Portal:Rhode Island

The Rhode Island Portal

Rhode Island (/ˌroʊd -/ ^ⓘ ROHD) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Island Sound; and shares a small maritime border with New York, east of Long Island. Rhode Island is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly more than 1.1 million residents as of 2024^[update]. The state's population, however, has continually recorded growth in every decennial census since 1790, and it is the second-most densely populated state after New Jersey. The state takes its name from the eponymous island, though nearly all its land area is on the mainland. Providence is its capital and most populous city.

Native Americans lived around Narragansett Bay before English settlers began arriving in the early 17th century. Rhode Island was unique among the Thirteen British Colonies in having been founded by a refugee, Roger Williams, who fled religious persecution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to establish a haven for religious liberty. He founded Providence in 1636 on land purchased from local tribes, creating the first settlement in North America with an explicitly secular government. The Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations subsequently became a destination for religious and political dissenters and social outcasts, earning it the moniker "Rogue's Island".

Rhode Island was the first colony to call for a Continental Congress, in 1774, and the first to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown, on May 4, 1776. After the American Revolution, during which it was heavily occupied and contested, Rhode Island became the fourth state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, on February 9, 1778. Because its citizens favored a weaker central government, it boycotted the 1787 convention that had drafted the United States Constitution, which it initially refused to ratify; it finally ratified it on May 29, 1790, the last of the original 13 states to do so.

The state was officially named the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations since the colonial era but came to be commonly known as "Rhode Island". On November 3, 2020, the state's voters approved an amendment to the state constitution formally dropping "and Providence Plantations" from its full name. Its official nickname, found on its welcome sign, is the "Ocean State", a reference to its 400 mi (640 km) of coastline and the large bays and inlets that make up about 14% of its area. (Full article...)

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Platform at Wickford Junction in June 2012

Wickford Junction station is a commuter rail station located in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, United States. It is the southern terminus of the MBTA Commuter Rail Providence/Stoughton Line and serves as a park and ride location for commuters to Providence and Boston. The station consists of a single high-level side platform on a stub-end siding next to the Northeast Corridor mainline.

The first station at the site opened in 1844. In 1870, the Newport and Wickford Railroad and Steamboat Company was opened from the station to Wickford Landing, where it connected with steamships to Newport, Rhode Island. The station was rebuilt in 1871, expanded in 1887, and rebuilt again around 1890 after a fire. Branch service ended in 1925, but the station remained open until 1981. A new station and parking garage opened on the same site on April 23, 2012, as part of the South County Commuter Rail project, which also included the new T. F. Green Airport station. (Full article...)

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McKee in 2022

Daniel J. McKee (born June 16, 1951) is an American politician and businessman serving as the 76th governor of Rhode Island since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he also served as Rhode Island's 69th lieutenant governor from 2015 to 2021.

Born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, McKee received his undergraduate degree from Assumption College and received his master's degree from the Harvard Kennedy School. He served on the Cumberland town council from 1992 to 1998 and as mayor of Cumberland twice, from 2000 to 2004 and from 2006 until 2014. McKee was elected lieutenant governor in 2014 and reelected in 2018. When Governor Gina Raimondo resigned upon being confirmed as United States Secretary of Commerce in 2021, McKee ascended to the governorship. He was elected to a full term in 2022. (Full article...)

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... that a Rhode Island TV station started out by re-running an inventory of 50 hours of cartoons and 14 old movies?
... that a Rhode Island TV station broadcast for 14 months and then was off the air for 26 years before returning?
... that three decades after chasing away surveyors for a previous railroad with guns, residents of Wickford, Rhode Island, built their own railroad?

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One hundred years after the declaration that all men are created equal, there began to gather in Newport a colony of the rich, determined to show that some Americans were conspicuously more equal than others.

— Alistair Cooke

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Credit: User:Voyager

The Mount Hope Bridge is a two-lane suspension bridge spanning the Mount Hope Bay in eastern Rhode Island, at one of the narrowest gaps in Narragansett Bay. The bridge connects the Rhode Island towns of Portsmouth and Bristol, and is part of Route 114.

