,460 hectares), central Md., between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.; est. 1917 as a World War I induction center.

• Fort Hood U.S. army post, 209,000 acres (84,580 hectares), central Tex., near Killeen; est. 1942 on the site of old Fort Gates and named for Confederate Gen. John Hood. It is one of the army's largest...

• Fort Leavenworth U.S. military post, 6,000 acres (2,430 hectares), on the Missouri River, NE Kans., NW of Leavenworth; est. 1827 by Col. Henry Leavenworth to protect travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. The oldest U.S. military prison (est. 1874), and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College are at the fort. The Buffalo Soldier Monument honors the post-Civil War African-American regiments...

• Fort Leonard Wood U.S. army post, 71,000 acres (28,700 hectares), S central Mo.; est. 1940. It is one of the largest basic-training centers in the United States and also provides training for army engineers.

• Fort Polk U.S. army post, 200,000 acres (80,937 hectares), SW La.; est. 1941 and named for the Rev. Leonidas Polk. It is a major army warm-weather training center.

• Fort Riley U.S. military post, 5,760 acres (2,331 hectares), NE Kans., on the Kansas River; est. 1852 to protect travelers on the Santa Fe Trail from attack by Native Americans. Located near the geographic...

• Fort Sam Houston U.S. army base, 3,300 acres (1,335 hectares), S Tex., in San Antonio; headquarters of the Fifth Army. San Antonio, long a military center, donated land in 1870 for the site of a permanent military...

• Fort Sill U.S. military reservation, Comanche co., SW Okla., 4 mi (6.4 km) N of Lawton; est. 1869 by Gen. Philip Sheridan. A 95,000-acre (38,445-hectare) field artillery and missile base, it is the home of...

• ghost town term for any once flourishing American community that has been abandoned, generally for economic reasons. While most of the towns have little or no population, they often contain old buildings,...

• Governors Island 173 acres (70 hectares), in Upper New York Bay, S of Manhattan island, SE N.Y. Bought from the Native Americans by the Dutch in 1637, it was the site of an early New Netherlands settlement. The island received its name in 1698 (officially 1784), when the British set it aside as the colonial governors' residence. Historic landmarks include Fort Jay (completed c.1800) and...

• Great Meadows see Fort Necessity.

• Greenfield Village reproduction of an early American village, est. 1933 by Henry Ford at Dearborn, Mich., as part of the Edison Institute. A white-spired church, a town hall, an inn, a school, a courthouse, a general...

• Greenwich Village residential district of lower Manhattan, New York City, extending S from 14th St. to Houston St. and W from Washington Square to the Hudson River. North of the main settlement of New York City in...

• Gulf For names of bodies of water beginning thus, see second part; e.g., for Gulf of Mexico, see Mexico, Gulf of.

• Hall of Fame for Great Americans national shrine, on the campus of Bronx Community College of the City Univ. of New York, Bronx, New York City; est. 1900. The Hall of Fame, a 630-ft (192-m) colonnade resting on a corridor above a...

• Hall, Fort see Fort Hall.

• Hampton Roads roadstead, 4 mi (6.4 km) long and 40 ft (12.2 m) deep, SE Va., through which the waters of the James, Nansemond, and Elizabeth rivers pass into Chesapeake Bay. One of the finest natural harbors in...

• Harlem residential and business section of upper Manhattan, New York City, bounded roughly by 110th St., the East River and Harlem River, 168th St., Amsterdam Ave., and Morningside Park. The Dutch...

• Henry, Fort Tenn.: see Fort Henry.

• Horseshoe Bend a turn on the Tallapoosa River, near Dadeville, E central Ala., site of a battle on Mar. 27, 1814, in which the Creeks, led by chief William Weatherford , were significantly defeated by a militia under...

• Independence Hall historic building on Independence Square, downtown Philadelphia, in Independence National Historical Park. Originally constructed as the Pennsylvania colony's statehouse in 1732, the hall was the...

• Island No. 10 former island in the Mississippi River, between NW Tenn. and SE Mo.; site of an important western campaign of the Civil War. With the advance of Union Gen. U. S. Grant up the Tennessee River, all...

• King Ranch c.1,000,000 acres (404,700 hectares), S Tex., SW of Corpus Christi with headquarters at Kingsville, Tex.; one of the largest ranches in the world. It has several divisions, of which the best known...

• Kona district, along the western coast of the island of Hawaii. It is Hawaii's coffee belt and the only coffee-producing area in the United States. The Kona coast, with fine deep-sea fishing offshore,...

• Lackland Air Force Base U.S. military installation, c.6,835 acres (2,766 hectares), S Tex., W of San Antonio; est. 1941. It is a major air force training center.

• Langley Air Force Base U.S. military installation, 3,195 acres (1,293 hectares), SE Va., N of Hampton; est. 1917 and named for aviation pioneer Samuel P. Langley. The facility, the oldest continuously active air force base in the United States, is the headquarters of the Air Combat Command and has air-defense missile units. NASA's Langley Research Center is...

