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The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA (its postal abbreviation which succeeds the archaic Penn. and Penna. as common abbreviations) by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and a water border with Canada to the north, and New Jersey to the east. The state's most populated city is Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania has been known as the Keystone State since 1802, based in part upon its central location among the original Thirteen Colonies forming the United States. Pennsylvania is also nicknamed the "Keystone State" because of the number of important American documents signed in the state (such as the Declaration of Independence). It was also a keystone state economically, having both the industry common to the North, making such wares as Conestoga wagons and rifles, and the agriculture common to the South, producing feed, fiber, food, and tobacco.[6]
Another one of Pennsylvania's nicknames is the Quaker State; in colonial times, it was known officially as the Quaker Province, in recognition of Quaker William Penn's First Frame of Government constitution for Pennsylvania that guaranteed liberty of conscience. He knew of the hostility[10] Quakers faced when they opposed religious ritual, taking oaths, violence, war and military service, and what they viewed as ostentatious frippery.
Pennsylvania has 51 miles (82 km) of coastline along Lake Erie and 57 miles (92 km) of shoreline along the Delaware Estuary.
Pennsylvania is 170 miles (274 km) north to south and 283 miles (455 km) east to west. Of a total 46,055 square miles (119,282 km2), 44,817 square miles (116,075 km2) are land, 490 square miles (1,269 km2) are inland waters and 749 square miles (1,940 km2) are waters in Lake Erie. It is the 33rd largest state in the United States.
The bounds of the state are the Mason-Dixon Line (39° 43' N) in the south, the Delaware River in east, 80° 31' W on the west, and the 42° N parallel on the north, with the exception of a short segment on the western end, where a triangle extends north to Lake Erie. Pennsylvania borders six other states: New York to the north; New Jersey to the east; Delaware and Maryland southeast; West Virginia southwest, and finally Ohio to the west. Pennsylvania also shares a water border with Canada.
It has cities of Philadelphia in the south-east, Pittsburgh in the south-west, tri-cities of Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton in the central-east, Scranton, Wilkes-Barre in the north east, and Erie in the north-west, and Reading in the south-east, with state capital Harrisburg on the Susquehanna River in the central region of the commonwealth.
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