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The following are images from various Rhode Island-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Downtown Providence in 2008 (from Rhode Island)
Image 2Köppen climate types of Rhode Island, using 1991–2020 climate normals (from Rhode Island)
Image 3The Pawtucket Red Sox played at McCoy Stadium (from Rhode Island)
Image 4Rocky shoreline in Newport (from Rhode Island)
Image 5County results of the 2024 Presidential election. Kamala Harris (D) won every county, though she won Kent County by a narrow margin of 1.9% (from Rhode Island)
Image 6In 1936, on the 300th anniversary of the settlement of Rhode Island in 1636, the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative stamp, depicting Roger Williams (from Rhode Island)
Image 7Providence Revolutionaries burned HMS Gaspee in Warwick in protest of British customs laws. (from Rhode Island)
Image 8Ethnic origins in Rhode Island (from Rhode Island)
Image 9The United States Naval Academy was moved to Fort Adams in Newport during the Civil War. (from Rhode Island)
Image 10Köppen climate types of Rhode Island, using 1991–2020 climate normals (from Rhode Island)
Image 11Ninigret Pond National Wildlife Refuge (from Rhode Island)
Image 12The Towers are a Narragansett landmark. (from Rhode Island)
Image 13The Block Island Wind Farm is the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States. (from Rhode Island)
Image 14Interior of The Breakers, a Newport symbol of the Gilded Age (from Rhode Island)
Image 15Touro Synagogue in Newport is the oldest existing synagogue building in the United States. (from Rhode Island)
Image 16Map of Rhode Island, showing major cities and roads (from Rhode Island)
Image 17Trustom Pond, a lagoon in South Kingstown (from Rhode Island)
Image 18In 1680, Newport was the third largest Anglo-American city. It remained a prosperous population center until the 1770s. (from Rhode Island)
Image 191884 Baseball Champion Providence Grays (from Rhode Island)
Image 20Slater Mill in Pawtucket is cited as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the United States.
Image 21The United States Naval Academy was moved to Fort Adams in Newport during the Civil War. (from Rhode Island)
Image 22The Block Island Wind Farm is the first commercial offshore wind farm in the United States. (from Rhode Island)
Image 23Slater Mill in Pawtucket is cited as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the United States.
Image 24County results of the 2024 Presidential election. Kamala Harris (D) won every county, though she won Kent County by a narrow margin of 1.9% (from Rhode Island)
Image 25A southbound Northeast Regional train at Kingston Station (from Rhode Island)
Image 26University Hall at Brown University is one of the oldest academic buildings in the United States. (from Rhode Island)
Image 27In 1680, Newport was the third largest Anglo-American city. It remained a prosperous population center until the 1770s. (from Rhode Island)
Image 28The Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge (foreground) and Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge (background)
Image 29Providence Revolutionaries burned HMS Gaspee in Warwick in protest of British customs laws. (from Rhode Island)
Image 30In 1936, on the 300th anniversary of the settlement of Rhode Island in 1636, the U.S. Post Office issued a commemorative stamp, depicting Roger Williams (from Rhode Island)
Image 31The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority operates a statewide system of bus transport. (from Rhode Island)
Image 32Many Rhode Islanders visit Washington County for its beaches (from Rhode Island)
Image 33University of Rhode Island's Meade Stadium in Kingston (from Rhode Island)
Image 34The East Bay Bike Path in Riverside
Image 35The International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport (from Rhode Island)
Image 36Interior of The Breakers, a Newport symbol of the Gilded Age (from Rhode Island)
Image 37Topographic map of Rhode Island (from Rhode Island)
Image 38University Hall at Brown University is one of the oldest academic buildings in the United States. (from Rhode Island)
Image 39The Rhode Island State House in Providence boasts the world's fourth largest self-supported marble dome. (from Rhode Island)
Image 40The International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport (from Rhode Island)
Image 41Topographic map of Rhode Island (from Rhode Island)
Image 42The Rhode Island State House in Providence boasts the world's fourth largest self-supported marble dome. (from Rhode Island)
Image 43The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority operates a statewide system of bus transport. (from Rhode Island)
Image 44The Towers are a Narragansett landmark. (from Rhode Island)
Image 45The Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge (foreground) and Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge (background)
Image 46In 1636, Roger Williams and his followers founded the settlement of Providence Plantations. (from Rhode Island)
Image 47Rhode Island population density map (from Rhode Island)
Image 48Touro Synagogue in Newport is the oldest existing synagogue building in the United States. (from Rhode Island)
Image 49The East Bay Bike Path in Riverside
Image 50Trustom Pond, a lagoon in South Kingstown (from Rhode Island)
Image 51The Pawtucket Red Sox played at McCoy Stadium (from Rhode Island)
Image 52Many Rhode Islanders visit Washington County for its beaches (from Rhode Island)
Image 53Map of Rhode Island, showing major cities and roads (from Rhode Island)
Image 54Rhode Island population density map (from Rhode Island)
Image 55Downtown Providence in 2008 (from Rhode Island)
Image 56Ethnic origins in Rhode Island (from Rhode Island)
Image 57University of Rhode Island's Meade Stadium in Kingston (from Rhode Island)
Image 58Rocky shoreline in Newport (from Rhode Island)
Image 59In 1636, Roger Williams and his followers founded the settlement of Providence Plantations. (from Rhode Island)
Image 60Ninigret Pond National Wildlife Refuge (from Rhode Island)
Image 611884 Baseball Champion Providence Grays (from Rhode Island)
Image 62A southbound Northeast Regional train at Kingston Station (from Rhode Island)
Image 63A nine-pence banknote issued by Rhode Island in 1786 (from Rhode Island)
Image 64A nine-pence banknote issued by Rhode Island in 1786 (from Rhode Island)

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Credit: Flickr user: boliyou

The skyline of Providence, Rhode Island

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged or categorized (e.g. Category:WikiProject Rhode Island articles) correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.