About Us

About us

The mississippi river has the 4th largest watershed in the world the watershed , which is also called the drainage basin or catchment area,covers a total area of3,2 million square kilometers, and makes up one third of the entirety of the US territory. this areaencompasses various other streams like the missouri or the ohio river,which all merge the mississippi river the catchment area includes rivers coming way from canadian territory of alberta in the northwest,the state of new york in the northeast and bundles everything in between in to one giant river. interestingly though,the mississippi itself is not even the longest river of this system the title goes to the missouri river, whose main stem is around 200 kilometers longer the appalachian and the rocky mountains from anatural basin inthe central united states, which cause all rivers in between these mountains ranges to merge together at some point along their course. due to this topographic feature,a staggering 22 of the 38 largest rivers of the united states which are highlighted here, at one point or anothere ,merge into the mississippi river or one of its tributaries the mississippi has been an extremely important factor for the expansion and development of the united states in the 19th and 20th century. the great majority of the mississippi system is navigable by boat , which gave the entire center of the young united states easy and cheap means of transporting goods and people across the country with the introduction of steamboats in the 1820s, food, coal,cotton ,and timber could be transported for thousands of kilometers with minimum effort,which fueled the industrialization and gave rise to the unites states as a powerhouse. even today,barge transport on the mississippi beats trains and trucks by a magnitude when it comes to cost,and it is one of the driving factors which make american corn exports very competitive on the world market the united states army corps of engineers is tasked with ensuring navigability of the river and its tributaries for over 2 centuries now, and a series of dams ,locks and dredging works ensure that barges and boats can reach almost every place between the appalachain and the rocky mountains The environment the mississippi river bears an incredible richness of species in its waters,and the effects of the river can be felt far beyound riverbanks.