Editing Mid-Atlantic (United States) (section)

==History==
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2023}}
[[File:Line3174 - Shipping Containers at the terminal at Port Elizabeth, New Jersey - NOAA.jpg|thumb|[[Intermodal container|Shipping containers]] at [[Port Newark–Elizabeth Marine Terminal]] in the [[Port of New York and New Jersey]]]]
Shipping and trade have been important to the Mid-Atlantic economy since the beginning of the colonial era. The explorer [[Giovanni da Verrazzano]] was the first European to see the region in 1524. [[Henry Hudson]] later extensively explored that region in 1611 and claimed it for the Dutch, who then created a fur-trading post in [[Albany, New York|Albany]] in 1614. [[Jamestown, Virginia]] was the first permanent English colony in North America, it was established seven years earlier in 1607.

From early colonial times, the Mid-Atlantic region was settled by a wider range of European people than in New England or the South. The Dutch [[New Netherland]] settlement along the [[Hudson River]] in [[New York City]] and [[New Jersey]], and for a time, [[New Sweden]] along the [[Delaware River]] in [[Delaware]], divided the two great bulwarks of English settlement from each other. The original English settlements in the region notably provided refuge to religious minorities, [[Maryland]] to [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholics]] and [[Pennsylvania]] to [[Religious Society of Friends|Quakers]] and [[Anabaptist]] [[Pennsylvania Dutch]]. In time, all these settlements fell under English colonial control, but the region continued to be a magnet for people of diverse nationalities.

The area that came to be known as the [[Middle Colonies]] served as a strategic bridge between the North and South. The [[New York and New Jersey campaign]] during the [[American Revolutionary War]] saw more battles than any other theater of the conflict. [[Philadelphia]], midway between the northern and southern colonies, was home to the [[Continental Congress]], the convention of delegates who organized the [[American Revolution]]. Philadelphia also was the birthplace of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] in 1776 and the [[United States Constitution]] in 1787, while the [[United States Bill of Rights]] was drafted and ratified and the first [[Supreme Court of the United States]] sat for the first time, in the first capital under the [[Constitution of New York]].

While early settlers were mostly farmers, traders, and fishermen, the Mid-Atlantic states provided the young United States with [[heavy industry]] and served as the "[[melting pot]]" of new [[Immigration to the United States|immigrants]] from Europe. Cities grew along major ports, shipping routes, and waterways, including New York City and [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]] on opposite sides of the [[Hudson River]], Philadelphia on the Delaware River, [[Allentown, Pennsylvania|Allentown]] on the [[Lehigh River]], and [[Baltimore]] on the [[Chesapeake Bay]].