Rhode Island
From World travel guide
Rhode Island, in New England, is the smallest state in the United States of America. It has over 400 miles of coastline.
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Cities
- Newport - On the coast and once the darling city of the American elite. The Kennedys used to have a house here.
- Providence - The largest city in the state and the main commercial center.
- Pawtucket - Birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution
- Woonsocket - Once known as "Little Quebec", it used to have the largest French-speaking population in Rhode Island. Today, French is rarely heard, replaced by English and Spanish.
- Warwick - home of TF Green Airport, Rhode Island Mall, and "Gaspee Days"
Narragansett. Best beaches in New England. www.narrowriver.blogspot.com
Understand
-Rhode Island is the smallest state in the USA. The flag is a circle of thirteen gold stars placed on a white background. The gold stars represent the first thirteen states. The stars surround a gold ship's anchor with a banner of the state's motto, " Hope," on a blue ribbon below the anchor. Rhode Island became a state on May 29th 1790 (so you should already have the state quarter). The violet is the state flower. The nickname is the Ocean State. The origin of the state's name might be named in honor of the Greek Island of Rhodes or was named Roode Eylandt by Adriaen Block, Dutch explorer, because of its red clay. (see http://www.50states.com/rdisland.htm). The population is around 1,048,319 (43rd in the US). The state song is "Rhode Island's It for Me.'
Talk
Ah, you want to talk like a Rhode Islandah?? Well, easy enough. There are only two things you need to know, pronunciation-wise:
- Some of the time we don't pronounce our Rs, so, for example, instead of "car" we say "cah".
- Some municipalities have different accents, so it could be hard to distinguish one from another. For example, in Cranston the accent is somewhat flat, so Cranston would be pronounced "Creenston" by its residents.
We also have our own little names for certain landmarks in Rhode Island, sometimes with a historical aspect with it. For instance, the Henderson Bridge, which is a mini-freeway/bridge connecting East Providence with Providence's East Side, is affectionately known as the "little red bridge" because before the present bridge was built there used to be a wooden bridge that was red.
In some areas, Central Falls and East Providence will be known, especially in newspapers, as CF and EP respectively. Barrington will sometimes be called Borington because there are no liquor stores there (it is prohibited by a town ordinance).
Don't talk about politics here. Rhode Island's national pastime is politics and it gets very emotional here. Rhode Island has the only surviving parliamentary democracy in the US. Combine that with an "everybody knows everybody" state of mind and you've got Rhode Island politics in a nutshell. That's all you need to know about.
Get in
- Rhode Island's major airport is the Theodore Francis Green State Airport (PVD) (also known as TF Green Airport or Green Airport). TF Green is located in Warwick, RI. Most major US airlines stop here, either non-stop or from a spoke. If you are from Canada, Air Canada offers service to Green Airport from Toronto Airport.
- If travelling to Rhode Island by rail, there are two ways you can get here. If travelling via AMTRAK, Rhode Island has three train stations - Providence (in downtown Providence), Kingston (located in the town of South Kingstown and close to the beaches of Narragansett and Charlestown), and Westerly (located in the westernmost town in Rhode Island, close to the RI/CT border). If travelling via the T (MBTA's service from Boston), the T's Attleboro/Stoughton commuter rail line starts at Boston's South Station and ends at the Providence AMTRAK station. This is cheaper if you're travelling to RI from Boston, especially if you are coming from Logan Airport.
Get around
See
Do
Eat
Drink
Stay safe
Get out
External links
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