New York is a state in the northeastern United States. It is sometimes called New York State when there is need to distinguish it from New York City. Because of the preponderance of the population concentrated in the southern portion around New York City, the state is often regionalized into Upstate and Downstate.
Albany Amherst Amsterdam Apalachin Ardsley Armonk Astoria Auburn Baldwinsville Batavia Bath Bay Shore Bayside Bethpage Binghamton Blasdell Bluff Point Bohemia Bowmansville Briarcliff Manor Bronx Brooklyn Buffalo Calcium Callicoon Canandaigua Canastota Canton Catskill Central Valley Chautauqua Cheektowaga Cherry Valley Cicero Clarence Clifton Park Cobleskill Colonie Commack Cooperstown Corfu Corning Corona Cortland Cuba Dansville Diamond Point Dunkirk East Aurora East Elmhurst East Greenbush East Hampton East Norwich East Syracuse Ellenville Ellicottville Elmhurst Elmira Elmsford Endicott Endwell Fairport Falconer Farmingdale Farmington Farmingville Fayetteville Fishkill Floral Park Flushing Fredonia Garden City Geneseo Geneva Glen Cove Glenmont Glens Falls Goshen Great Neck Greenport Hamburg Hamilton Hauppauge Hawthorne Henrietta Herkimer Hicksville Highland Highland Falls Hogansburg Holtsville Hopewell Junction Hornell Horseheads Huntington Huntington Station Hyde Park Islandia Ithaca Jamaica Jamestown Jericho Johnson City Johnstown Kenmore Kingston Lackawanna Lake George Lake Luzerne Lake Placid Latham Lawrence Liberty Liverpool Lockport Long Island City Malone Malta Manchester Maspeth Massapequa Park Massena Mayville Medford Melville Middletown Milford Montauk Montgomery Monticello Mount Morris Nanuet New Hampton New Hartford New Paltz New Rochelle New Windsor New York City Newark Newburgh Niagara Falls North Syracuse Norwich Nyack Ogdensburg Olean Oneida Oneonta Orangeburg Oriskany Oswego Owego Painted Post Palatine Bridge Peekskill Penn Yan Phelps Pittsford Plainview Plattsburgh Pleasant Valley Port Jefferson Port Jervis Poughkeepsie Pulaski Queens Queensbury Rensselaer Richfield Springs Riverhead Rochester Rockville Centre Rome Ronkonkoma Roslyn Rye Rye Brook Saranac Lake Saratoga Springs Saugerties Schenectady Seneca Falls Sidney Skaneateles Smithtown Southampton Spring Valley Staten Island Stony Brook Suffern Syosset Syracuse Tarrytown Ticonderoga Tonawanda Troy Tully Uniondale Utica Vernon Center Verona Vestal Victor Wading River Watertown Watkins Glen Webster Weedsport West Coxsackie West Point West Seneca Westbury White Plains Whitestone Williamsville Wilmington Wilton Windham Woodbury Woodside Wurtsboro Yonkers
Great Lakes
New York State's borders touch two Great Lakes (Erie and Ontario, which are connected by the Niagara River); one former Great Lake (Lake Champlain); the provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Canada; three New England states (Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut); the Atlantic Ocean, and two Mid-Atlantic states (New Jersey and Pennsylvania). In addition, Rhode Island shares a water border with New York.
New York is also the site of the only extra-territorial enclave within the boundaries of the U.S., the United Nations compound on Manhattan's East River.
Megalopolis ... is that Really a Word?
The southern tip of New York State—New York City, its suburbs including Long Island, and the southern portion of the Hudson Valley—can be considered to form the central core of a "megalopolis," a super-city stretching from the northern suburbs of Boston to the southern suburbs of Washington D.C. and therefore occasionally called "BosWash".
First described by Jean Gottmann in 1961 as a new phenomenon in the history of world urbanization, the megalopolis is characterized by a coalescence of previous already-large cities of the Eastern Seaboard: a heavy specialization on tertiary activity related to government, trade, law, education, finance, publishing and control of economic activity; plus a growth pattern not so much of more population and more area as more intensive use of already existing urbanized area and ever more sophisticated links from one specialty to another. Several other groups of megalopolis-type super-cities exist in the world, but that centered around New York City was the first described and still is the best example.
Farms, Rivers, Mountains and Lakes too!
While the state is best known for New York City's urban atmosphere, especially Manhattan's skyscrapers, most of the state is in fact dominated by farms, forests, rivers, mountains, and lakes. New York's Adirondack State Park is larger than any U.S. National Park outside of Alaska. Niagara Falls, on the Niagara River as it flows from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, is a popular attraction. The Hudson River begins with Lake Tear of the Clouds and flows south through the eastern part of the state without draining Lakes George or Champlain. Lake George empties at its north end into Lake Champlain, whose northern end extends into Canada, where it drains into the Richelieu and then the St Lawrence Rivers. Four of New York City's five boroughs are on the three islands at the mouth of the Hudson River: Manhattan Island, Staten Island, and Long Island.
Upstate
"Upstate" is a common term for New York State counties north of suburban Westchester and Rockland counties. Upstate New York typically includes the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains, the Shawangunk Ridge, the Finger Lakes and the Great Lakes in the west; and Lake Champlain, Lake George, and Oneida Lake in the northeast; and rivers such as the Delaware, Genesee, Hudson, Mohawk, and Susquehanna. The highest elevation in New York is Mount Marcy in the Adirondacks.
New York boasts extensive transportation infrastructure. Engineering difficulties because of the terrain of the state and the unique issues of the city brought on by urban crowding have had to be overcome since the state was young. Population expansion of the state generally followed the path of the early waterways, first the Hudson River and then the Erie Canal. Today, railroad lines and the New York State Thruway follow the same general route.
Besides New York City, many of the other cities have urban and regional public transportation. Syracuse is the smallest city in the U.S. to have a commuter rail line, known as OnTrack. Buffalo also has a lightrailsystem, and Rochester had a subway system, although it is mostly destroyed. Only a small part exists under the old Erie Canal Aquaduct.
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New York City is the largest city in the United States and one of the most densely populated cities in the world, allowing it to facilitate one of the most extensive subway and bus systems in the world. It is also famous for many of its bridges and tunnels. New York City offers visitors a bounty of famous streets and avenues.
Many suburban commuter railroad lines enter and leave New York City, including the Long Island Rail Road, MTA Metro-North, the PATH system and many of NJTransit's rail services.
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