Mississippi River: Definition from Answers.com

One of the major rivers of North America, the Mississippi River has been a focal point in American history, commerce, agriculture, literature, and environmental awareness. The length of the Mississippi River from its source in Lake Itasca in northwestern Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico flows 2,348 miles; it is the second longest river in the United States behind the Missouri (2,466 miles). The Mississippi River system drains the agricultural plains between the Appalachian Mountains to the east and the Rocky Mountains to the west. This drainage basin (approximately 1,234,700 square miles) covers about 40 percent of the United States and ranks as the fifth largest in the world.

Mississippi River's Course

The Mississippi River actually begins as a small stream flowing from Lake Itasca, Minnesota. The river initially flows north and then east as the means of connecting several lakes in northern Minnesota. The river begins to flow southward near Grand Rapids, Minnesota, and is joined with the Minnesota River between the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The muddy waters of the Missouri River flow into the clear waters of the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis, Missouri. At this point, the Mississippi becomes brown and muddy for the rest of the journey south.

At Cairo, Illinois, the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi, doubling its volume and creating the point that divides the Upper Mississippi from the Lower Mississippi. The Lower Mississippi Valley is a wide and fertile region. In this area, the river meanders its way south and over time has continuously changed its course, leaving behind numerous oxbow lakes as remnants of its past. As it flows in this southern region, the Mississippi deposits rich silt along its banks. In many areas, the silt builds up to create natural levees. South of Memphis, Tennessee, the Arkansas River junctions with the Mississippi River. Near Fort Adams, Mississippi, the Red River joins with the Mississippi, diverting with it about a quarter of the flow of the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya River.

As the Mississippi River nears the Gulf of Mexico it creates a large delta with its silt. The Mississippi River delta covers approximately 13,000 square miles. South of the city of New Orleans, the Mississippi creates several channels, known as distributaries, which then flow separately into the Gulf of Mexico. The most prominent of these are known as the North Pass, South Pass, Southwest Pass, and Main Pass. Annually, the Mississippi River discharges about 133 cubic miles of water (approximately 640,000 cubic feet per second).

History

The Mississippi River played an important role in the lives of many Native Americans who lived in the Upper Mississippi Valley, such as the Santee Dakota, the Illinois, the Kickapoo, and the Ojibwe, as well as those tribes in the southern valley, such as the Chicksaw, the Choctaw, the Tunica, and the Natchez. The name "Mississippi," meaning "great river" or "gathering of water," is attributed to the Ojibwe (Chippewa).

The first known European to travel on the Mississippi River was the Spaniard Hernando de Soto, who crossed the river near present-day Memphis in May 1541. Over a century later, in 1673, the French explorers Louis Jolliet and Father Jacques Marquette entered the Mississippi River from the Wisconsin River and traveled by canoe downriver to a point near the mouth of the Arkansas River. Less than a decade later, another Frenchman, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explored the Mississippi River from the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle declared on 9 April 1682 that the Mississippi Valley belonged to France, and he named the region Louisiana. It was not until 1718 that the French were actually established at New Orleans. They maintained control over the lower Mississippi until the end of the French and Indian War (1754–1763). In 1762 and 1763, the French made cessions that established the Mississippi River as an international boundary with Spanish territory to the west and British territory to the east.

During the American Revolution (1775–1783), the river served as the supply line for George Rogers Clark, allowing him to maintain control of the Illinois country. The Peace of Paris of 1783 outlined the new country of the United States as extending to the Mississippi River between Spanish Florida and the Canadian border. Additionally, the United States was entitled to free navigation of the Mississippi River. Spain, though not party to the treaty, controlled the mouth of the Mississippi and, through high duties, maintained actual power over the river and, in essence, over the entire Mississippi Valley. Not until Pinckney's Treaty with Spain in 1795 was the river truly free to American navigation. This freedom was short-lived, however, for when Spain ceded Louisiana back to France in 1800, the French again closed the Mississippi to American river traffic. Finally, the Louisiana Purchase (1803) made the Mississippi an American river, and it rapidly became a major route of trade and commerce for the entire Mississippi Valley.

Western settlers and traders traversed the Mississippi in flatboats (on which farmers floated their produce downstream to market) and keelboats (which could be pushed upstream with great effort). Certainly the most significant change in river transportation on the Mississippi came in 1811 when the steamboat New Orleans made its legendary trip from Pittsburgh to New Orleans. This event opened the Mississippi River to two-way traffic, essentially doubling the carrying capacity of the river. By 1860, more than 1,000 steamboats were actively engaged in transport along the Mississippi River system, and the cities of Cincinnati (Ohio), Louisville, (Kentucky), St. Louis, Memphis, and New Orleans became important cities in the movement west.

During the Civil War (1861–1865) both the Union and the Confederacy recognized the importance of the Mississippi River, and the fight over its control was a major part of the war. A decisive victory for the Union came with the fall of Vicksburg, Mississippi (1863), which essentially gave the Union full possession of the river, reopening the trade routes down the Mississippi from the Ohio Valley and splitting the Confederacy.

