The United States by Endless Vacation Rentals | Travel Research Online

60-Second Geography

The United States of America

• Any visitor to the United States is struck by its diversity more than its unity. North and South, East and West, rural and urban cultures in the United States are enormously divergent.
• For five centuries immigrants have brought their respective cultures to the United States, often settling together in regions of the country. The communities they built, the schools they founded, the newspapers they published and read, the churches they attended all gave character to their distinct geographical area.
• The stereotypes of these regions hold an interesting mixture of exaggeration and truth, from the “Deep South” to “New England” to the “West Coast“. The rich fabric of the United States tapestry of culture has given rise to both creative and destructive energies, the likes of which the world has never seen. No longer fixed by an isolated geography, United States culture permeates every corner of the globe for both better and worse.
• Few destinations offer as great a variety of natural wonders and man-made structures. From the redwood forests of California, to the Grand Canyon, the spires of Bryce Canyon, the Rocky Mountains, the Great Smokey Mountains or the coasts of Maine and Florida, there is nearly no end to the natural beauty of the United States.
• The United States is comprised of 3.79 million square miles making it the fourth largest country by land area. It is also the largest economy in the world. California, a state, is the 6th largest economy in the world.
• The original 13 colonies on the eastern seaboard grew mostly by acquisition of land from England, France, Spain and Mexico.
• The rich natural resources of the United States coupled with the free enterprise system have fueled its expansion into world dominance. In addition, the interior of the country is highly navigatable as a result of the extensive interstate highway system, the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basin.
• Alaska is the largest state at 365 million acres and Rhode Island is the smallest at 1,545 square miles, about the same amound of territory burned in the recent California brush fires.