North Carolina

F

Electricity

Steam plants burning fossil fuels, principally coal, generate 63 percent of North Carolina’s electricity production. The state has 5 nuclear power plants, two near Southport, two at Cowan’s Ford Dam, and one southwest of Raleigh. Combined, the nuclear plants are responsible for 31 percent of the state’s electrical generation. Hydroelectric power, which accounts for the remaining electricity produced in the state, is generated at plants in the mountains.

Fontana Dam, operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on the Little Tennessee River, is the site of the largest hydroelectric plant in North Carolina and is the highest dam in the TVA system. A considerable amount of TVA power is sold to customers in North Carolina. The Duke Power Company is the largest private company operating in the state and one of the largest in the country. It operates the Big Duke hydroelectric plant at Cowan’s Ford Dam, which has created Lake Norman, an enormous reservoir in the western Piedmont region.

G

Transportation

The rivers that served North Carolina’s early transportation needs are little used for commercial purposes today. Only the Cape Fear River can be considered a waterway to the state’s interior. It has a 2.4 m (8 ft) channel and is navigable to Fayetteville, located at the Fall Line.

A section of the Intracoastal Waterway System, a protected route for all types of boats from Massachusetts to Texas, serves the entire Atlantic Coast of North Carolina. Numerous coastal shippers, together with many small local fishing, freight, and pleasure crafts, use the waterway. Wilmington and Morehead City are ports of entry for ships from foreign countries. They have improved harbors and channels deep enough for oceangoing vessels that connect the harbors to the open Atlantic.

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In 1840 the Wilmington to Raleigh Railroad was finished between Wilmington and Weldon on the Roanoke River. Its length of 259 km (161 mi) made it the longest railroad in the world at that time. It connected with the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, creating an interstate railroad that served to increase trade between Virginia and North Carolina and to enable Wilmington to grow into a major port. In 2004 North Carolina had 5,230 km (3,250 mi) of rail lines. Principal products shipped by rail and originating in the state were lumber and wood (12 percent of total weight), chemicals (23 percent), nonmetallic minerals (19 percent), and pulp and paper (7 percent).

North Carolina’s major transportation asset is its road system. Highway improvements were launched by the Highway Act of 1921. It led to an era of unprecedented construction, which soon brought fame to North Carolina as the “Good Roads State.” The state had 165,225 km (102,666 mi) of public roads and highway in 2004, of which 1,683 km (1,046 mi) were national interstate highways. The Blue Ridge Parkway, a particularly scenic drive along the crest of the Blue Ridge, is part of the National Park System.

Several airlines and 15 airports and airfields serve the state. Several modern airports have been built since 1950, of which Douglas International Airport in Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham International Airport are the busiest.

IV

The People of North Carolina

In the 2000 census, North Carolina ranked 11th in population in the nation. It had 8,049,313 people, an increase of 21.4 percent over the 1990 population of 6,628,637. In 2006 North Carolina’s population density was 70 persons per sq km (182 per sq mi). North Carolina is less urbanized than most other states. In 2000 only 60 percent of the state’s inhabitants were classified as urban dwellers.

A

Population Patterns

In colonial days the English constituted the largest group of settlers. Scots-Irish, Highland Scots, Germans, and Welsh also arrived in the 18th century, many from the colony of Pennsylvania. Sometimes certain dialects and accents can be detected in the speech of more isolated rural North Carolinians, especially on the Outer Banks, where descendants of early English settlers remained spatially isolated for many decades.

North Carolina had about 100,000 black inhabitants in 1790, and by the time of the American Civil War (1861-1865) blacks accounted for one-third of the population. In 2000 blacks accounted for 21.6 percent of the state’s population. Whites comprised the largest share of the population, representing 72.1 percent of the people. Asians were 1.4 percent, Native Americans 1.2 percent, and those of mixed heritage or not reporting race were 3.6 percent. Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders numbered 3,983. Hispanics, who may be of any race, were 4.7 percent of the people.

B

Principal Cities

The largest cities in North Carolina are Charlotte (2005 population, 610,949), Raleigh (341,530), Greensboro (231,962), Durham (204,845), and Winston-Salem (193,755). All are located in the industrial Piedmont region. Charlotte is the chief distribution center for the area. Raleigh, the state capital, has a modern legislative building designed by Edward Durell Stone. Greensboro is the site of much textile and tobacco manufacturing, and many insurance companies also have their home offices there. Tobaccoville, near Winston-Salem, has the world’s largest plant for manufacturing cigarettes. Asheville is the largest industrial city in the state outside the Piedmont. It is the central city of the mountain region and is an important resort and cultural center.

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