Following the war, life on the Mississippi did not return to the golden years so richly described in Mark Twain's writings. The faster and more convenient railroads replaced much of the commercial traffic on the Mississippi. In 1879, the U.S. Congress established the Mississippi River Commission as a means of maintaining and improving the river as a commercial waterway. In the years that followed, the commission deepened and widened several channels along the river, making it more navigable for larger boats and barges. These changes promoted increased transport on the Mississippi, particularly of heavy and bulky freight.

At the turn of the twenty-first century, the Mississippi River carried more than half of the freight transported on American inland water. Nearly 460 million short tons of freight were transported on the Mississippi River each year. Most of this freight was carried on large barges pushed by tugboats. The upper Mississippi traffic was predominantly composed of agricultural products such as wheat, corn, and soybeans. Coal and steel freight traveled down the Ohio River and onto the lower Mississippi River. At Baton Rouge, Louisiana, petroleum, petrochemical products, and aluminum joined the freight being moved south. It is at this point that the depth of the Mississippi River increases, allowing for larger ships to traverse upriver to this point.

Flooding

People living along the Mississippi River are well aware of the flooding potential of the river. During de Soto's exploration of the Mississippi, he noted much flooding. Evidence from Native American Mississippi Valley settlement locations (on higher land) and the creation of mounds on which they placed their dwellings indicate Native American awareness of and adaptation to flooding of the Mississippi. Significant flooding of the Mississippi Valley in 1927 prompted national discussion of flood control along the Mississippi. Other severe flooding events occurred in 1937, 1965, 1973, 1982, and 1993. The severe flooding in 1993 is considered to be the most devastating in recorded U.S. history. It affected the upper and middle Mississippi Valley from late June until mid-August 1993 with record levels on the Mississippi River and most of its tributaries from Minnesota to Missouri. At St. Louis, the river remained above flood stage for over two months and crested at 49.6 feet (19 feet above flood stage). Industry and transportation along the Mississippi were virtually at a standstill during the summer months of 1993. In all, over 1,000 of the 1,300 levees in the Mississippi River system failed, over 70,000 people were displaced, nearly 50,000 homes were either destroyed or damaged, 12,000 square miles of agricultural land was unable to be farmed, and 52 people died. Fortunately, larger cities along the Mississippi remained protected by floodwalls. The cost of the flood was enormous. Most estimates of total flood damage run to nearly $20 billion. Flood events are certain to remain a part of life along the Mississippi River.

Human Influence

Humans have influenced the flow of the Mississippi and the quality of its water. Historically, the river and its tributaries meandered across the floodplain, and erosion, sedimentation, and flooding were natural processes. During the twentieth century, however, humans interrupted these processes. In the 1930s, twenty-nine navigation dams were built between St. Louis and Minneapolis. These dams impound the water to improve navigation. One cost of damming, however, is increased retention of sediment in the river. Flood-control levees have been built in order to manage the seasonal flooding. Much of the Mississippi floodplain has been converted to agriculture. This change has two serious consequences for the Mississippi River. First, the loss of prairie wetlands and floodplain forest decreases the biodiversity of the region. Second, conversion of land to agriculture often leads to increased run off of fertilizers and pesticides. The presence of high rates of nitrogen and phosphorus can be directly attributed to farming practices in the Mississippi Valley. At the end of the twentieth century, many experts suggested that agricultural pollution in the Mississippi River was directly responsible for the creation of the "dead zone," an area in the Gulf of Mexico where there is little aquatic life due to abnormally low levels of oxygen.

Industrial pollution is also a concern along the Mississippi River. Industries have contributed significant amounts of oil, aluminum, lead, and other industrial wastes such as sulfur dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, and benzene to the flow of the Mississippi. A study in 2000 estimated that 58 million pounds of toxic discharge travels down the Mississippi annually. At the turn of the twenty-first century, much of the river remained unswimmable and unfishable, despite the fact that it serves as the primary source of drinking water for 18 million people. Growing awareness of environmental processes and increased concern for the state of the Mississippi River system that began during the last decade of the twentieth century may prove to have a positive influence in the life of the great river.

Bibliography

Badt, Karin. The Mississippi Flood of 1993. Chicago: Children's Press, 1994.

Geus, Theodor. The Mississippi. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1989.

Haites, Erik, James Mak, and Gary Walton. Western River Transportation: The Era of Early Internal Development, 1810–1860. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975.

Lauber, Patricia. Flood: Wrestling with the Mississippi. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1996.

For the river in Canada, see Mississippi River (Ontario).

