French geographer Jean Gottmann (1915-1994) studied the northeastern United States during the 1950s and published a book in 1961 that described the region as a vast metropolitan area over 500 miles long stretching from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C. in the south. This area and its urban spaces (and the title of Gottmann’s book) were called Megalopolis. This is the modern origin of this term.

The term Megalopolis is derived from Greek and means “very large city.” A group of Ancient Greeks – architects from Athens – actually planned to construct a huge city on the Peloponnese Peninsula. Their plan didn’t work out but the small city of Megalopolis was constructed there and exists to this day.