• Leavenworth, Fort see Fort Leavenworth.

• Lejeune, Camp see Jacksonville , N.C.

• Malmstrom Air Force Base U.S. military installation, 3,573 acres (1,446 hectares), W central Mont., E of Great Falls; est. 1942. During World War II, it was the takeoff point for Soviet-bound lend-lease materiel; after the...

• McHenry, Fort see Fort McHenry.

• Meigs, Fort see Fort Meigs.

• Middle West see Midwest.

• Midwest or Middle West, region of the United States centered on the western Great Lakes and the upper-middle Mississippi valley. It is a somewhat imprecise term that has been applied to the northern section of the land...

• Mill Springs village, on the Cumberland River, S of Frankfort, SE Ky.; site of the opening battle of the Kentucky-Tennessee campaign of the Civil War and the first important Union victory in the West. On Jan...

• Mims, Fort see Fort Mims.

• Mission Trail see Camino Real, El.

• Monroe, Fort see Fort Monroe.

• Monticello [Ital.,=little mountain], estate, 640 acres (259 hectares), central Va., near Charlottesville; home of Thomas Jefferson for 56 years. The mansion, which he designed, was begun in 1770 on property...

• Montpelier estate, central Va., near Charlottesville; formerly the home of President James Madison. The brick mansion was built c.1760 by Madison's father. Madison and his wife are buried nearby. The estate...

• Moultrie, Fort see Fort Moultrie.

• Nassau, Fort see Fort Nassau.

• Necessity, Fort see Fort Necessity.

• New Amsterdam Dutch settlement at the mouth of the Hudson River and on the southern end of Manhattan island; est. 1624. It was the capital of the colony of New Netherland from 1626 to 1664, when it was captured...

• New England name applied to the region comprising six states of the NE United States— Maine , New Hampshire , Vermont , Massachusetts , Rhode Island , and Connecticut. The region is thought to have been so named by Capt. John Smith because of its resemblance to the English coast (another source has it that Prince Charles, afterward Charles I, inserted the name...

• New Hampshire Grants early name (1749-77) for Vermont, given because most of the early settlers came in under land grants from Benning Wentworth, the colonial governor of New Hampshire. Although the 1664 charter for...

• New Netherland territory included in a commercial grant by the government of Holland to the Dutch West India Company in 1621. Colonists were settled along the Hudson River region; in 1624 the first permanent settlement was established at Fort Orange (now Albany, N.Y.). The principal settlement in the tract after...

• New Sweden Swedish colony (1638-55), on the Delaware River; included parts of what are now Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. With the support of Swedish statesman Axel Oxenstierna, Admiral Klas Fleming...

• Niagara, Fort see Fort Niagara.

• Northwest Territory first possession of the United States, comprising the region known as the Old Northwest, S and W of the Great Lakes, NW of the Ohio River, and E of the Mississippi River, including the present...

• Offutt Air Force Base U.S. military installation, 1,907 acres (772 hectares), E Neb., S of Omaha; est. 1896 as Fort Crook, an army base. Converted to an airbase in the early 1900s and renamed in 1924, it is the...

• Old Northwest see Northwest Territory.

• Palo Alto locality not far from Brownsville, Tex., where the first battle of the Mexican War was fought on May 8, 1846. American troops under Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated a Mexican force led by Gen. Mariano...

• Pearl Harbor land-locked harbor, on the southern coast of Oahu island, Hawaii, W of Honolulu; one of the largest and best natural harbors in the E Pacific Ocean. In the vicinity are many U.S. military...

• Pickens, Fort see Fort Pickens.

• Pillow, Fort see Fort Pillow.

• Pitt, Fort see Fort Duquesne ; Pittsburgh.

• Port Republic village, NW Va., on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River. During the Civil War, on June 8-9, 1862, the last battle of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson's successful Shenandoah valley campaign was...

• Pulaski, Fort see Fort Pulaski.

• Quivira land sought and reached by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541 and explored by later Spanish expeditions (1593 and 1601). The records do not make it entirely clear exactly where Quivira was...

• Redstone Arsenal U.S. rocket research and development center, 38,781 acres (15,694 hectares), N Ala., W of Huntsville; est. 1941. One of the state's largest industrial enterprises, it includes the Army Missile...

• Research Triangle Park research, business, medical, and educational complex situated in central North Carolina. It has an area of 6,900 acres (2,795 hectares) and is 8 × 2 mi (13 × 3 km) in size. Named for the triangle...

• Riley, Fort see Fort Riley.

• Rust Belt or Rustbelt, economic region in the NE quadrant of the United States, focused on the Midwestern (see Midwest ) states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, as well as Pennsylvania. The term gained wide use in the 1970s as the formerly dominant industrial region became noted for the abandonment of...

