Theme Week New England – Rhode Island

23 February 2017 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  13 minutes

Newport © MVASCO - Michael Kagdis/cc-by-sa-3.0

Newport © MVASCO – Michael Kagdis/cc-by-sa-3.0

Rhode Island, officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Rhode Island is the smallest in area, the eighth least populous, and the second most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states, following New Jersey. Its official name is also the longest of any state in the Union. Rhode Island is bordered by Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north and east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound. The state also shares a short maritime border with New York. On May 4, 1776, Rhode Island became the first of the Thirteen Colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, and was the fourth among the newly sovereign states to ratify the Articles of Confederation on February 9, 1778. It boycotted the 1787 convention that drew up the United States Constitution and initially refused to ratify it. On May 29, 1790, Rhode Island became the 13th and last state to ratify the Constitution.   read more…

Providence in Rhode Island

6 October 2015 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Thomas P. Ives house in Spring © Kenneth C. Zirkel/cc-by-sa-3.0

Thomas P. Ives house in Spring © Kenneth C. Zirkel/cc-by-sa-3.0

Providence is the capital and most populous city in Rhode Island and was one of the first cities established in the United States. Located in Providence County, it is the third largest city in the New England region. The city proper population of 180,000 anchors the 37th largest metropolitan population in the country, with an estimated MSA population of 1,600,000, exceeding that of Rhode Island by about 60% because of its reaching into southern Massachusetts. This MSA in turn is part of the larger Greater Boston commuting area, which contains 7.6 million people.   read more…

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