Delaware

  • Population- 853,400
  • Capital- Dover
  • Largest cities– Wilmington, Dover, Newark
  • Time zone- Eastern
  • Date of Admission to the Union- December 7, 1787
  • Slogan- Liberty and Independence
  • State website URL- www.delaware.gov

Delaware was the first of all the 50 states to be admitted to the Union and this was over 150 years later than the state was originally founded. Delaware did not fare so well during the early wars. The British controlled much of her otherwise strategic waterway during the Revolutionary War and then during the Civil War, the state waffled a bit on slave issues and was one of the only southern states to opt out of the secession movement. Today the A.U.M.P. Church, founded in Wilmington in 1813, is the oldest surviving African American church in the country.

Economically the state is one of the biggest producers of both poultry as indicated by Perdue Farms; and various types of industrial chemicals, from DuPont and Syngenta. Anyone with a credit card ought to recognize Delaware as a major hotspot for large banking lenders, such as Bank of America and Citigroup, to name just a couple. Another large chunk of the economic business comes from military interests, especially Dover Air Force Base, one of the largest in the country. Here, the bodies of soldiers killed overseas come back into the U.S.

If you’re shopping great National Parks and looking in Delaware, forget it; they don’t exist. This is not to say the state does not have pristine areas, just not nationally funded. One of the most exciting sites, for bridge enthusiasts, is the Delaware Memorial Bridge, a dual-crossing suspension bridge. It currently holds the record for longest of its kind. It was completed in 1969 and spans the Delaware River between New Jersey and Delaware.

Besides a lack of National Parks, there are also no major television broadcast stations—all network broadcasts come from neighboring New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, or New York.