Everything about Great Appalachian Valley totally explained
The Great Valley, also called the
Great Appalachian Valley or
Great Valley Region, is one of the major landform features of eastern
North America. It is a gigantic trough — a chain of valley lowlands — and the central feature of the
Appalachian Mountain system. The trough stretches about 700 miles from Canada to Alabama and has been an important north-south route of travel since prehistoric times.
Geography
Broadly defined, the Great Valley marks the eastern edge of the
Ridge and Valley physiographic province. There are many regional names of the Great Valley, such as the Shenandoah Valley. From a large perspective the Great Valley can be divided into a
northern section and a
southern section.
Northern section
In its
northern section, the Great Valley includes the
Lake Champlain lowlands and
Champlain Valley,
Hudson River Valley, Newburgh Valley, Wallkill Valley, Kittatinny Valley,
Lehigh Valley,
Lebanon Valley, and
Cumberland Valley.
A series of mountains bounds the valley to the east, including, from north to south, the
Green Mountains of
Vermont, the
Taconic Mountains, the
Reading Prong (which includes the
Hudson Highlands, the New York and New Jersey Highlands,
Schunemunk Mountain, and the
Ramapo Mountains), and
South Mountain of
Pennsylvania. There is a wide gap between Reading Prong and South Mountain, connecting the Great Valley with the Piedmont region of southeast Pennsylvania. Some sources cite this gap as the dividing point between the northern and southern sections of the Great Valley.
Another series of mountains bounds the valley to the west. These are mainly the first major ridges of the Valley and Ridge Appalachians and the western escarpments of the Alleghany Plateaus. They include, from north to south, the
Adirondack Mountains, the
Catskill Mountains (specifically the Helderberg Escarpment), a long and nearly continuous mountain ridge with several names:
Shawangunk Ridge,
Kittatinny Mountains,
Blue Mountain, stretching from New York through New Jersey to Pennsylvania. This long mountain continues into Virginia with the name
North Mountain. These mountains on the west side of the Great Valley are broken by the gap of
Mohawk Valley in New York, which connects the Hudson River Valley with the lowlands south of
Lake Ontario. The long Kittatinny-Blue-North Mountain is broken by a few narrow
wind and
water gaps, such as the
Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania Wind Gap,
Lehigh River Gap,
Schuylkill River Gap, Swatara Gap, the
Susquehanna River Gap, Big Gap, and, farther south, the
Potomac River Gap.
Southern section
In its
southern section, the Great Valley is bounded to the east by the
Blue Ridge Mountains, which extend north into Pennsylvania as South Mountain. Regional names of the southern Great Valley include
Hagerstown Valley in
Maryland, Winchester Valley and
Shenandoah Valley in
Virginia and
West Virginia, the upper valley of the
James River,
Roanoke Valley, and
New River Valley in Virginia, the
Holston River Valley in Virginia and
Tennessee, and the East
Tennessee Valley extending from Virginia through Tennessee to
Alabama. Some sources describe the
Coosa River Valley as the southernmost part of the Great Valley. These southern portions of the Great Valley are sometimes grouped into two parts, the
Valley of Virginia and the
Tennessee Valley.
The southern Great Valley is bounded on the east by the Blue Ridge physiographic province, which includes, from north to south,
South Mountain in Pennsylvania,
Catoctin Mountain in Maryland and Virginia, the Blue Ridge of Virginia, the
Black Mountains of Virginia and
North Carolina,
Holston Mountain in Tennessee, the
Unaka Range and the
Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. An important gap in these mountains occurs near
Roanoke, Virginia. Other gaps of note in the Blue Ridge of Virginia, connecting the Piedmont region with the Great Valley include
Thornton Gap,
Swift Run Gap, and
Rockfish Gap.
Another series of mountains bounds the southern Great Valley to the west, including
North Mountain and
Great North Mountain, the
Allegheny Front,
Powell Mountain,
Cumberland Mountains,
Walden Ridge, and the
Cumberland Plateau. The
Cumberland Gap connects the Great Valley region with
Kentucky and Tennessee lands to the west.
