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Massachusetts's Geography

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Massachusetts, part of the northeastern conglomeration known as "New England," is surrounded by New Hampshire and Vermont to the North, New York to the west, Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, and no state on the east - only the Atlantic Ocean. Massachusetts is called "the Bay State" because of the large bays that create its coastline: Massachusetts Bay, Cape Cod Bay, Buzzards Bay, and Narragansett Bay. The peninsula Cap Cod also helps create the unique coastline of Massachusetts; it's a large, slimly shaped peninsula on the southeast corner of the state. Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket are islands to the south of Cape Cod.

Charles River is Massachusetts's longest river contained entirely within the state, and at its mouth lays Boston - the state's largest city, with a population of almost 6 million people in the metropolitan area (though most of those people live in the highly populated suburban area, not the city). In fact, most of Eastern Massachusetts is highly populated, while Western Massachusetts, as a whole, is rural. The west of Massachusetts is probably the most rural of the state; the Berkshires are located there - the western border of the state, formed by the Appalachian Mountains.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is made up of 14 counties - Barnstable, Berkshire, Bristol, Dukes, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Nantucket, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, and Worcester. Within these counties are 50 cities and 301 towns.

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