Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line
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Atlantic Seaboard fall line | |
|---|---|
| Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:InfoboxImage/data' not found. Map showing part of the Eastern Seaboard Fall Line, where the pale-colored coastal plain meets the brightly colored Piedmont | |
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| Location | United States |
| Formed by | New Jersey, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, U.S.[1][2][3] |
| Dimensions | |
| • Length | 900 mi (1,400 km)[3] |
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The Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line, or Fall Zone, is a 900-mile (1,400 km) escarpment where the Piedmont and Atlantic coastal plain meet in the eastern United States.[3] Much of the fall line passes through areas where no evidence of faulting is present.
Description
The fall line marks the geologic boundary of hard metamorphosed terrain—the product of the Taconic orogeny—and the sandy, relatively flat alluvial plain of the upper continental shelf, formed of unconsolidated Cretaceous and Cenozoic sediments. Examples of fall zone features include the Potomac River's Little Falls and the rapids in Richmond, Virginia, where the James River falls across a series of rapids down to its tidal estuary.
Before navigation improvements, such as locks, rapids or waterfalls along the fall line were generally the head of navigation on rivers and necessitated portage around them. Numerous cities initially formed along the fall line because of the easy river transportation to seaports, as well as the availability of water power to operate mills and factories, thus bringing together river traffic and industrial labor. U.S. Route 1 and Interstate 95 link many of the fall-line cities.
In 1808, Treasury Secretary Albert Gallatin noted the significance of the fall line as an obstacle to improved national communication and commerce between the Atlantic seaboard and the western river systems:[4]
Gallatin's observation was sound, though simplified and limited by the knowledge of his time. The limits of the fall line are subject to some dispute. In the north, the fall line is usually understood to have its northern limit at New Brunswick, New Jersey, a geologic continuation in fact crosses the Hackensack and Passaic rivers at the cities of those names, to which navigation was possible. In the south, some such as Gallatin and the USGS,[1] imply its end to be in the Carolinas or Georgia, and to include only rivers running to the Atlantic; others trace it farther west through Georgia and Alabama as its geologic continuation.[5][6]
Cities and towns
Only the principal city of an area is listed below. However, two cities may belong on one river, if the one downstream is at the effective head of navigation and the one upstream at the site of useful water power.
Cities that lie along the Piedmont–Coastal Plain fall line include the following (from north to south):
- New Brunswick, New Jersey on the Raritan River.
- Trenton, New Jersey, on the Delaware River.[3]
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the Schuylkill River.[7]
- Wilmington, Delaware, on the Brandywine River.
- Havre de Grace, Maryland, on the Susquehanna River/head of Chesapeake Bay.
- Baltimore, Maryland, on Herring Run, Jones Falls, and Gwynns Falls.[8]
- Washington, D.C., on the Potomac River.[9]
- Fredericksburg, Virginia on the Rappahannock River.[9]
- Richmond, Virginia, on the James River.[10]
- Goldsboro, North Carolina and Smithfield, North Carolina, on the Neuse River.[11]
- Fayetteville, North Carolina, on the Cape Fear River.[citation needed]
- Columbia, South Carolina, on the Congaree River.[2][10]
- Augusta, Georgia, on the Savannah River.[2][12]
- Macon, Georgia, on the Ocmulgee River.[2]
- Columbus, Georgia, on the Chattahoochee River.[2]
- Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on the Black Warrior River.[2]
- Wetumpka, Alabama, on the Coosa River. The river and fall line run along the outside slope of the Wetumpka meteor impact crater, through an uplifted area. The crater is 82 MYA and the fall line is over 200 MYA.[13][14]
Geographic coordinates
| State | Point (crossing) | Elevation & coordinates | Fall zone: drop/width (slope) |
Geomorphology Piedmont—Coastal plain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | New Brunswick (Raritan River) | 460 ft (140 m) Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found. |
5–10 ft (1.5–3.0 m) (Gentle slope) |
|
| Trenton (Delaware River) | Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found. | 8 ft (2.4 m) | Falls of the Delaware | |
| Pennsylvania | Philadelphia (Schuylkill River by I-76) | Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found. | 10–12 ft (3.0–3.7 m) (Dam) |
Fairmount Dam |
| Delaware | Wilmington (Brandywine Creek) | Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found. | 67 ft (20 m) (falls and rapids) |
160 ft (49 m) from its headwaters to sea level, with a series of falls and rapids in Wilmington |
| Newark (White Clay Creek) | Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found. | |||
| Maryland | Conowingo Dam (Susquehanna) | Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found. | 19–20 ft (5.8–6.1 m) (1 mi (1,600 m)) |
Susquehanna Falls |
| Ellicott City[15] (Patapsco) | Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.[1] | Crystalline rock—unconsolidate marine sediments[16] | ||
| Little Falls (Potomac River) | 76 ft (23 m) (up to 20 ft (6.1 m) over several falls) |
|||
| Washington, DC | Theodore Roosevelt Island (Potomac River) | |||
| Virginia | Fredericksburg (Rappahannock) | Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.[2] | 30–50 ft (9.1–15.2 m) | [west of Interstate 95 bridge][17] |
| Richmond (James River) | ||||
| Emporia (Meherrin River)[18] | ||||
| North Carolina | Smithfield (Neuse River) | |||
| Goldsboro (Neuse River) | ||||
| Fayetteville (Cape Fear River) | ||||
| South Carolina | Columbia (Congaree River) | Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.[3] | 20–30 ft (6.1–9.1 m) (2.5 mi (4,000 m) |
The river drops through a series of rapids. |
