The Eastern system of waterways

Rivers are considered short and not profitable for navigation. However, many of them are used as waterways.

The USA has an extraordinary network of rivers and lakes, including some of the largest and most useful in the world. Both East and West have traditionally used lakes and streams for transportation, irrigation, power generation and as public sewers. Despite great efforts to clean them up most waterways are laden with vast poisonous amounts of industrial, agricultural and human wastes.

Waterways of the country could be divided into two large groups: the Eastern systems and the Pacific system. The natural borderline is the Rockies. All the rivers east of the Rockies flow into the Pacific Ocean. For this reason the crests of the Rockies are known as the Great or Continental Divide.

The Eastern systems consist of three constituent pars: the Mississippi and its tributaries, the Great Lakes and St Lawrence system and eastern rivers along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. All of them end in the Atlantic Ocean

The Mississippi isone of the world’s greatest continental rivers. Its waters are gathered from 2/3 of the US and together with the Missouri, its chief tributary, the Mississippi flows some 6,400 km from its northern sources in the Rockies to the Gulf of Mexico, which makes it one of the world’s longest waterways. It’s the most important geographical feature in the Eastern USA – “the father of waters”. Together with its tributaries it flows through 31 states. It may seem calm and lazy, but there may be bitter struggles with its floods. It’s navigable for great distances and is an important waterway. The Mississippi is navigable to Minneapolis nearly 1,200 miles by air from the Gulf of Mexico; and along with the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence system it forms the world's greatest network of inland waterways. The Mississippi's eastern branches, chiefly the Ohio and the Tennessee, are also navigable for great distances. From the west, however, many of its numerous Great Plains tributaries are too seasonal and choked with sandbars to be used for shipping.

The tributaries of the Mississippi: the Tennessee River, The Arkansas River, the Minnesota, the Iowa River, the Illinois River, the Missouri River (longer than the Mississippi itself, was without navigation until the mid-20^th century, when a combination of dams, locks and dredgings opened it to badge traffic), the Ohio River (its waters are clear). Red River of the North.

The five great lakes four of which are shared with Canada – Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, Lake Eire, and Lake Ontario – constitute the largest freshwater lake group in the world. It’s an important mid-continental inland waterway connected to the Mississippi – Ohio via Chicago by canals and the Illinois River.

The Great Lakes along with the St Lawrence River form an important route for shipping to reach inland ports. Together the US and Canada built and operate the St. Lawrence Seaway. The main barrier to navigation is the rapids of the St’ Lawrence and the Niagara Falls. Of the 12 Miswestern states, 6 touch on the Great Lakes: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota.

A number of largest American cities have developed there, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Buffalo. The lakes are used for transporting grain, timber, ore etc.

The third group of eastern rivers drains the coastal strip along the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Except for Rio Grande (3200 km), few of the rivers are more than 482 km and most of them flow in an almost straight line to the sea. Except New England and Texas, most of the larger coastal streams fare navigable (the Hudson, the Delaware and the Everglades in Florida).

The Rio Grande is the main river of the south-west. It’s a natural boundary between the USA and Mexico.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16