Massachusetts State Map

Regions of Massachusetts

The land rises from the sandy coastal plain in the east to rolling uplands in the center and the Berkshire Hills in the west. Most people live in the eastern third of the state, within commuting range of Boston.

• Greater Boston: Boston, Cambridge, Quincy and dozens of surrounding cities and towns around Boston Harbor and the Charles River.
• North Shore and Merrimack Valley: Lynn, Salem, Gloucester and the Cape Ann coast, plus the mill cities of Lowell, Lawrence and Haverhill on the Merrimack River.
• South Shore and South Coast: Plymouth, where the Pilgrims landed in 1620, and the port cities of New Bedford and Fall River on Buzzards Bay and Mount Hope Bay.
• Cape Cod and the Islands: a curling peninsula, cut off from the mainland by the Cape Cod Canal, ending at Provincetown. Cape Cod National Seashore protects much of its outer shore. Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket lie to the south.
• Central Massachusetts: Worcester and Fitchburg, with the Quabbin Reservoir, the state’s largest body of fresh water and a main water source for Greater Boston.
• Pioneer Valley: the Connecticut River valley, with Springfield, Holyoke, Northampton and the college town of Amherst.
• The Berkshires: the hilly western end of the state around Pittsfield, Lenox and North Adams, including Mount Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts.

Rivers and coastline

The Connecticut River flows south through the Pioneer Valley into Connecticut. The Merrimack River enters from New Hampshire and powered the textile mills of Lowell and Lawrence before reaching the sea at Newburyport. The Charles River separates Boston from Cambridge. On the coast, Massachusetts Bay curves from Cape Ann to Cape Cod, with Boston Harbor and its islands at the center, and Cape Cod Bay sits inside the hook of the Cape. Buzzards Bay lies on the other side of the Cape Cod Canal.

Counties and towns

Massachusetts has 14 counties, but local government is run mainly by its 351 cities and towns. Several county governments, including those of Middlesex, Worcester and Hampden counties, were abolished in the late 1990s; the counties still exist as geographic units and court districts. Dukes County (Martha’s Vineyard) and Nantucket County are both made up of islands.

Major highways

• I-90 (Massachusetts Turnpike): east–west across the whole state, from the New York line in the Berkshires through Springfield and Worcester to downtown Boston and Logan Airport.
• I-95 and Route 128: a semicircle around Boston through the inner suburbs, continuing north toward New Hampshire and south toward Providence, Rhode Island.
• I-495: an outer beltway from Salisbury near the New Hampshire line through Lowell and Marlborough to Wareham, near Cape Cod.
• I-93: from I-95 in Canton through downtown Boston and north to New Hampshire.
• I-91: north–south through the Pioneer Valley, from Connecticut through Springfield, Northampton and Greenfield into Vermont.
• I-195 and I-84: I-195 links Providence with Fall River, New Bedford and Wareham; I-84 runs from Sturbridge into Connecticut toward Hartford.
• US 6 and Route 2: US 6 runs the length of Cape Cod to Provincetown; Route 2, including the scenic Mohawk Trail, crosses the north of the state to North Adams.