United States of America
Edited by:
Massimo Martini
Access
The United States can be reached from Europe by air via numerous international airports. The main gateways for those coming from Europe are John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Los Angeles International Airport and Boston International Airport. For access to the mountainous regions of the West, the airports of Denver (Colorado), Salt Lake City (Utah), Seattle (Washington) and Anchorage (Alaska) are the main entry points. From Canada, the border can be travelled overland at numerous points along the 8,893 km of shared border. The US road system is among the most extensive in the world: the Interstate Highways network covers over 77,000 km and connects major urban areas and national parks. I-90 crosses the entire country from Seattle to Boston; I-70 connects Denver to Midwestern cities. The passenger rail system is operated by Amtrak, with long-distance lines between major cities, although coverage of rural and mountain areas remains limited. In large national park areas such as Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Denali, the car is the primary means of access; some parks have seasonal internal shuttles. For the Alaskan parks, transfers are often by small plane from Anchorage or Fairbanks.
.Introduction
The United States of America occupies the central part of the North American continent, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, with offshoots in the Alaskan Arctic and the Hawaiian Islands in the middle of the Pacific. The country has some of the greatest geomorphological diversity in the world: from the eastern Atlantic coast, structured around the Appalachian Mountains and the Coastal Plain, to the great central plains, from the Rocky Mountains and the Cascade Range to the Sierra Nevada and the Pacific coast. The highest peaks are in Alaska, where Denali reaches 6,190m, making the country the holder of the highest peak in the entire Western Hemisphere. The federal structure, divided into fifty states with a large degree of autonomy, has shaped a land management system in which the national parks - whose system was inaugurated in 1872 with Yellowstone, the world's first national park - occupy a fundamental place in environmental policy and collective identity.
.Description
The orographic structure of the United States runs along two major axes. To the east, the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Georgia to Maine along some 2,400 km, with peaks of moderate altitude but landscapes of great interest: the highest peak is Mount Mitchell in North Carolina at 2,037m. To the west, the Rocky Mountains form the backbone of the country, running through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico with peaks exceeding 4,000m in Colorado - where 117 of the 477 peaks over 3,000m in the US territory are concentrated. Colorado is the state with the highest number of peaks above 4,000m, the so-called Fourteeners, peaks that exceed 4,267m (14,000ft), which constitute a classic North American mountaineering destination. The Cascade Range, in Oregon and Washington State, is home to a series of impressive volcanoes including Mount Rainier (4,392m) and Mount Shasta (4,317m); Mount St. Helena (2,549m) is known for its eruption on 18 May 1980, which profoundly changed the surrounding landscape. In Alaska, the Alaska Range and the St. Elias Range bring the altitudes to the highest continental level: Denali, known until 2015 as Mount McKinley, reaches 6,190m and is the highest peak in all of North America.
The history of the United States is marked by European colonisation from the 17th century onwards, after a long period of settlement by Native American peoples spread throughout the territory. The War of Independence (1775-1783) led to the birth of the republican federation, formalised by the Constitution of 1787. During the 19th century, westward expansion, accompanied by conflicts with the native peoples and the taking of territories from Mexico in the War of 1848, defined the current borders of the continental country. The Civil War (1861-1865) brought about the end of slavery and consolidated federal unity. In the 20th century, the United States became the world's leading economic and military power, playing a decisive role in the two world wars and the Cold War. Immigration from Europe, Asia, and Latin America has shaped a plural society with strong regional characteristics.
The US economy is the world's largest by gross domestic product, supported by a technology and financial sector of primary global importance, industrialised agriculture on a continental scale, and one of the most developed energy sectors. California's Silicon Valley and Seattle's technology corridor are among the world's leading centres of innovation. The agricultural production of the central Great Plains - wheat, corn, soybeans - is a major contributor to global markets. Culturally, the United States has produced some of the most widespread artistic expressions of the 20th century, from jazz and blues music to Hollywood film traditions, with a pervasive influence on an international scale.
The US national park system is the most structured in the world: it has 63 national parks and over 400 protected sites managed by the National Park Service. Yellowstone, founded in 1872 in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, is the world's first national park and home to the largest concentration of geysers and geothermal phenomena on the planet. The Grand Canyon in Arizona stretches 446 km along the Colorado River, with walls that descend to a depth of 1,800m. Denali National Park in Alaska protects the highest peak in North America and vast territories of Arctic tundra. Yosemite in California is known for its granite formations - the El Capitan rock face reaches 900m vertical drop and is considered one of the most iconic climbing destinations in the world - and redwoods (Sequoiadendron giganteum), among the most massive trees by volume on Earth. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, is the most visited park in the United States. Among the fauna are the American bison (Bison bison), reintroduced to the plains parks after almost becoming extinct, theAmerican elk (Alces alces), the grey wolf (Canis lupus), the mountain lion (Puma concolor) and the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus), the subject of one of the most ambitious wildlife recovery programmes in the country.
Hiking in the United States is based on a world-class system of long-distance trails. The Appalachian Trail, completed in 1937, connects Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine via 3,510 km along the Appalachian ridge, crossing fourteen states; it is considered the oldest and most popular long-distance trail in the country. The Pacific Crest Trail covers 4,265 km along the crest of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Range from the Mexican border in California to the Canadian border in Washington State. The Continental Divide Trail, the wildest of the three great national trails, follows the continental divide for about 5,000 km from the Rocky Mountains in New Mexico to Glacier National Park in Montana. The national parks of the west - Zion, Bryce Canyon, Arches, Grand Teton - have an extensive network of marked trails for all levels.
Mountaineering in the United States has a rich history, particularly developed along the granite walls of California and the ridges of the Rocky Mountains. Yosemite Valley has been one of the world's leading rock climbing laboratories since World War II: the walls of El Capitan and Half Dome have seen some of the most significant technical progressions in climbing history, starting with the first big wall style ascents in the 1950s and 1960s. In Alaska, the first ascent of Denali took place on 7 June 1913 by Hudson Stuck, Walter Harper, Harry Karstens and Robert Tatum; the mountain has become one of the classic high altitude expeditions for North American and European mountaineers, with the base camp on the Kahiltna Glacier at 2,200m altitude. Royal Robbins, Yvon Chouinard and Warren Harding are among the names that have made their mark on 20th century American mountaineering, particularly on the Californian walls.
The US trail running has played a key role in the development of the discipline worldwide. The Western States Endurance Run, starting in Squaw Valley (California) and finishing in Auburn after 160km and over 5,500m of elevation gain, is considered one of the founding races of modern trail running, first run in its current form in 1977. The Hardrock 100 in Colorado's San Juan Mountains (160 km, approx. 10,000m D+) takes place at altitudes between 2,700m and 4,300m and is one of the most challenging trials due to the altitude conditions and technical terrain. The Leadville 100 in Colorado, run entirely over 3,000m altitude with peaks up to 4,000m, is among the highest footraces in the United States. The Pikes Peak Marathon in Colorado, with an ascent and descent of the summit of Pikes Peak (4,302m) for a total of 37 km, is one of the oldest mountain running races in the US.
Information
General Data
Capital: Washington D.C.
Area: 9,826,675 km²
Minimum elevation: -86m (Badwater Basin, Death Valley, California)
Maximum elevation: 6.190m - Denali (Mount McKinley) [to be verified: slug inalto.org]
Number of inhabitants: 331,449.000 (as of 2020)
Official name: United States of America
Name of inhabitants: US
Federated states: 50 states (Alaska, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, North Dakota, South Dakota, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming)
Neighbouring nations: Canada - Mexico
Institutional site: https://www.usa.gov