to
Update
is a city in Northampton County, located on the eastern Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River, in the Northeastern United States. The population was 26,263 as of the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Northampton County.
Along with Allentown and Bethlehem, Easton is one of three primary cities that comprise the Lehigh Valley, the state's third most populous metropolitan area. Easton is the easternmost city of the Lehigh Valley, sitting on the confluence of the Delaware River (which is the Pennsylvania-New Jersey border) and the Lehigh River, for which the Lehigh Valley is named. Easton is the smallest of the three Lehigh Valley cities, with approximately one-fourth of the population of the largest Lehigh Valley city, Allentown.
Easton is almost equidistant from Philadelphia, which is 60 miles (100 km) to the south, and New York City, which is 70 miles (110 km) to the east.
Air transport to and from Easton is available through Lehigh Valley International Airport, which is located approximately west of the city, in Hanover Township.
The city is split up into four primary sections: Historic Downtown, which lies directly to the north of the Lehigh River, to the west of the Delaware River, continuing west to Sixth Street; The West Ward, which lies between Sixth and Fifteenth Streets; The South Side, which lies south of the Lehigh River; and College Hill, a neighborhood on the hills to the north which is the home of Lafayette College. The boroughs of Wilson, West Easton, and Glendon are also directly adjacent to the city; the first and largest of which, Wilson, partially aligns in the same North-South Grid as the city of Easton.
The greater Easton area consists of the city itself, three townships (Forks, Palmer, and Williams) and three boroughs (Glendon, West Easton, and Wilson).
Easton is situated at the confluence of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers, a popular area long before it was settled by Europeans. The Lenape Native Americans originally referred this place as "Lechauwitank", or "The Place at the Forks". Thomas Penn was so inspired by the beauty of the place that he set aside a 1000 acre (4 km²) tract of land here for a town. Easton, settled in 1739 and founded in 1752, was so named at the request of Penn: he had recently married Juliana Fermor, the daughter of Lord Pomfret whose estate was called Easton Neston, near Towcester, Northamptonshire, England. As Northampton County, Pennsylvania was being formed at this time, Easton was selected as its county seat. During the French and Indian War, the Treaty of Easton was signed here by the British colonial government of the Province of Pennsylvania and the Native American tribes in the Ohio Country, including the Shawnee and Lenape.