Coordinates: 29°09′13″N 89°15′03″W / 29.15361°N 89.25083°W

Mississippi River
River
Aerial view of Lock and Dam 12 on the Mississippi River at Bellevue, Iowa
Country	United States
States	Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana

Tributaries
- left	St. Croix River, Illinois River, Rock River, Ohio River
- right	Minnesota River, Missouri River, White River, Arkansas River, Red River
Cities	Minneapolis, MN, St. Paul, MN, St. Louis, MO, Memphis, TN, Baton Rouge, LA, New Orleans, LA


Source	Lake Itasca^[1]
- location	Itasca State Park, Clearwater County, MN
- elevation	1,475 ft (450 m)
- coordinates	47°14′23″N 95°12′27″W / 47.23972°N 95.2075°W / 47.23972; -95.2075
Mouth	Gulf of Mexico
- location	Pilottown, Plaquemines Parish, LA
- elevation	0 ft (0 m)
- coordinates	29°09′13″N 89°15′03″W / 29.15361°N 89.25083°W / 29.15361; -89.25083

Length	2,320 mi (3,734 km)
Basin	1,151,000 sq mi (2,981,076 km²)
Discharge	for Baton Rouge, LA
- average	450,000 cu ft/s (12,743 m³/s) ^[2]

Map of the Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in the United States and also the largest of North America.^[3]^[4] About 2,320 miles (3,730 km) long,^[5] the river originates at Lake Itasca, Minnesota and flows slowly southwards in sweeping meanders, terminating 95 river miles below New Orleans, Louisiana where it begins to flow to the Gulf of Mexico. Along with its major tributary, the Missouri River, the river drains all or parts of 31 U.S. states stretching from the Rocky Mountains in the west to the Appalachian Mountains in the east to the Canada-U.S. border on the north, including most of the Great Plains, and is the fourth longest river in the world and the tenth most powerful river in the world.

The current form of the Mississippi River basin was largely shaped by the Cordilleran Ice Sheet of the most recent Ice Age. The southernmost extent of this enormous glaciation extended well into the present-day United States and Mississippi basin. When the ice sheet began to recede, hundreds of feet of rich sediment were deposited, creating the flat and fertile landscape of the Mississippi Valley. During the melt, giant glacial rivers found drainage paths into the Mississippi watershed, creating such features as the Minnesota River, James River, and Milk River valleys. When the ice sheet completely retreated, many of these "temporary" rivers found paths to Hudson Bay or the Arctic Ocean, leaving the Mississippi Basin with many features "oversized" for the existing rivers to have carved in the same time period. The Mississippi River Delta has shifted and changed constantly since the formation of the river, but the construction of dams on the river has greatly reduced the flow of sediment to the delta. In recent years, the Mississippi's mouth has shown a steady shift towards the Atchafalaya River channel, but because of floodworks at the river's mouth, this change of course—which would be catastrophic for seaports at the river mouth—has been held at bay.

Hundreds of Native American tribes have depended on the Mississippi River and its tributaries for thousands of years. Although they knew the river by a melange of different names, it was the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi, meaning Great River, or gichi-ziibi, or Big River, that ultimately gave the river its present-day name. European explorers reached the mouth of the river as early as the 1500s and 1600s. The river throughout history has served as the border for New France, New Spain, and the early United States—its size and importance made it a formidable boundary as well as a strategic military location, and later, an important artery for steamboats to travel on. Writer Mark Twain was one of the most well-known figures on the river in this period. Even today, the river serves as partial boundaries for ten states, and most of its course can easily be seen on a political map. The Mississippi has also been known for great flooding events, especially in the twentieth century which experienced up to four 100-year floods. This has led to the construction of hundreds of miles of levees along nearly the entire course of the river, although they have not always succeeded to prevent the greatest floods.

Throughout its history, whether for Native Americans, explorers, or modern commerce, the Mississippi has always been a major navigation route through the center of North America. In the 19th and 20th centuries, despite its slow current and relative depth, a series of dams were constructed on the river, one of the most notable of which is at St. Anthony Falls on the border between Minneapolis and St. Paul. These dams facilitate navigation for a steady stream of barge traffic carrying agricultural products from the fertile Mississippi Basin to the Gulf Coast, and like the Columbia River, most of the Mississippi also is a cascade of reservoirs. Most of its big tributaries—the Missouri and Ohio Rivers—have also been developed for navigation. However, the development of the 20th and 21st centuries has also come with environmental problems, the most infamous of which is the enormous Gulf of Mexico dead zone that extends hundreds of miles out to sea from the river's mouth. Because of dredging activity to deepen the Mississippi River channel, many natural features such as sandbars and meanders no longer exist. Efforts are being made to clean up the river and its tributaries, including the establishment of National Park Service sites on the river and the prevention of agricultural waste from flowing into the river.

