Portal:Delaware

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The Delaware Portal

Delaware (/ˈdɛləwɛər/ ^ⓘ DEL-ə-wair) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey to its northeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state's name derives from the adjacent Delaware Bay, which in turn was named after Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and the Colony of Virginia's first colonial-era governor.

Delaware occupies the northeastern portion of the Delmarva Peninsula, and some islands and territory within the Delaware River. It is the 2nd smallest and 6th least populous state, but also the 6th most densely populated. Delaware's most populous city is Wilmington, and the state's capital is Dover, the 2nd most populous city in Delaware. The state is divided into three counties, the fewest number of counties of any of the 50 U.S. states; from north to south, the three counties are: New Castle County, Kent County, and Sussex County. The southern two counties, Kent and Sussex counties, historically have been predominantly agrarian economies. New Castle is more urbanized and is considered part of the Delaware Valley metropolitan statistical area that surrounds and includes Philadelphia, the nation's sixth most populous city. Delaware is considered part of the Southern United States by the U.S. Census Bureau, but the state's geography, culture, and history are a hybrid of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the country.

Before Delaware coastline was explored and developed by Europeans in the 16th century, the state was inhabited by several Native Americans tribes, including the Lenape in the north and Nanticoke in the south. The state was first colonized by Dutch traders at Zwaanendael, near present-day Lewes, Delaware, in 1631. Delaware was one of the Thirteen Colonies that participated in the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War, in which the American Continental Army, led by George Washington, defeated the British, ended British colonization and established the United States as a sovereign and independent nation. On December 7, 1787, Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, earning it the nickname "The First State". (Full article...)

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"Oliver Evans, the Watt of America"
Original portrait caption

Oliver Evans (September 13, 1755 – April 15, 1819) was an American inventor, engineer, and businessman born in rural Delaware and later rooted commercially in Philadelphia. He was one of the first Americans to build steam engines and an advocate of high-pressure steam (as opposed to low-pressure steam). A pioneer in the fields of automation, materials handling and steam power, Evans was one of the most prolific and influential inventors in the early years of the United States. He left behind a long series of accomplishments, most notably designing and building the first fully automated industrial process,first propose a design vapor-compression refrigeration, the first high-pressure steam engine, and the first (albeit crude) amphibious vehicle and American automobile. More recently, however, in the allocation of priorities for the development of the high-pressure steam engine, the simultaneity of Evans’ work with that of Richard Trevithick has been established, and historians have accorded proper credit for his pioneering of the assembly line.

Born in Newport, Delaware, Evans received little formal education and in his mid-teens was apprenticed to a wheelwright. Going into business with his brothers, he worked for over a decade designing, building and perfecting an automated mill with devices such as bucket chains and conveyor belts. In doing so Evans designed a continuous process of manufacturing that required no human labor. This novel concept would prove critical to the Industrial Revolution and the development of mass production. Later in life Evans turned his attention to steam power and built the first high-pressure steam engine in the United States in 1801, developing his design independently of Richard Trevithick, who built the first in the world a year earlier. Evans was a driving force in the development and adoption of high-pressure steam engines in the United States. Evans dreamed of building a steam-powered wagon and eventually constructing and running one in 1805. Known as the Oruktor Amphibolos, it was the first automobile in the country and the world's first amphibious vehicle, although it was too primitive to be a success as either. (Full article...)

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Center City Philadelphia (in background) and the Schuylkill River (on left) as seen from South Street Bridge in July 2016

The Delaware Valley, sometimes referred to as Greater Philadelphia or the Philadelphia metropolitan area, is a metropolitan region in the Northeast United States that centers around Philadelphia, the nation's sixth-most populous city, and spans parts of four U.S. states: southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, northern Delaware, and the northern Eastern Shore of Maryland. With a core metropolitan statistical area population of 6.288 million residents and a combined statistical area population of 7.366 million as of the 2020 census, the Delaware Valley is the eighth-largest metropolitan region in the nation and North America, and the 68th-largest metropolitan region in the world.

