Piedmont (United States)

This article is about the plateau region. For cities and towns in the United States named Piedmont, see Piedmont (disambiguation) § Populated places.

The Piedmont region in the Appalachian Highlands

The Piedmont /ˈpiːdmɒnt/[1] is a plateau region located in the Eastern United States. It is situated between the Atlantic Plain and the Blue Ridge Mountains, stretching from New York in the north to central Alabama in the south. The Piedmont Province is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Highlands physiographic division and consists of the Piedmont Upland, and the Piedmont Lowlands sections.[2]

The Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line marks the Piedmont's eastern boundary with the Coastal Plain. To the west, it is mostly bounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains, the easternmost range of the Appalachians. The width of the Piedmont varies, being quite narrow above the Delaware River but nearly 300 miles (475 km) wide in North Carolina. The Piedmont's area is approximately 80,000 square miles (210,000 km2).[3]

The French word Piedmont comes from the Italian: Piemonte, meaning "foothill",[1] ultimately from Latin "pedemontium", meaning "at the foot of the mountains", similar to the name of the Italian region of Piedmont (Piemonte), abutting the Alps.

  1. ^ a b "Definition of Piedmont". Dictionary.com.
  2. ^ Fenneman, N. M.; Johnson, D. W. (1946). "Physiographic divisions of the conterminous U.S." United States Geological Survey.
  3. ^ "Piedmont". Homework Help and Textbook Solutions. The Columbia Gazetteer of North America, 2000. Archived from the original on March 10, 2005. Retrieved December 9, 2007 – via Bartleby.