1 Geography
2 Watershed
3 History
4 Recreation
- 4.1 Water skiing
- 4.2 National parks
5 Navigation history
6 In popular culture
- 6.1 Literature
- 6.2 Music
7 See also
8 References
- 8.1 Notes
- 8.2 Bibliography
9 External links

Geography

Confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers at Cairo, Illinois (2006)

From its origin at Lake Itasca to St. Louis, Missouri, the flow of the Mississippi River is moderated by 43 dams. Fourteen of these dams are located above Minneapolis, Minnesota in the headwaters region and serve multiple purposes including power generation and recreation. The remaining 29 dams beginning in downtown Minneapolis all contain locks and were constructed to permit commercial navigation of the upper river. Taken as a whole these 43 dams significantly shape the geography and influence the ecology of the upper river. Beginning just below Saint Paul, Minnesota and continuing throughout the upper and lower river, the Mississippi is further controlled by thousands of wing dikes that moderate the river's flow in order to maintain an open navigation channel and prevent the river from eroding its banks.

The Mississippi River runs through 10 states and was used to define portions of these states' borders. The middle of the riverbed at the time the borders were established was the line to define the borders between states.^[6]^[7] The river has since shifted, but the state borders of Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi have not changed; they still follow the former bed of the Mississippi River as of their establishment.

The widest point of the Mississippi River is Lake Winnibigoshish, near Grand Rapids, Minnesota, at over 7 miles (11 km) across. Also of note is Lake Onalaska, near La Crosse, Wisconsin, where the river is over 4 miles (6.4 km) wide (created by Lock and Dam No. 7) and Lake Pepin at more than 2 miles (3.2 km) wide.^[8] However, the first two areas are lakes or reservoirs rather than free flowing water. In other areas where the Mississippi is a flowing river (other than Lake Pepin), it exceeds 1 mile (1.6 km) in width in several places in its lower course.

The Missouri River flows from the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison and Gallatin Rivers and is the longest river in the United States.^[4] Taken together, the Jefferson, the Missouri, and the Mississippi form the longest river system in North America. If measured from the source of the Jefferson at Brower's Spring, to the Gulf of Mexico, the length of the Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson combination is approximately 3,900 miles (6,300 km), making the combination the 4th longest river in the world. The uppermost 207 miles (333 km) of this combined river are called the Jefferson, the lowest 1,352 miles (2,176 km) are part of the Mississippi, and the intervening 2,341 miles (3,767 km) are called the Missouri.

The Arkansas River is the second-longest tributary of the Mississippi River. Measured by water volume, the largest of all Mississippi tributaries is the Ohio River.

The Mississippi River is divided into the upper Mississippi, from its source south to the Ohio River, and the lower Mississippi, from the Ohio to its mouth near New Orleans.

Upper Mississippi River

The beginning of the Mississippi River at Lake Itasca (2004)

Main article: Upper Mississippi River

The upper Mississippi River is divided into three sections: the headwaters, 493 miles (793 km); from the source to Saint Anthony Falls; a series of man-made lakes between Minneapolis and St. Louis, Missouri, 664 miles (1,069 km); and the middle Mississippi, 190 miles (310 km), a relatively free-flowing river downstream of the confluence with the Missouri River at St. Louis.

Source

The source of the Upper Mississippi River is Lake Itasca, 1,475 feet (450 m) above sea level in Itasca State Park located in Clearwater County, Minnesota. The name "Itasca" is a combination of the last four letters of the Latin word for truth (veritas) and the first two letters of the Latin word for head (caput).

The uppermost lock and dam on the Mississippi River is the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock and Dam in Minneapolis. Above the dam, the river's elevation is 799 feet (244 m). Below the dam, the river's elevation is 750 feet (230 m). This 49-foot (15 m) drop is the largest of all the Mississippi River locks and dams. The origin of the dramatic drop is a waterfall preserved adjacent to the lock under an apron of concrete. Saint Anthony Falls is the only true waterfall on the entire Mississippi River. The water elevation continues to drop steeply as it passes through the gorge carved by the waterfall. By the time the river reaches Saint Paul, Minnesota, below Lock and Dam #1, it has dropped more than half its original elevation and is 687 feet (209 m) above sea level. From St. Paul to St. Louis Missouri the river elevation falls much more slowly and is controlled and managed as a series of pools created by 26 locks and dams.^[9] From St. Louis to the Ohio River confluence, the Mississippi free falls a total of 220 feet (67 m) over a distance of 180 miles (290 km) for an average rate of 1.2 feet per mile (23 cm/km). At the Ohio River confluence the Mississippi is 315 feet (96 m) above sea level.

Tributaries

The Mississippi is joined by the Minnesota River south of the Twin Cities, the St. Croix River near Prescott, Wisconsin, the Black River (Mississippi River), La Crosse River, and Root River (Minnesota) in La Crosse, Wisconsin the Wisconsin River in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, the Rock River in the Quad Cities, the Iowa River near Wapello, Iowa, the Skunk River south of Burlington, Iowa, the Des Moines River in Keokuk, Iowa, the Illinois River and the Missouri River near St. Louis, and by the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois.

