Tl;dr:

  • Several geographic effects of the erosion of the Appalachian range over hundreds of millions of years, like the Fall Zone, being the dividing line between the hilly, higher altitude Piedmont interior and the flat, sandy, swampy, and nutrient poor exterior.
  • Hurricanes
  • Malaria
    • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe
      Aquileo | link
      Aquileo | fedilink
      English
      Aquileo | arrow-up
      5
      ·
      16 days ago

      Yea, comparatively empty is a good description.

      If you’ve ever been up and down the east coast, it’s pretty apparent. Population density just plummets once you hit Richmond (heading south) and really stays low until you reach central/southern Florida.

      If you drive westward towards the Appalachians in those states, you see a lot of farmland and forest.

      It’s a beautiful thing.

        • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe
          Aquileo | link
          Aquileo | fedilink
          English
          Aquileo | arrow-up
          2
          ·
          15 days ago

          Lol.

          Lots of that space is really beautiful countryside. I’ve driven through a fair bit of it.

          Wealthy people used to summer in the Appalachians - it’s 10-20 degrees cooler there in the summer.

          Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway run for a total of hundreds of miles from Northern VA to I think Georgia, along the eastern portion of the Appalachians. I’ve ridden some of it on my bike in the summer, and it’s amazing, especially the Shenandoah valley.

          Really, once you go west of 95 even a couple miles it becomes farmland.

          • Horsey@lemmy.world
            Aquileo | link
            Aquileo | fedilink
            Aquileo | arrow-up
            2
            ·
            15 days ago

            I’ve driven the entirety of i95, and Richmond was the very last of the northern metropolis. After Richmond, there was nothing until we hit Jacksonville, and continued into central Florida.