NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon has set its sights on two of the nation's largest and most powerful metro areas, announcing Tuesday it had chosen a buzzy New York neighborhood and a suburb of Washington for its new East Coast headquarters.

The online shopping giant ended its 14-month-long competition for second headquarters by selecting Long Island City, Queens, and Arlington, Virginia , as the joint winners. Both are waterfront communities away from overcrowded business districts, giving Amazon space to grow.

Amazon could have picked a city looking to be revitalized, like Newark, New Jersey. Instead,...