• Saint Marys City village (1990 pop. 3,200), St. Marys co., S Md., on the St. Marys River; est. 1634 as Maryland's first town. English colonists purchased a Native American village, renamed it St. Marys, and built...

• Saint Stephens see Gaines, George S.

• Schoenbrunn Village State Memorial E Ohio, S of New Philadelphia; site of the first town in Ohio, est. 1772 by Moravian missionary David Zeisberger and his Native American converts. During the American Revolution, the town was...

• Schuyler, Fort see Fort Schuyler.

• Silicon Valley an industrial region, approximately 20 mi (32 km) long, in the Santa Clara Valley between Palo Alto and San Jose, mainly in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, W central Calif., where many computer...

• Sill, Fort see Fort Sill.

• Snelling, Fort see Fort Snelling.

• South, the region of the United States embracing the southeastern and south-central parts of the country. Traditionally, all states S of the Mason-Dixon Line and the Ohio River (except West Virginia) make up the South—Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas,...

• Spotsylvania rural county (1990 pop. 57,403), NE Va., formerly part of the estate of Alexander Spotswood, colonial governor of Virginia. It was the scene of several major engagements of the Civil War,...

• Stanwix, Fort see Fort Stanwix.

• Stone Mountain Memorial memorial to the Confederacy, consisting of the equestrian figures of Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Jefferson Davis carved on the northern face of Stone Mt., a granite dome 650 ft (198 m)...

• Stratford home of the Lee family, overlooking the Potomac River, E Va., SE of Fredericksburg. A national shrine dedicated in 1935, the site was purchased in 1716 by Thomas Lee, who built the mansion...

• Sun Belt or Sunbelt, southern tier of the United States, focused on Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California, and extending as far north as Virginia. The term gained wide use in the 1970s, when the economic and...

• Times Square in New York City. Formed by the intersection of Broadway, Seventh Ave., and 42d St., this famous square was named (1904) for the building there that formerly belonged to the New York Times. The building, located in the center of the square, is still famous for the outdoor news "zipper" that displays up-to-the-minute news. Times Square and the adjacent area form one of the most concentrated entertainment districts in the nation, featuring legitimate theaters, motion picture...

• Union, Fort see Fort Union.

• Vandenberg Air Force Base U.S. military installation, 3,456 acres (1,399 hectares), SW Calif., near Lompoc; chief Pacific coast launch site for military satellites. Commercial satellites are launched from the base as well,...

• Wakefield family estate of George Washington, on the Potomac River, E Va.; part of the George Washington Birthplace National Monument (see National Parks and Monuments , table). John Washington, the great-grandfather of George, settled there in 1664. The house in which George was born was built by his father, Augustine Washington. It was destroyed by fire in 1779,...

• Walter Reed Army Medical Center major hospital complex in Washington, D. C., and Forest Glen, Md.; est. 1923 and named for U.S. army surgeon Walter Reed. It is composed of seven units including a general hospital and a research...

• Washington, Fort N.Y.: see Fort Washington.

• Washington-on-the-Brazos former town, S central Tex., on the Brazos River; settled 1821. It was the scene of the Texas declaration of independence from Mexico on Mar. 2, 1836, and in 1842 it was the seat of the Republic of...

• West Point U.S. military post, since 1802 seat of the United States Military Academy. On the high west bank of the Hudson River N of New York City, West Point was the site of Revolutionary forts guarding the Hudson. Constitution Island, in the river, is also in the reservation. The...

• Western Reserve tract of land in NE Ohio, on the southern shore of Lake Erie, retained by Connecticut in 1786 when it ceded its claims to its western lands (see Northwest Territory ). In 1792, Connecticut gave 500,000 acres (202,350 hectares), called "firelands," to citizens whose property was burned during the American Revolution. The Connecticut Land Company bought (1795) the remaining land, and Cleveland was established (1796) as the first permanent settlement in the reserve. In 1800 the reserve gained government when it...

• Wilderness Road principal avenue of westward migration for U.S. pioneers from c.1790 to 1840, blazed in 1775 by the American frontiersman Daniel Boone and an advance party of the Transylvania Company. Feeders from the east (Richmond, Va.) and the north (Harpers Ferry, W.Va.) converged at Fort Chiswell in the Shenandoah valley. Boone's road ran southwest from there through the valley, then W...

• Wounded Knee creek, rising in SW S.Dak. and flowing NW to the White River; site of the last major battle of the Indian wars. After the death of Sitting Bull, a band of Sioux, led by Big Foot, fled into the badlands, where they were captured by the 7th Cavalry on Dec. 28, 1890, and brought to the creek. On Dec. 29, the...

• Wright-Patterson Air Force Base U.S. military installation, 8,023 acres (3,247 hectares), W Ohio, NE of Dayton; est. 1917. One of the largest airport installations in the world, it is the air force's main research and development...