Lower Mississippi River

Communities along the river

In Minnesota, the Mississippi River runs through the Twin Cities (2007)

Community of boathouses on the Mississippi River in Winona, MN (2006)

The Mississippi River just north of St. Louis (2005)

Many of the communities along the Mississippi River are listed below. They have either historic significance or cultural lore connecting them to the river. They are ordered from the beginning of the river to its end.

Bridge crossings

The Stone Arch Bridge, the Third Avenue Bridge and the Hennepin Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis (2004)

The Dubuque-Wisconsin Bridge connecting Dubuque, Iowa and Grant County, Wisconsin (2004)

The Hernando de Soto Bridge in Memphis, Tennessee (2009)

The Chain of Rocks Bridge at St.Louis, Missouri

The first bridge across the Mississippi River was built in 1855. It spanned the river in Minneapolis where the current Hennepin Avenue Bridge is located.^[10]

The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi was built in 1856. It spanned the river between the Rock Island Arsenal and Davenport, Iowa. Steamboat captains of the day, fearful of competition from the railroads, considered the new bridge "a hazard to navigation". Two weeks after the bridge opened, the steamboat Effie Afton rammed part of the bridge and started it on fire. Legal proceedings ensued, with Abraham Lincoln defending the railroad. The lawsuit went to the Supreme Court of the United States and was eventually ruled in favor of the railroad.

Below is a general overview of bridges over the Mississippi which have notable engineering or landmark significance with its city. They are ordered from the source to the mouth.

Stone Arch Bridge – former Great Northern Railway (now pedestrian) bridge at Saint Anthony Falls in downtown Minneapolis.
I-35W Mississippi River bridge – this bridge collapsed catastrophically on August 1, 2007, killing 13 and injuring over 100. It was replaced by the I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge, which opened in September 2008, ahead of schedule and on budget.
I-90 Mississippi River Bridge – connects La Crosse, Wisconsin to Winona County, Minnesota, located just south of Lock and Dam No. 7.
Black Hawk Bridge – connects Lansing in Allamakee County, Iowa, to rural Crawford County, Wisconsin, locally referred to as the Lansing Bridge and documented in the Historic American Engineering Record.
Julien Dubuque Bridge – joins the cities of Dubuque, Iowa, and East Dubuque, Illinois and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Savanna-Sabula Bridge – truss bridge and causeway that connects the city of Savanna, Illinois with the island city of Sabula, Iowa. The bridge carries U.S. Highway 52 over the river. It is also the terminus of both Iowa Highway 64 and Illinois Route 64. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
Fred Schwengel Memorial Bridge – 4-lane steel girder bridge that connects Le Claire, Iowa and Rapids City, Illinois. Completed in 1966.
I-74 Bridge – originally known as the Iowa-Illinois Memorial Bridge, connects Bettendorf, Iowa and Moline, Illinois.
Government Bridge – connects Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa, adjacent to Lock and Dam No. 15 and the fourth crossing in this vicinity, having been built in 1896.
Rock Island Centennial Bridge – connects Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa, opened in 1940.
Norbert F. Beckey Bridge – connects Muscatine, Iowa to Rock Island County, Illinois, became the country's first bridge to be illuminated with light-emitting diode lights decoratively illuminating the facade of the bridge.
Great River Bridge – cable-stayed bridge connecting Burlington, Iowa to Gulf Port, Illinois.
Fort Madison Toll Bridge – also known as the Santa Fe Swing Span Bridge. At the time of its construction, it was the longest and heaviest electrified swing span on the river. It connects Fort Madison, Iowa and unincorporated Niota, Illinois. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1999.
Bayview Bridge – cable-stayed bridge bringing westbound U.S. Highway 24 over the river, connecting the cities of West Quincy, Missouri and Quincy, Illinois. Eastbound U.S. 24 is served by the older Quincy Memorial Bridge.
Clark Bridge – also known as the Super Bridge as the result of an appearance on the PBS program, Nova. This cable-stayed bridge connects West Alton, Missouri and Alton, Illinois and was built in 1994 and carries U.S. Route 67 across the river. It is the northernmost river crossing in the St. Louis metropolitan area and replaces the Old Clark Bridge, a truss bridge built in 1928, named after explorer William Clark.
Chain of Rocks Bridge – located on the northern edge of St. Louis; notable for a 22-degree bend occurring at the middle of the crossing, necessary for navigation on the river and was the route used by U.S. Route 66 to cross over the Mississippi.
Eads Bridge – combined road and railway bridge, connecting St. Louis and East St. Louis, Illinois. When completed in 1874, it was the longest arch bridge in the world, with an overall length of 6,442 ft (1,964 m). The ribbed steel arch spans were considered daring, as was the use of steel as a primary structural material; it was the first such use of true steel in a major bridge project.
Chester Bridge – truss bridge connecting Route 51 in Missouri with Illinois Route 150, between Perryville, Missouri and Chester, Illinois. The bridge can be seen in the beginning of the 1967 film, In the Heat of the Night. In the 1940s, the main span was destroyed by a tornado.
Hernando de Soto Bridge – through arch bridge carrying Interstate 40 across the river between West Memphis, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee. It is often called the "M Bridge" as the arches resemble the letter M.
Frisco Bridge – previously known as the Memphis Bridge, it is a cantilevered through truss bridge, carrying a rail line across the river between West Memphis, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee. It was the first crossing of the Lower Mississippi and the longest span in the U.S., when it opened on May 12, 1892. It is listed as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.
Memphis & Arkansas Bridge – the longest Warren (non-polar) truss bridge in the United States, which carries Interstate 55 to connect Memphis and West Memphis; also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Huey P. Long Bridge – Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, the first Mississippi River span built in Louisiana.
Crescent City Connection – connects the east and west banks of New Orleans; the 5th-longest cantilever bridge in the world.

