Along the Virginia/Tennessee border, this refers to the Bristol/Kingsport/Johnson City metropolitan area. Most exciting thing in the area: Bristol Motor Speedway, home to 160,000 screaming NASCAR fans one Sunday a year. Bristol is split down the middle between Tennessee and Virginia; the other two cities are completely within Tennessee, although Kingsport is right up against the border, and has a counterpart town, Gate City, on the Virginia side of the line.

The cities of Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco located along the Columbia River in arid southeastern Washington. Combined population of approximately 191,000. The region is growing very quickly, spurred by increased agriculture and low electricity costs.

The area features numerous golf courses and wineries, a casino, and museums of pioneer history.

The cities are a major distribution point for local agricultural products, the most important of which include wine grapes, apples, potatoes, sugar beets, alfalfa, hat asparagus, beans, peas, tomatoes, melons, mint and lettuce. Agriculture was stimulated in the southeastern Washington region by the huge Columbia Basin Irrigation Project, the centerpiece of which is the Grand Coulee Dam.

The region features the lovely Hanford Nuclear Reservation, as well as a pulp mill. Agriculture-related industries, such as food packing plants, are a major part of the local economy. High-tech industries are a growing part of the mix. Very low electricity rates due to abundant hydropower are helping to stimulate and expand local industries.

The Tri-Cities are on Interstate 182 and Washington State Route 395. They connect into the national rail network, and are serviced by Amtrak's Empire Builder passenger line. The Tri-Cities Airport (PSC), as well as several other small airports, serve the area.


Sources:

Tri-city Industrial Development Council http://www.tridec.org/
City of Richland, WA http://www.ci.richland.wa.us/
City of Kennewick, WA http://www.ci.kennewick.wa.us/
City of Pasco, WA http://www.ci.pasco.wa.us/
Tri-Cities Visitor and Convention Bureau http://www.visittri-cities.com/

Albany/Schenectady/Troy in upstate New York, the 19th Century hub of commerce for the Empire State.

Albany of course has been the state capital since 1797. The city of slightly more than 100,000 is equidistant from New York, Boston, Buffalo, and Montreal, so it was natural that even Native Americans considered it central to their own commerce.

The name "Schenectady" is derived from a Mohawk word for "on that side of the pinery," or "near the pines," or "place beyond the pine plains."

Schenectady was known as the "city that lights and hauls the world" because of its prominence in the locomotive manufacturing industry. It is also the headquarters of the General Electric Company, and as a result--single-handedly--Schenectady has probably polluted more of the Hudson River than any other metropolitan area in the state.

Troy was synonymous with the industrial revolution, and has therefore also had its share of cleaning-up to do in the late 20th Century. It was the home of the detachable shirt collar, stove manufacturers, textile mills, stagecoach and carriage builders, breweries, bell manufacturers, and iron and steel mills. Iron plates for the Civil War submersible "Monitor" were rolled in Troy.

Samuel Wilson, better known as Uncle Sam of the famous army recruitment poster, lived and worked in Troy.

The Tri-Cities have gone through several "boom and bust" periods and are now in a period of revival because of tourism and Information Technology. There are many fine schools and colleges in the area, home prices are reasonable, and train schedules make it realistic to commute to Manhattan. A two-hour station-to-station trip makes an uninterrupted laptop noding period every morning and evening a distinct possibility.

Everything is possible in Upstate New York.

The Tri-Cities is a medium size metro area located in the Northeastern corner of Tennessee which is made up of Bristol, Kingsport, and Johnson City.

In 2000, the region was honored with the first All-American Region Award which is nornally known as the All-American City Award.

The three towns have quite a unique history together as well as apart.


Bristol has just been designated as the birthplace of country music due to a painting that was just discovered from the early 1900s depicting country music's beginnings.
This city is also one of the few cities in the nation that is actually split between states, yet shares the same government. This was done when the two cities got together and created State Street, a street in downtown Bristol that the state line splits exactly down the lanes.
Bristol also is home to the Bristol Motor Speedway, home of NASCAR's fastest half-mile. When the races are in town, Bristol turns into the second largest city in Tennesee, and within the raceway, has a higher density of people greater than downtown Tokyo.

Johnson City, while holding a nation-wide record, it isn't very widely known. Johnson City has the highest population of homosexuals per capita in the nation.
JC also is home to East Tennessee State University (Which I will node when I go there in the Fall).

Kingsport is known for its many battles fought on the city in the Civil War. My (great * ?)-uncle personally fought on Kingsport's ground.

The region was also known for its leaning personality during the Civil War. They switched sides many times during the war, and we were the first area in the state to turn Union after the war.

I will continue to update this node as I find more history from the Tri-Cities, if you don't find anything interesting in here now, please wait before you flame me, its a work in progress.

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