South Coast (Massachusetts)
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The South Coast of Massachusetts is generally considered to be the region of southeastern Massachusetts consisting of southern Bristol and Plymouth counties facing Buzzards Bay and includes the cities of Fall River and New Bedford. The term is fairly recent, dating to the 1990s, and is sometimes confused with the South Shore (a region southeast of Boston that includes much of Norfolk and eastern Plymouth counties). The area's largest newspaper is The New Bedford Standard-Times and much of the broadcast media in the area is local to the metro Providence, Rhode Island area. The area is generally looked on by the rest of the state as somewhat economically depressed (particularly the city of Fall River, and to a lesser extent New Bedford), and has a largely working-class population, a demographic factor that has been heavily exploited by those promoting the region as a place to develop industry in Massachusetts. A substantial portion of the area's residents have Portuguese ancestry, especially in and around Fall River.
The major highways through the area are Interstate 195 (from Providence to Wareham, Massachusetts) and U.S. Route 6, which is the older route connecting Providence to Cape Cod. Highway access to Boston is provided by Massachusetts Route 24 and Massachusetts Route 79, both of which end in Fall River, and Massachusetts Route 140 which connects New Bedford to Route 24 in Taunton. Limited public transportation is provided by the MBTA and the Greater Attleboro Regional Transit Authority, though as a whole the area is not well served. There is an ongoing proposal to connect Fall River to Boston via commuter rail, but it has not yet been approved.
The South Coast is home to Massachusetts' longest bridge, the Charles C. Braga Bridge, which connects I-195 from Somerset to Fall River.
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