Massanutten Mountain lies in the middle of the Valley of Virginia portion of the Great Valley.
The Valley of Virginia is a region of
karst, with many
sinkholes and
caverns.
History
Routes through the valley were first used by
Native Americans. In pre-colonial and early colonial times a major Indian pathway through the Great Valley was known as the
Great Indian Warpath, Seneca Trail, and various other names.
For white immigrants the Great Valley was a major route for settlement and commerce in the United States along the
Great Wagon Road, which began in
Philadelphia. In the Shenandoah Valley the road was known as the
Valley Pike. The
Wilderness Road branched off from the Great Wagon Road at present-day
Roanoke, Virginia crossed the Cumberland Gap and led to Kentucky and Tennessee, especially the fertile
Bluegrass region and
Nashville Basin. Another branch at Roanoke, called the
Carolina Road, led into the
Piedmont regions of
North Carolina,
South Carolina, and
Georgia.
The various gaps connecting the Great Valley to lands to the east and west have played important roles in American history. On the east side, the wide gap in southeast Pennsylvania became the main route for colonization of the Great Valley. By the 1730s the Pennsylvanian Great Valley west of South Mountain was open to settlement after treaty cessions and purchases from the Indians. The region drew a steady and growing stream of immigrants and became known as "the best poor man's country". Before long immigrations had thoroughly settled the Great Valley in Pennsylvania and were rapidly migrating and settling southwards into the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. The entire region between southeast Pennsylvania and the Shenandoah Valley soon became famous as a "breadbasket", the most productive mixed farming region in America (Meinig, 1986:134). The road from Philadelphia west to the valley and then south through it became very heavily used and known variously as the Great Wagon Road, the Philadelphia Wagon Road, the Valley Road, etc. The
conestoga wagon was developed around 1725 in the area of the wide opening between Philadelphia and the Great Valley. The conestoga wagon became the main vehicle for transportation through the Great Valley until the railroad era.
By the 1750s the Great Valley was well-settled to the southern end of Shenandoah Valley. Immigrants continued to travel from the Philadelphia area south through the Great Valley beyond Shenandoah, to the vicinity of the modern city of Roanoke, Virginia. There is a wide gap in the Blue Ridge near Roanoke. A branch of the Great Wagon Road began there, crossing through the gap east into the Piedmont region of North Carolina and South Carolina. This road became known as the Carolina Road. During the 1750s the stream of migrants traveling south through the valley and into the Carolina Piedmont grew into a flood. At the time, the Carolina Piedmont region offered some of the best land at the lowest prices. Soon a string of towns appeared, including
Salisbury,
Salem, and
Charlotte in North Carolina. In the decades before the
American Revolution the Piedmont "upcountry" of the Carolinas was quickly settled, mostly by recent immigrants who had migrated from the north to the south via the Great Valley. Many of these immigrants were
Scots-Irish, Germans from the
Rhineland-Palatinate area, and
Moravians. This "upcountry" population soon surpassed the older and more established "lowcountry" population near the Atlantic coast, causing serious geopolitical tensions in the Carolinas during the late 18th century (Meinig, 1986: 291-293).
On the west side, the Cumberland Gap became the main route for migration west from the southern Great Valley to Kentucky and Tennessee. In the north, the Mohawk Valley became a major route for westward expansion, especially after the construction of the
Erie Canal, which linked New York City to the
Great Lakes region via the Hudson River of the Great Valley and the Mohawk Valley gap.
The Great Valley played an important role during the
American Civil War, especially the Shenandoah Valley, its Blue Ridge gaps and nearby Piedmont area, and its northward extension to the vincity of
Gettysburg. Civil War era sites and events in this region include
Harpers Ferry,
Antietam,
Manassas, Virginia,
Chambersburg, Pennsylvania,
Valley Campaign,
Valley Campaigns of 1864,
Battles of Chattanooga, and
Gettysburg Campaign.
Today, the main thoroughfares occupying the southern Great Valley are:
Culture
The Great Valley, especially the southern-middle portion, is the core of the region known as
Appalachia.
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