Talk:Fall line

Specific locations
Why would Boston be on a fall line? Wouldn't it have to be an area further up the Charles River? Jolomo 14:43, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Not clear from other sources whether Trenton or Philadelphia would be the Fall Line city for the Delaware. Seems to depend on whether the distinction refers to the point where the river ceases to be navigable, or where it provides water power. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.19.98.169 (talk) 08:22, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Two major East Coast rivers that are missing from this list are the Connecticut and the Susquehanna. I want to say that Hartford is situated at the fall line for the Connecticut, but I'm not sure; I won't even hazard a guess for the Susquehanna. Izzycat 05:58, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

The Fall Line vs A Fall Line
The article begins by pointing out the distinction between the general concept of a fall line and "the" Fall Line of the United States that separates the coastal plain from the piedmont. Then the text describes "the" fall line, ending with a list of cities. The list is introduced with the sentence: "Cities along the fall line include, from north to south:" So it sounds to me like this is not merely a list of cities on "a" fall line in the generic sense, but "the" fall line between the piedmont and the coastal plain. The first cities, in New England, Lowell, MA, Pawtucket, RI, and Troy, NY don't satisfy any definition of the fall line that I have heard. I'm skeptical about the next set of cities. Then there is Conowingo Dam, which isn't even a city even though this is a list of cities.

The cities from Washington DC southward all sound fine to me. The rest... can someone provide a source? I'm tempted to delete as least the New England ones. "The" Fall Line, as described in the article, is something quite specific, not just any river that has rapids or a waterfall as it nears the coast.. Pfly 22:43, 30 September 2006 (UTC)


 * You're right, I think the term is more meaningful and historically noteworthy for the mid-atlantic states (and to a lesser extent Ga/SC) than the others. Maybe the article should do a better job of explaining the importance of the fall line (ie how geography impacted development and commerce).  It's fine with me if you pare down the list.  --Alcuin 02:41, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

Split article
Seems it would be appropriate to split the article into "Fall line (geography)" and "Fall line (skiing)". Any objections? Gjs238 04:51, 2 November 2006 (UTC)


 * Go for it --Alcuin 14:36, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

Baltimore
This city was built at the mouth of the Jones Falls. Baltimore is a special case in that it was built along the fall line not along a river, but a small tributary, emptying into a harbor. The closest river is the Patapsco, but its fall line is located at Elkridge at the Howard/Baltimore county border. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.140.129.183 (talk) 03:15, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Texas and other countries
Fall lines are found in many areas of the world. There are very few fall line cities on the US Pacific coast due to its ruggedness and lack of year-round rivers in the Los Angeles Basin, but there are small cities in Texas on the Gulf Coast fault line and many more in other countries. I'd like to see some up here and will add as I find any. The research won't be easy at all. Heff01 02:53, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

An article on this already exists
Fall Line Studios.

Why should we have two articles on the same subject? magiciandude 00:02, 10 April 2007 (UTC)


 * Maybe you could read this page and see how much overlap there is with the one you mention? Pfly 05:06, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

African Fall Line?
This article has no mention of the African fall line, which was probably one of the largest factors in New Imperialism of the 19th century. Doesn't anyone think it just deserves a slight mention? Or any other fall line, for that matter, besides "the" fall line in the US? -71.104.92.157 18:42, 6 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I've never heard of the African fall line, although I think I've read about many (most?) of Africa's rivers having falls near their mouths. So, sure, an article on Africa's fall line, or any other fall line would be great. Is Africa's actually called "fall line"? As for page names, that can be dealt with if any other pages get made. Care to do one for Africa? Pfly 19:44, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Fall zone bit
I've reverted an undiscussed cut and paste move to fall zone. "Fall line" is the mor common usage (1,020,000 google hits vs 33,900 for "fall zone"). Vsmith (talk) 03:54, 17 April 2008 (UTC)

Line or area?
It seems interesting that a Line represents an Area; wouldn't Fall Zone be more appropriate? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 153.9.92.103 (talk) 16:01, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Proposed merge from Fall Line Cities
I'm proposing that Fall Line Cities should be merged into this article. My feeling is that Fall Line Cities is little more than a stub, and has almost no content that is not covered here in Fall line. Some nice and interesting wording from Fall Line Cities could be saved, but the list of cities is pretty much just what we have here in Fall line. Both articles have some slight problems in structure - which is quite well-described above under The Fall Line vs A Fall Line and that isn't yet fully resolved. So, I think we have some work to do in making it a better and more useful article about fall lines in general, and then defining which fall lines we are talking about ... and, yes, it could be more globally-minded too! (Though I must confess it was a very local thing about Columbus, GA, that brought me here to start with!). We could certainly cover the idea of a Fall Line City, and various uses of the term, but we don't need to be doing it in two places at once when the two articles are really so similar. Let's have one good article! So I strongly suggest that a merge is what we need here, but Your Mileage May Vary, and I would be very interested to hear what others think. With thanks and best wishes, DBaK (talk) 22:38, 31 May 2012 (UTC)


