Living In The MIddle Atlantic States : Urban Complex (1974)

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the cities are big and the people are on the moon more than a quarter of the country's population is concentrated in these six middle atlantic states the appalachian highlands take up a large part of the area east of them is the piedmont and then the low atlantic coastal plain rivers that begin in the highlands flow down across the hilly piedmont and tumble and falls and rapids to the plains with water and water power available here industry developed in the 1800s industry attracted immigrants because there were jobs population commerce industry everything grew [Music] people are the middle atlantic state's greatest resource i'm going to college next year or maybe a business school or a technical institute there are lots to choose from around here i live in brooklyn and i have a part-time job in manhattan to get down to work i usually take the a train then switch to the aa train then take a bus across town i ride at three o'clock the trains aren't too crowded then we come up for a little air on the brooklyn bridge and then we're in manhattan me [Music] i work in a big department store in the food section i got the job so i could have some spending money and something to do during the summer also i can get discounts here i work inside the store most of the time but the store is great they handle merchandise from everywhere swedish glassware and cameras from japan and bicycles from chicago and furniture from north carolina you know even sports coats from manhattan and appliances from new jersey and pennsylvania yeah it's a good job the most active manufacturing area of the country is here in the middle atlantic states my position here is to govern and regulate the manufacture of all the structures that go into the final assembly of the royal car division here in philadelphia we manufacture railway car equipment commuter service and mainline equipment construction of the railroad car starts with the fabrication of parts getting the steel of course is the first step we get stainless steel from pittsburgh after this piece is punched it gets shaped into a heater guard grill steel for junction boxes from pittsburgh too this wire is from rhode island i'd say 10 to 12 months after we get an order we can have cars ready for shipping yes we live here in philadelphia and i've been employed 39 years in the railway division a philadelphian goes three or four places for the weekend we like the new jersey shore donald the resorts atlantic city coney island well we might take it in if we go to new york but it's too crowded for me too many people but it takes people millions of people to run the great number of industries in the middle atlantic states in new york city thousands of people work in printing and publishing about one-fourth of the books published in the united states come from here chemical processing is a major industry in the middle atlantic states too paints are part of it so are pills these printed circuits will go into television sets an almost endless variety of products comes out of the middle atlantic states flash cubes and cameras and photographic equipment marbles and other toys typewriters and adding machines and all kinds of office equipment many of the products manufactured in the middle atlantic states are made of steel steel is one of the region's most important products a quarter of america's steel comes from the mills of pittsburgh soft coal is mined near pittsburgh heated in airtight ovens to burn away impurities then used as a fuel in steel production coal in that form is called coke coal deposits lie under two thirds of west virginia oil deposits in northwest pennsylvania are the basis of a refining industry this molten glass was once a bit of the sandy soil of west virginia west virginia's industries are mainly based on its mineral resources much of the land is not suited for farming farming is better in the atlantic coastal plain where the ground is more level and less rocky i've been growing tomatoes here in new jersey all about 50 years we grow tomatoes eggplants peppers asparagus corn that is the horse corn we used to grow sweet potatoes but don't anymore squash we've earned a living on farming don't make too much money but you make a living at it the future of farming i think it's going to go out my land's more valuable because of all the industry coming out here but we don't want to sell it we'd like to keep it as a farm as long as the wholesale market wants our produce we'll stay in farming many agricultural products of the middle atlantic states are sold to food processing plants in cities like clinton new jersey processed food and manufactured goods are shipped to all parts of the world from coastal cities of the middle atlantic states these cities are gateways for goods going out of the country and coming into it river routes and railroads sea routes and land routes they all interweave in the middle atlantic states the lincoln tunnel takes traffic under the hudson river from weehawken new jersey into midtown new york i live in east orange new jersey 17 miles away public transportation is a little difficult for me i have to drive in every day in september it will be 11 years that i've been doing this work most of the trucks are coming in to make deliveries but some are coming through to the new england states quite a few of our patrons are familiar even the passenger cars i know quite a few of the bus drivers by name because they're pretty friendly guys have i seen figures on how much traffic goes through in one day i really haven't but after a day of thank you and good morning and so forth i don't care for one collector at the time she's working it seems like a million the middle atlantic states are knit together by a system of interstate highways that connect major cities like new york and philadelphia and washington dc and within or near these cities there are rail yards that connect the region with the rest of the country trains we take them apart and put them together here i work here in the philadelphia rail yard and i'm keeping track of a train we're putting together for chicago this is a hopper car hopper cars carry west virginia coal sand loads you can dump tank cars for liquids like pennsylvania oil and gasoline wouldn't switch without the switchman what's going out you name it we've got it vegetables from new jersey generators from schenectady chemicals from delaware electronics equipment from here in philadelphia and empty cars too [Music] car men connect all the air brake lines between the cars and when the flagman hangs up the markers on the caboose we've officially got a train [Music] and goods on the move this is the basis of life in the urban complexes that make up the middle atlantic states [Applause] movement speed contact with the rest of the country and the rest of the world this is kennedy international airport in new york [Applause] [Music] bridges and tunnels connect cities and states over 200 miles of subways run beneath new york city millions of people use subways and surface lines to commute to jobs trains buses taxis tunnels ferries bridges turnpikes they keep things moving and keep the vast urban complexes of the middle atlantic states alive the rural landscape changes as the expanding cities and suburbs eat up the countryside suburban life is becoming more urban as offices and shopping centers move out of the cities to the suburbs the city still have their problems and their big problems because they're big cities [Music] i live in the monroe projects living here is all right but it's starting to get like a slum the city's building more places for us to play in and that's good with nothing to do kids just hang around and make trouble congestion pollution unemployment slums some of the problems some answers better mass transportation low-income housing room for recreation clean air to breathe urban planners are busy trying to make urban you