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Delaware, DE

Delaware is a state located on the Atlantic
Coast in the Mid-Atlantic and Southern regions of the United
States. The state is named after Delaware Bay and River, which
were named for Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr (1577–1618).
Population estimates by the Census Bureau for
2005 place the population of Delaware at 843,524.
Despite being the 45th most populous state, it is the seventh
most densely populated state, with a population density of 320
more people per square mile than the national average, ranking
ahead of states such as Florida, California, and Texas.
Geography
Delaware is 96 miles long and ranges from 9 to
35 miles across, totaling 1,954 square miles and making it the
second-smallest state in the United States after Rhode Island.
Delaware is bounded to the north by
Pennsylvania, to the east by the Delaware River, Delaware Bay,
New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean and to the west and south by
Maryland.
Small portions of Delaware are also situated on
the far, or eastern, side of the Delaware River Estuary, and
these small parcels share land boundaries with New Jersey.
The state of Delaware, together with the
Eastern Shore counties of Maryland and two counties of
Virginia, form the Delmarva Peninsula, a geographical unit
stretching far down the Mid-Atlantic Coast.
The definition of the northern boundary of the
state is highly unusual.
Most of the boundary between Delaware and Pennsylvania is
defined by an arc extending 12 miles (19 km) from the cupola
of the courthouse in New Castle, and is referred to as the
Twelve-Mile Circle.
This is the only true-arc political boundary in
the United States. This border extends all of the way to the
low-tide mark on the New Jersey shore, which continues down
the shoreline until it again reaches the twelve-mile arc in
the south; then the boundary continues in a more conventional
way in the middle of the main channel (thalweg) of the
Delaware River Estuary.
A portion of this arc extends into Maryland to
the west, and the remaining western border is a tangent to
this arc that runs a bit to the east.
The Wedge of land between the arc and the
Maryland border was claimed by both Delaware and Pennsylvania
until 1921, when Delaware's claim was confirmed.
Delaware is subdivided into three counties:
from north to south, New Castle, Kent County and Sussex.
This article is licensed under
the
GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the
Wikipedia
article "Delaware".
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