What ocean is on the East Coast of the United States?

Why this is the answer

The East Coast faces the Atlantic, and that is the one answer USCIS lists. It is the second largest ocean in the world, spread over about a fifth of the Earth's surface, and its name reaches back to Atlas, a giant from Greek mythology. Geologically, the Atlantic is the gap that opened when the North American and European continents drifted apart millions of years ago. Down its center runs the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an enormous chain of underwater mountains that follows the whole length of the ocean and is a source of volcanic activity. On the surface it ranks among the most heavily traveled sea routes anywhere, and it supplies many natural resources as well. In American history, the East Coast is where the country started. When the United States first became a country in 1776, there were 13 original states, and all of them were on the East Coast. The USCIS lesson names fourteen states that border the Atlantic today: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Virginia. Put that list next to the original thirteen and a small surprise appears. Pennsylvania, one of the founding states, is missing from the Atlantic group, while Maine and Florida, which were not among the first thirteen, are on it. This coast was also the doorway for millions of newcomers. Ellis Island, an immigration station in New York Harbor and the East Coast counterpart of Angel Island on the West Coast, began receiving immigrants on January 1, 1892, and over the next 62 years more than 12 million people entered the country through it. One slip is reversing the coasts and saying Pacific, which is the ocean on the West Coast. Another is naming a gulf, such as the Gulf of Mexico. A gulf is not an ocean, it is not on the official list, and the officer asked for an ocean. If the two coasts blur together for you, follow the order in which the country grew: it began with thirteen states on the East Coast, and the East Coast faces the Atlantic.