Before our nation’s capital found its permanent home in Washington, D.C., the federal government bounced around from city to city during the Revolutionary War. After the Continental Congress was held in Philadelphia, the capital briefly shifted to Baltimore in 1776, and later throughout various locations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.

At 444 miles long, the Susquehanna River is the longest river on the East Coast. Furthermore, it’s the longest, non-commercially navigable river anywhere in the country. The Susquehanna flows primarily throughout Pennsylvania, with smaller portions extending into New York and Maryland. It contributes copious amounts of water to the Chesapeake Bay.

Leap-the-Dips is a roller coaster in Altoona’s Lakemont Park that was built in 1902. The roller coaster was out of operation for most of the 1990s, but it reopened in 1999 — making Leap-the-Dips the world's oldest operating roller coaster. Its average speed is a relatively modest 10 mph, which is probably for the best since it doesn't have seatbelts, lapbars, or headrests.

After Prohibition was enacted nationwide in 1920, the Maryland state government took a stand against the law and refused to enforce it. Believing it infringed on their rights, Maryland residents opened speakeasies and distilleries throughout the state without any fear of being prosecuted. In particular, rye whiskey thrived during this period, as rye was a plentiful crop in Maryland.

Delaware borders three states: New Jersey to the east, Maryland to the west, and Pennsylvania to the north. The border with Pennsylvania forms a near-perfect arc known as the "Twelve-Mile Circle," originally created in the 17th century, when the Duke of York granted Delaware to William Penn. Delaware is the second-smallest and sixth-least populous state in the country with only three counties.

Washington, D.C. is divided into four distinct quadrants: Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast. The U.S. Capitol is located at the nexus of where these four quadrants meet. Streets in D.C. that run east-west are lettered, streets that run north-south are numbered, and diagonal streets are named after U.S. states.

Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, is known as the “Mushroom Capital of the World,” producing over 500 million pounds of the fungus annually — that’s around half of the total mushroom crop produced annually in the U.S. Each year, locals celebrate with a Mushroom Festival to pay homage to this beloved crop, with fried mushroom eating contests and painted mushroom silent auctions.

The historic Ellis Island, which welcomed millions of immigrants between 1892 and 1954, is located in both New York and New Jersey. This was determined by a 1998 U.S. Supreme Court case, which settled a longtime dispute between the two states. It determined that while the main building and museum are located in New York, the majority of the island is part of New Jersey.

West Virginia was originally part of the larger state of Virginia. During the American Civil War, 48 breakaway counties in the western part of the state sought to formally join the Union and distance themselves from Virginia’s plan to secede. The border separating West Virginia and Virginia was formally established when West Virginia was recognized as a state on June 20, 1863.

Virginia was named in honor of Queen Elizabeth I, the “Virgin Queen” — a nickname she earned given she never married. Elizabeth served as England’s monarch from November 1558 until her death in March 1603, and supported Virginia founder Sir Walter’s Raleigh’s quest to charter and establish a colony in the Americas. As thanks, he named the colony after her.

Despite the team’s name, East Rutherford, New Jersey, is home to the New York Jets NFL franchise, as well as the New York Giants, who share Metlife Stadium with the Jets. The only major sports franchise with New Jersey in its name is the New Jersey Devils, though the Nets once called New Jersey home before moving to Brooklyn.

While collectively known as New York City, the Big Apple is composed of five distinct boroughs: Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island. Of these boroughs, Queens is the largest by total area, while Manhattan is the smallest. In terms of population, Brooklyn has the most residents and Staten Island the fewest.

Several states — including Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma — have what's known as a panhandle, defined as a narrow projection of a larger territory. However, West Virginia is the only state in the country with two major panhandles. The Mountain State's Eastern Panhandle stretches toward the Atlantic Ocean, while its Northern Panhandle crawls along western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio.

Shenandoah National Park was established on December 26, 1935, and encompasses 197,411 acres within the Blue Ridge Mountains in the western part of Virginia. A national reserve in the region was first proposed in 1901, with around 5,000 private Virginian landowners later providing the land that came to form the park.

Established in 1789, Georgetown University is the oldest Catholic and Jesuit university in the country. The first students were welcomed in 1792, and the first bachelor degrees were conferred in 1817. Famous Georgetown alumni include former U.S. President Bill Clinton and basketball Hall of Famers Patrick Ewing and Allen Iverson.

No state is more densely packed than the Garden State. New Jersey has an estimated 9.3 million residents living across 8,722 square miles. The state’s most densely populated community is Guttenberg, with 12,300 residents living within an area of just 0.19 square miles.

Each year on February 2, the residents of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, celebrate a beloved local groundhog named Phil, in a tradition that has existed since 1887. According to Groundhog Day lore, if Phil sees his shadow after emerging from his burrow, it means we’re in for six more weeks of winter. However, if there’s no shadow to be seen, that means an early spring.

The Mason-Dixon Line was initially drawn to divide northern Maryland from southern Pennsylvania. The line was surveyed in the 1760s by Englishmen Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon to settle a dispute between the Penn and Calvert colonial families. The boundary served a more political purpose leading up to the Civil War by dividing states with enslaved peoples from free states.

Explorer Henry Hudson first explored the area that is now Albany in 1609. At that time, it was home to Iroquois natives, though the Dutch began to settle the region shortly after Hudson’s arrival. Initially, the state government met in Kingston prior to Albany becoming the official capital of New York in 1797.

Delwarare’s “First State” nickname is appropriate, as it was the first of the original 13 colonies to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Delaware did so on December 7, 1787, though the nickname didn’t become official until May 23, 2002. The Delaware state flag includes the date “December 7, 1787” to commemorate this historic event.