 * Just to add, there are about 280 links into Fall line and about 8 into Fall Line Cities. DBaK (talk) 00:39, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

Qualified merge: judging by the listings, the cities listing part should be merged instead into the more specific article Atlantic Seaboard fall line, with which it seems to heavily overlap. However, the description of building a city at a fall line, however, could and should come here. The article you mention has little to merit it remaining on its own. With this in mind, Go for it! Morgan Riley (talk) 18:09, 27 August 2012 (UTC)


 * I agree with the above qualified statement. Atlantic Seaboard fall line is the article about the specific (and most famous) Fall Line running from New Jersey to Alabama and should therefore get this list merged into it, while I feel that the Fall line article should be more general. --Ken Gallager (talk) 12:33, 31 July 2014 (UTC)

I agree that Fall Line Cities should be merged with Fall Line, as their location (and perhaps even their existence) was dependent upon the Fall Line. Waterfalls impeded riverboat traffic, so settlements often developed there; cargo had to be unloaded and portaged or transferred to wagons (and later, trains). But more importantly, the kinetic energy released by the waterfalls provided a source of power that settlers availed themselves of for industry and mills. Thus, the location of the Fall Line helped determine the location of major eastern cities such as Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, and Richmond. Reference: US Geological Survey, 2004. 'The Fall Line.' Available online at: http://tapestry.usgs.gov/features/14fallline.html [Accessed 2011]. Eventually, roads were built along the Fall Line connecting the towns that had developed there. Many railroads, Federal roads, and portions of Interstate highways follow the same routes today. Reference: Columbia Encyclopedia, 2012. Fall Line. Available online at: http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/fallline [Accessed 2012]. Tcarignan (talk) 23:11, 1 June 2013 (UTC)


 * Agree. For the reasons previously stated. Gulbenk (talk) 15:18, 25 November 2013 (UTC)

FTR, the merge to Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line has been implemented. -- Beland (talk) 17:13, 25 April 2022 (UTC)

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Removed questionable examples
While fall lines have waterfalls or rapids by definition, not all waterfalls are on a fall line. I removed some unreferenced examples from the articles that don't appear to meet the stated definition in the first paragraph. I could not find any sources to substantiate these claims, but it's possible they are somewhat obscure and I got things wrong, so I'm listing them here if anyone more knowledgeable about geology or skilled in finding references wants to check them.

The Niagara Escarpment does not appear to involve a coastal plain, so it does not seem to qualify for that reason.

Though it has lots of falls and rapids, it's unclear if New England has a single fall line, several, a fuzzy fall zone, or none. The maps on Atlantic coastal plain and Outer Lands show that the coastal plain in New England only includes Cape Cod and some islands. There are no waterfalls at the Cape Cod boundary.

The low-resolution map at shows a fall line extending into New England which tracks the boundary of the New England Seaboard section on the high-resolution map at. This might intersect with Bangor and Augusta, but definitely not Watertown, Lowell, Hartford, Fall River, nor Pawtucket. The historic head of navigation of the Connecticut River is Windsor Locks, Connecticut, which is slightly north of Hartford and was never a part of Hartford. The EPA reference does use the term "fall line" for the falls at the head of navigation of the Charles River at Watertown, but it's unclear if this is just one person using this term somewhat inappropriately, or just in the limited geographic scope of this river? -- Beland (talk) 18:19, 25 April 2022 (UTC)

Removed examples
and for New England:
 * Niagara Falls, New York (on the Niagara Escarpment)
 * Watertown, Massachusetts (Charles River), dam and mill built 1634
 * Lowell, Massachusetts (Merrimack River)
 * Hartford, Connecticut (Connecticut River)
 * Fall River, Massachusetts (Quequechan River)
 * Bangor, Maine (Penobscot River)
 * Augusta, Maine (Kennebec River)
 * Pawtucket, Rhode Island (Blackstone River)