Watershed

Mississippi watershed (2005)

The Mississippi River has the third largest drainage basin or "catchment" in the world. The basin covers more than 1,245,000 sq mi (3,220,000 km²), including all or parts of 31 states and two Canadian provinces. The drainage basin empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

Major tributaries of the Mississippi:

Big Black River in Mississippi
Yazoo River in Mississippi
Red River in Louisiana
White River in Arkansas
Arkansas River in Arkansas
Ohio River in Kentucky
Big Muddy River in Illinois
Kaskaskia River in Illinois
Missouri River in Missouri
Illinois River in Illinois
Des Moines River in Iowa
Skunk River in Iowa
Iowa River in Iowa
Rock River in Illinois
Maquoketa River in Iowa
Wapsipinicon River in Iowa
Wisconsin River in Wisconsin
Chippewa River in Wisconsin
St. Croix River in Minnesota and Wisconsin
Minnesota River in Minnesota
Crow River in Minnesota

Sequence of NASA MODIS images showing the outflow of fresh water from the Mississippi (arrows) into the Gulf of Mexico (2004)

Drainage area and basin

The Mississippi River drains the majority of the area between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains, except for the areas drained to the Hudson Bay via the Red River of the North, by the Saint Lawrence River and the Great Lakes, the Rio Grande (and numerous other rivers in Texas), the Alabama River-Tombigbee River, and the Chattahoochee River-Apalachicola River.

The Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico about 100 miles (160 km) downstream from New Orleans. Measurements of the length of the Mississippi from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico vary somewhat, but the United States Geological Survey's number is 2,340 miles (3,770 km). The retention time from Lake Itasca to the Gulf is about 90 days.^[11]

Outflow

Fresh river water flowing from the Mississippi into the Gulf of Mexico does not mix into the salt water immediately. The images from NASA's MODIS to the right show a large plume of fresh water, which appears as a dark ribbon against the lighter-blue surrounding waters.

The images demonstrate that the plume did not mix with the surrounding sea water immediately. Instead, it stayed intact as it flowed through the Gulf of Mexico, into the Straits of Florida, and entered the Gulf Stream. The Mississippi River water rounded the tip of Florida and traveled up the southeast coast to the latitude of Georgia before finally mixing in so thoroughly with the ocean that it could no longer be detected by MODIS.

Discharge

The Mississippi river discharges at an annual average rate of between 200 and 700 thousand cubic feet per second (7,000–20,000 m³/s).^[12] Although it is the 5th largest river in the world by volume, this flow is a mere fraction of the output of the Amazon, which moves nearly 7 million cubic feet per second (200,000 m³/s) during wet seasons. On average, the Mississippi has only 9% the flow of the Amazon River, but is nearly twice that of the Columbia River and almost 6 times the volume of the Colorado River.

History

View along the former riverbed at the TN/AR state line near Reverie, TN (2007)

Course changes

Ice sheets during the Illinoian Stage about 300,000 to 132,000 years before present, blocked the Mississippi near Rock Island, Illinois, diverting it to its present channel farther to the west, the current western border of Illinois.

The Hennepin Canal roughly follows the ancient channel of the Mississippi downstream from Rock Island to Hennepin. South of Hennepin, Illinois, the current Illinois River is actually following the ancient channel of the Mississippi River to Alton, Illinois, before the Illinoian Stage.

Other changes in the course of the river have occurred because of earthquakes along the New Madrid Seismic Zone, which lies between Memphis and St. Louis. Three earthquakes in 1811 and 1812, estimated at approximately 8 on the Richter magnitude scale, were said to have temporarily reversed the course of the Mississippi. The settlement of Reverie, Tennessee was cut off from Tipton County, Tennessee, during the 1811 and 1812 earthquakes and placed on the western side of the Mississippi River, the Arkansas side. These earthquakes also created Reelfoot Lake in Tennessee from the altered landscape near the river. The faulting is related to an aulacogen (geologic term for a failed rift) that formed at the same time as the Gulf of Mexico.