In addition to Philadelphia, other major urban population centers in the Delaware Valley include Reading, Upper Darby Township, and Chester in Pennsylvania; Atlantic City, Camden, Vineland, and Cherry Hill in South Jersey; and Wilmington and Dover in Delaware. The Philadelphia metropolitan area's gross domestic product (GDP) exceeds $518 billion, making it the tenth-largest metropolitan economy in the nation as of 2022. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various Delaware-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Map of Delaware (from Delaware)
Image 2Dover (from Delaware)
Image 3The Blackbird Pond on the Blackbird State Forest Meadows Tract in New Castle County, Delaware (from Delaware)
Image 4Wilmington (from Delaware)
Image 5A field north of Fox Den Road along the Lenape Trail in Middle Run Valley Natural Area (from Delaware)
Image 6The population density map for Delaware (from Delaware)
Image 7The Blackbird Pond on the Blackbird State Forest Meadows Tract in New Castle County, Delaware (from Delaware)
Image 8Fort Delaware State Park on Pea Patch Island, a popular spot during the spring and summer; a ferry takes visitors to the fort from nearby Delaware City. (from Delaware)
Image 9Newark (from Delaware)
Image 10Sunset in Woodbrook, Delaware (from Delaware)
Image 11Delaware Route 1 (DE 1) is a partial toll road linking Fenwick Island and Wilmington. (from Delaware)
Image 12Newark (from Delaware)
Image 13Picking Peaches in Delaware, an illustration in an 1878 issue of Harper's Weekly (from Delaware)
Image 14Wilmington Station in Wilmington (from Delaware)
Image 15Wilmington (from Delaware)
Image 16The Köppen climate classification for Delaware (from Delaware)
Image 17Seaford (from Delaware)
Image 18The Delaware General Assembly meets in Delaware Legislative Hall in Dover. (from Delaware)
Image 19Rehoboth Beach, a popular vacation spot during the summer months (from Delaware)
Image 20The Twelve-Mile Circle (from Delaware)
Image 21A field north of Fox Den Road along the Lenape Trail in Middle Run Valley Natural Area (from Delaware)
Image 22Sunset in Woodbrook, Delaware (from Delaware)
Image 23Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States and a U.S. senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009 (from Delaware)
Image 24Rehoboth Beach, a popular vacation spot during the summer months (from Delaware)
Image 25The Twelve-Mile Circle (from Delaware)
Image 26Nautical chart of the Dutch colony Zwaanendael and Godyn's Bay (Delaware Bay), 1639 (from History of Delaware)
Image 27The Köppen climate classification for Delaware (from Delaware)
Image 28The Cape May–Lewes Ferry (from Delaware)
Image 29Seaford (from Delaware)
Image 30NASCAR racing at Dover Motor Speedway in Dover (from Delaware)
Image 31Dover (from Delaware)
Image 32Ethnic origins in Delaware (from Delaware)
Image 33A two-shilling, six-pence banknote issued by Delaware in 1777 (from Delaware)
Image 34Fort Delaware, painted circa 1870 by Seth Eastman. (from History of Delaware)
Image 35The Cape May–Lewes Ferry (from Delaware)
Image 36Ethnic origins in Delaware (from Delaware)
Image 37The University of Delaware in Newark (from Delaware)
Image 38Fort Delaware State Park on Pea Patch Island, a popular spot during the spring and summer; a ferry takes visitors to the fort from nearby Delaware City. (from Delaware)
Image 39Delaware's license plate design, introduced in 1959, is the longest-running one in U.S. history. (from Delaware)
Image 40Delaware's license plate design, introduced in 1959, is the longest-running one in U.S. history. (from Delaware)
Image 41Picking Peaches in Delaware, an illustration in an 1878 issue of Harper's Weekly (from Delaware)
Image 42Wilmington Station in Wilmington (from Delaware)
Image 43Map of Delaware (from Delaware)
Image 44The population density map for Delaware (from Delaware)
Image 45Delaware was named for Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English merchant and governor of the Colony of Virginia from 1610 to 1618. (from History of Delaware)
Image 46The University of Delaware in Newark (from Delaware)
Image 47The Delaware General Assembly meets in Delaware Legislative Hall in Dover. (from Delaware)
Image 48Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States and a U.S. senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009 (from Delaware)
Image 49NASCAR racing at Dover Motor Speedway in Dover (from Delaware)
Image 50A two-shilling, six-pence banknote issued by Delaware in 1777 (from Delaware)
Image 51Delaware Route 1 (DE 1) is a partial toll road linking Fenwick Island and Wilmington. (from Delaware)

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... that The Breakwater Light was the first newspaper in the first town in the first state?
... that Delaware politician Armwell Long was said to have once outranked his close friend, George Washington? (See discussions regarding this hook at Talk:Armwell Long.)
... that Dave Frederick has been referred to as the "Sussex County humorist-teacher-writer-radio-host-philosopher dude"?
... that Paul Chadick performed so well in the Delaware River Basketball League that a sportswriter said it would "benefit the league if he retired"?
... that the only purpose of the Delaware Straight-Out Truth Teller was to promote a political candidate?
... that Delaware weekly newspaper The Faulkland Quiz was founded, edited and published by an 18-year-old?

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Delaware Route 17 (DE 17) is a two-lane undivided state highway located in Sussex County, Delaware. The route runs in a northeast-southwest direction between DE 54 in Selbyville and DE 26 west of Millville, crossing DE 20 in Roxana. It is called Bethany Road within Selbyville and Roxana Road for the remainder of its length. The route passes through rural areas of southeastern Sussex County. DE 17 serves to connect Selbyville with the Bethany Beach area. The route was built as a state highway in the 1920s and received the DE 17 designation by 1938. (Full article...)

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Largest cities

Largest cities or towns in Delaware 2018 United States Census Bureau Estimate
	Rank	Name	County	Municipal pop.
Wilmington Dover	1	Wilmington	New Castle	70,635	Newark Middletown
	2	Dover	Kent	38,079
	3	Newark	New Castle	33,673
	4	Middletown	New Castle	22,582
	5	Smyrna	New Castle/Kent	11,580
	6	Milford	Kent/Sussex	11,353
	7	Seaford	Sussex	7,861
	8	Georgetown	Sussex	7,427
	9	Elsmere	New Castle	5,981
	10	New Castle	New Castle	5,529

See List of municipalities in Delaware for a full list.

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