<Tr> <Th> Largest metropolitan area </Th> <Td> Greater Houston </Td> </Tr> <P> The Gulf Coast of the United States is the coastline along which the Southern United States meets the Gulf of Mexico . The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, and these are known as the Gulf States . </P> <P> The economy of the Gulf Coast area is dominated by industries related to energy, petrochemicals, fishing, aerospace, agriculture, and tourism . The large cities of the region are (from west to east) Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Houston, Galveston, Beaumont, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile, Pensacola, St. Petersburg, Tampa, and increasingly, Sarasota; all are the centers of their respective metropolitan areas and contain large ports . (Baton Rouge is relatively far from the Gulf of Mexico; its port is on the Mississippi River, as is the port of New Orleans .) </P> <P> The Gulf Coast is made of many inlets, bays, and lagoons . The coast is also intersected by numerous rivers, the largest of which is the Mississippi River . Much of the land along the Gulf Coast is, or was, marshland . Ringing the Gulf Coast is the Gulf Coastal Plain which reaches from Southern Texas to the western Florida Panhandle while the western portions of the Gulf Coast are made up of many barrier islands and peninsulas, including the 130 miles (210 km) Padre Island and Galveston Island located in the U.S. State of Texas . These landforms protect numerous bays and inlets providing as a barrier to oncoming waves . The central part of the Gulf Coast, from eastern Texas through Louisiana, consists primarily of marshland . The eastern part of the Gulf Coast, predominantly Florida, is dotted with many bays and inlets . </P>

Which of these states borders the gulf of mexico