Through a natural process known as delta switching, the lower Mississippi River has shifted its final course to the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico every thousand years or so. This occurs because the deposits of silt and sediment begin to clog its channel, raising the river's level and causing it to eventually find a steeper, more direct route to the Gulf of Mexico. The abandoned distributaries diminish in volume and form what are known as bayous. This process has, over the past 5,000 years, caused the coastline of south Louisiana to advance toward the Gulf from 15 to 50 miles (25–80 km). The currently active delta lobe is called the Birdfoot Delta, after its shape, or the Balize Delta, after La Balize, Louisiana, the first French settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi.

Native Americans

Ojibwe Wigwam at Grand Portage – oil on canvas by Eastman Johnson (1857)

The area of the Mississippi valley was first settled by Native American tribes, such as the Cheyenne, Sioux, Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Fox, Kickapoo, Tamaroa, Moingwena, Quapaw and Chickasaw.

The Cheyenne, one of the earliest inhabitants of the upper Mississippi River, called it the Máˀxe-éˀometaaˀe (Big Greasy River) in the Cheyenne language. However, the word Mississippi comes from Messipi, the French rendering of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe or Algonquin) name for the river, Misi-ziibi (Great River).^[13]^[14]

The Ojibwe called Lake Itasca Omashkoozo-zaaga'igan (Elk Lake) and the river flowing out of it Omashkoozo-ziibi (Elk River). After flowing into Lake Bemidji, the Ojibwe called the river Bemijigamaag-ziibi (River from the Traversing Lake). After flowing into Cass Lake, the name of the river changes to Gaa-miskwaawaakokaag-ziibi (Red Cedar River) and then out of Lake Winnibigoshish as Wiinibiigoozhish-ziibi (Miserable Wretched Dirty Water River), Gichi-ziibi (Big River) after the confluence with the Leech Lake River, then finally as Misi-ziibi (Great River) after the confluence with the Crow Wing River.^[15] After the expeditions by Giacomo Beltrami and Henry Schoolcraft, the longest stream above the juncture of the Crow Wing River and Gichi-ziibi was named "Mississippi River". The Mississippi River Band of Chippewa Indians, known as the Gichi-ziibiwininiwag, are named after the stretch of the Mississippi River known as the Gichi-ziibi.

Discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto A.D. 1541 (1847–53) by William Henry Powell depicts DeSoto seeing the River for the first time.

European exploration

On May 8, 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto became the first recorded European to reach the Mississippi River, which he called Río del Espíritu Santo ("River of the Holy Spirit"), in the area of what is now Mississippi. In Spanish, the river is called Río Mississippi.^[16]

French explorers, Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, began exploring the Mississippi in the 17th century. Marquette traveled with a Sioux named Ne Tongo ("Big river" in Sioux language) in 1673. Marquette proposed calling it the River of the Immaculate Conception.

In 1682, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Henri de Tonti claimed the entire Mississippi River Valley for France, calling the river Colbert River after Jean-Baptiste Colbert and the region La Louisiane, for King Louis XIV. On March 2, 1699, Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville rediscovered the mouth of the Mississippi, following the death of La Salle.^[17] The French built the small fort of La Balise there to control passage.

In 1718, about 100 miles (160 km) upriver, New Orleans was established along the river crescent by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, with construction patterned after the 1711 resettlement on Mobile Bay of Mobile, the capital of French Louisiana at the time.

18th century

Following Britain's victory in the Seven Years War the Mississippi became the border between the British and Spanish Empires. The Treaty of Paris (1763) gave Great Britain rights to all land east of the Mississippi and Spain rights to land west of the Mississippi. Spain also ceded Florida to Britain to regain Cuba, which the British occupied during the war. Britain then divided the territory into East and West Florida.

Article 8 of the Treaty of Paris (1783) states, "The navigation of the river Mississippi, from its source to the ocean, shall forever remain free and open to the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of the United States". With this treaty, which ended the American Revolutionary War, Britain also ceded West Florida back to Spain to regain The Bahamas, which Spain had occupied during the war. Spain then had control over the river, south of 32°30' north latitude and in what is known as the Spanish Conspiracy, hoped to gain greater control of Louisiana and all of the west. These hopes ended when Spain was pressured into signing Pinckney's Treaty in 1795.

19th century

France reacquired 'Louisiana' from Spain in the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800. The United States bought the territory from France in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In 1815, the U.S. defeated Britain at the Battle of New Orleans, part of the War of 1812, securing American control of the river.

So many settlers traveled westward through the Mississippi river basin, as well as settled in it, that Zadok Cramer wrote a guide book called The Navigator, detailing the features and dangers and navigable waterways of the area. It was so popular that he updated and expanded it through 12 editions over a period of 25 years.

Shifting sand bars made early navigation difficult.

Steamboat commerce

Main article: Steamboats of the Mississippi

Mark Twain's book, Life on the Mississippi, covered the steamboat commerce which took place from 1830 to 1870 on the river before more modern ships replaced the steamer. The book was published first in serial form in Harper's Weekly in seven parts in 1875. The full version, including a passage from the unfinished Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and works from other authors, was published by James R. Osgood & Company in 1885.

