Put on Your Travel Shoes: Down the West Coast and to Points East
Download MP3 (Right-click or option-click the link.) Welcome to
THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty with
Gwen Outen. Get ready for a ride. And hold on to your camera.
Today we take you on a lightning-fast trip to seven states in
fifteen minutes. We start in Washington. Not the capital city,
but the state of Washington on the other side of the country. It
is in the Pacific Northwest, on the border with Canada. It is
the only state named after a president. George Washington was
the first president of the United States. Washington State
entered the union in eighteen-eighty-nine. It is a major
shipping port for Asia. Fishing is another big industry. So is
technology. Washington State is home to the biggest maker of
computer programs, Microsoft. Boeing still makes airplanes here.
But its headquarters are now in Chicago. Mountains divide
Washington State. The east is heavily agricultural, but the west
gets most of the rain. Washing