United States, Southeast

The southeastern states of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia border the Atlantic Ocean on their eastern shores. Georgia is the southernmost state in the region and borders Florida. Virginia is the northernmost and borders Maryland to its north and east.

The general geography of these states comprises three parts. Each has a coastal plain that begins at the Atlantic Ocean and which extends west to a second area—a plateau region called the Piedmont. The third region is the Appalachian Mountains, which run from Canada to Georgia.

Each of these states is traversed by rivers that flow from the mountains to their Atlantic coast. The rivers were the highways used by the pioneers after the beginning of settlements as they moved westward to eventually across the ...