| Georgia | Augusta (Savannah River) | Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.[4] | 50 ft (15 m) | |
| Macon (Ocmulgee River) | Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.[5] | 30–40 ft (9.1–12.2 m) | ||
| Columbus (Chattahoochee River) | Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.[6] | 125 ft (38 m) (2.5 mi (4,000 m) |
||
| Alabama | Wetumpka (Coosa River) | Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.[7] | 40–60 ft (12–18 m) (1 mi (1,600 m) |
The river drops roughly 40–60 feet as it crosses the fall line near a meteor impact crater. |
| Tuscaloosa (Black Warrior River) | Lua error: callParserFunction: function "#coordinates" was not found.[8] | 120 ft (37 m) (1 mi (1,600 m) |
The river drops approximately 120 feet where the Coastal Plain meets the Cumberland Plateau. |
References
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- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The Fall Line". A Tapestry of Time and Terrain: The Union of Two Maps - Geology and Topography. USGS.gov. Retrieved August 12, 2010.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)[dead link] - ^ a b c d e f Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Georgia Geology". Archived from the original on September 4, 2010. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
- ^ a b c d Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Freitag, Bob; Susan Bolton; Frank Westerlund; Julie Clark (2009). Floodplain Management: A New Approach for a New Era. Island Press. p. 77. ISBN 978-1-59726-635-2. Retrieved November 17, 2010.
- ^ [Report on] Roads and Canals, Communicated to the Senate April 4, 1808, p.729
- ^ Duncan, Mack. "Fall Line." New Georgia Encyclopedia, last modified Jul 23, 2018. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/geography-environment/fall-line/
- ^ Library of Congress
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Shamsi, Nayyar (2006). Encyclopaedia of Political Geography. Anmol Publications. pp. 92–93. ISBN 978-81-261-2406-0. Retrieved November 17, 2010.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Maryland Geology". Maryland Geological Society. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Deane, Winegar (2002). Highroad Guide to Chesapeake Bay. John F. Blair. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-89587-279-1. Retrieved November 17, 2010.
- ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Roberts, David C.; W. Grant Hodsdon (2001). Roger Tory Peterson (ed.). A Field Guide to Geology: Eastern North America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 242. ISBN 978-0-618-16438-7. Retrieved November 17, 2010.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Fall Line". NCpedia. Retrieved January 25, 2017.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Fall Line Road". www.familysearch.org. www.familysearch.org. Retrieved December 18, 2025.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Expert gives story on fall line through city". The Wetumpka Herald. June 3, 2020. Retrieved September 21, 2025.
Lock 31 is there because of the fall line. That's where everything changes right there. That one spot right there is a paradigm shift.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Impact Crater". Wetumpka Area Chamber of Commerce. Archived from the original on January 10, 2018. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
The location of the Wetumpka Astrobleme —"star-wound"— originated from a cosmic event that occurred some 80 to 83 million years ago. It was confirmed only recently, after more than two years of extensive investigation and deep earth core drilling conducted on site. It is one of the few above-ground impact crater locations in the United States and one of only about six in the entire World. Even more unusual is the fact that the structure is actually exposed (as you can see from the rim evidence in these photographs). Despite the weathering that has occurred through millions of years, the crater walls are still prominent, so the rim was obviously much higher at one time. The projectile of the meteor impact was probably travelling between 10 and 20 miles per second. So this means the impact would have produced winds in excess of 500 miles per hour, and the meteor most likely struck at a 30-45 degree angle as it came from the northeast. They determined that it came from the northeast by the angle at which the rocks are slanted within the impact area which includes the current flow path of the Coosa River. This can be seen looking from both directions on the Bibb Graves Bridge. Geologists speculate that the shock waves, the damage, and other effects of the impact explosion radiated out from the strike several hundred miles. Debris may have been thrown as far away as the present Gulf of Mexico. Geologists also theorize that the strike area would have been under a shallow sea, perhaps 300 to 400 feet of water, that covered most of southern Alabama at the time of the impact. It is estimated that the diameter of the meteorite to be 1,100 feet and could have been as much as three to four times larger.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."History/Culture". PatapscoHeritageGreenway.org. Archived from the original on March 10, 2010. Retrieved September 7, 2010.
George Ellicott House: A block away is the 1789 George Ellicott House at 24 Frederick Road., which has been saved, moved out of the flood plain, and restored. The Ellicott family settled here along the fall line of the Patapsco River in 1772 and built an innovative, water-powered flour mill
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Watershed Report for Biological Impairment of the Patapsco Lower North Branch Watershed in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, and Howard Counties and Baltimore City, Maryland. Biological Stressor Identification Analysis. Results and Interpretation" (PDF). Maryland Department of the Environment. April 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 21, 2009.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Fall Line". VirginiaPlaces.org. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
- ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."River and "Fall Line" Cities". VirginiaPlaces.org. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