The first steamboat to travel the full length of the Mississippi from the Ohio River to New Orleans was the New Orleans in December 1811. Its maiden voyage occurred during the series of New Madrid earthquakes in 1811–12.

Steamboat transport remained a viable industry, both in terms of passengers and freight until the end of the first decade of the 20th century. Among the several Mississippi River system steamboat companies was the noted Anchor Line, which from 1859 to 1898 operated a luxurious fleet of steamers between St. Louis and New Orleans.

Civil War

Battle of Vicksburg (ca. 1888)

The river played a decisive role in the American Civil War. The Union's Vicksburg Campaign called for Union control of the lower Mississippi River. The Union victory at the Battle of Vicksburg in Warren County, Mississippi in 1863 was pivotal to the Union's final victory of the Civil War.

20th century

In the spring of 1927, the river broke out of its banks in 145 places, during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and inundated 27,000 sq mi (70,000 km²) to a depth of up to 30 ft (9.1 m).

On October 20, 1976, the automobile ferry, MV George Prince, was struck by a ship traveling upstream as the ferry attempted to cross from Destrehan, Louisiana, to Luling, Louisiana. Seventy-eight passengers and crew died, only eighteen survived the accident.

In 1988, record low water levels provided an opportunity and obligation to examine the climax of the wooden-hulled age. The Mississippi fell to 10 feet (3.0 m) below zero on the Memphis gauge. Four and a half acres of water craft remains were exposed on the bottom of the Mississippi River at West Memphis, Arkansas. They dated to the late 19th to early 20th centuries. The State of Arkansas, the Arkansas Archeological Survey, and the Arkansas Archeological Society responded with a two-month data recovery effort. The fieldwork received national media attention as good news in the middle of a drought.^[18]

The Great Flood of 1993 was another significant flood, primarily affecting the Mississippi above its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois.

Two portions of the Mississippi were designated as American Heritage Rivers in 1997: the lower portion around Louisiana and Tennessee, and the upper portion around Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri.

Campsite at the river in Arkansas

21st century

In 2002, Slovenian long-distance swimmer, Martin Strel, swam the entire length of the river, from Minnesota to Louisiana, over the course of 68 days.

In 2005, the Source to Sea Expedition [4] paddled the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers to benefit the Audubon Society's Upper Mississippi River Campaign.^[19]^[20]

On August 1, 2007, the I-35W Mississippi River bridge in Minneapolis collapsed during the evening rush hour.

Recreation

Water skiing

Great River Road in Wisconsin near Lake Pepin (2005)

The sport of water skiing was invented on the river in a wide region between Minnesota and Wisconsin known as Lake Pepin.^[21] Ralph Samuelson of Lake City, Minnesota, created and refined his skiing technique in late June and early July 1922. He later performed the first water ski jump in 1925 and was pulled along at 80 mph (130 km/h) by a Curtiss flying boat later that year.^[21]

National parks

There are seven National Park Service sites along the Mississippi River. The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area is the National Park Service site dedicated to protecting and interpreting the Mississippi River itself. The other six National Park Service sites along the river are (listed from north to south):

Navigation history

A clear channel is needed for the barges and other vessels that make the main stem Mississippi one of the great commercial waterways of the world. The task of maintaining a navigation channel is the responsibility of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which was established in 1802.^[22] Earlier projects began as early as 1829 to remove snags, close off secondary channels and excavate rocks and sandbars.

Steamboats entered trade in the 1820s, so the period 1830 – 1850 became the golden age of steamboats. As there were few roads or rails in the lands of the Louisiana Purchase, river traffic was an ideal solution. Cotton, timber and food came down the river, as did Appalachia coal. The port of New Orleans boomed as it was the trans-shipment point to deep sea ocean vessels. As a result, the image of the twin stacked, wedding cake Mississippi steamer entered into American mythology. Steamers worked the entire route from the trickles of Montana, to the Ohio river; down the Missouri and Tennessee. To the main channel of the Mississippi. Only the arrival of the railroads in the 1880s did steamboat traffic diminish. Steamboats remained a feature until the 1920s. Most have been superseded by pusher tugs. A few survive as icons—the Delta Queen and the River Queen for instance.

A series of 29 locks and dams on the upper Mississippi, most of which were built in the 1930s, is designed primarily to maintain a 9 feet (2.7 m) deep channel for commercial barge traffic.^[23]^[24] The lakes formed are also used for recreational boating and fishing. The dams make the river deeper and wider but do not stop it. No flood control is intended. During periods of high flow, the gates, some of which are submersible, are completely opened and the dams simply cease to function. Below St. Louis, the Mississippi is relatively free-flowing, although it is constrained by numerous levees and directed by numerous wing dams.

Barges on the Mississippi River near Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.