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THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER SYSTEM

The importance of maintaining a safe navigation channel assumes great significance when the role of the Mississippi River as the main stem of the vast inland waterways system is taken into account. With completion of the Ohio River canalization in 1929, the Upper Mississippi River canalization in 1940, and enlargement of the Intracoastal Waterway in 1943, a vast network of waterways for barge traffic was provided.

The 12-foot-deep Intracoastal Waterway system extends from New Orleans westward to the Mexican border, connecting the Mississippi River through Algiers and Harvey Locks with the important coastal harbors of Morgan City and Lake Charles, Louisiana, and Beaumont, Port Arthur, Galveston, Houston, Freeport, Corpus Christi, and Brownsville, Texas. Eastward from New Orleans through the Industrial Lock, the 12-foot depth of the Intracoastal Waterway extends 400 miles to Apalachee Bay, Florida, joining the Lower Mississippi with the seaports of Gulfport, Mississippi, Mobile, Alabama, and to Birmingport, near Birmingham, through the Tombigbee-Black Warrior system.

A photograph of the Intracoastal Waterway system.
A photograph of the Intracoastal Waterway system.

An alternate connection from the Mississippi River to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway is provided by an improved 12- by 125-foot channel from Port Allen to Morgan City. At Port Allen, opposite Baton Rouge, a navigation lock 1,200 feet long and 84 feet wide provides passage through the west bank levee system to the Intracoastal Waterway.

The Atchafalaya River project provides barge transportation with a 12- by 125-foot channel connecting the Mississippi by a 75- by 1,200-foot lock in Old River with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway at Morgan City. This year-round route is 175 miles shorter for barge transportation moving from the Texas and West Louisiana areas to the upper Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

The Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, completed in June 1965, is a dredged channel from New Orleans southeast to the Gulf of Mexico. The 76-mile waterway is shorter and easier to navigate than the Mississippi River and is free of floating debris and swift currents common to the river.

From Cairo to Pittsburgh, 980 miles, a depth of 9 feet is available through the system of locks and dams on the Ohio River.

The 9-foot depth extends 90 miles up the Monongahela and 72 miles up the Allegheny from their confluence at Pittsburgh. From its junction with the Ohio River, the Kanawha has a 9-foot depth for 90 miles. Six-foot navigation extends up the Cumberland River to Nashville, and on the Tennessee River the 9-foot-deep system extends to Knoxville.

North from Cairo, there is an 858-mile, 9-foot-deep channel to St. Paul-Minneapolis through a regulated channel and a system of locks and dams.

A photograph of the channel to St. Paul-Minneapolis.
A photograph of the channel to St. Paul-Minneapolis.

The rich coal- and grain-producing regions of southern Illinois will be reached soon by another artery in the Mississippi River system as the Kaskaskia River navigation project becomes fully operational.

The Great Lakes and the Mississippi are joined by the 9-foot-deep Illinois Waterway, extending from Chicago to Grafton, Illinois.

A photograph of the Illinois Waterway.
A photograph of the Illinois Waterway.

On the Missouri River, which flows into the Mississippi just above St. Louis, a 9-foot depth is authorized from the Mississippi to Sioux City, Iowa. A channel is maintained to a 7-foot depth to Kansas City, Missouri, and 6.5-foot depth as far as Omaha, Nebraska.

The Red River Waterway, now under construction, and the Ouachita-Black rivers navigation systems connect with the Atchafalaya River project and the Mississippi River to extend 9-foot up navigation northward along the Red River to northwest Louisiana and eastern Texas and via the Ouachita-Black rivers through eastern Louisiana and southern Arkansas.