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The Head of Passes is considered to be the location of the mouth of the Mississippi River. The US Army Corps of Engineers maintains a 45-foot (13.7 m) shipping channel from the mouth of Southwest Pass—20 miles (32 km) downriver from the Head—up to Baton Rouge , the US's farthest inland deep-water port.
The Mississippi River System, also referred to as the Western Rivers, is a mostly riverine network of the United States which includes the Mississippi River and connecting waterways. The Mississippi River is the largest drainage basin in the United States. [3] In the United States, the Mississippi drains about 41% of the country's rivers. [4]
The Mississippi River [b] is the primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. [c] [15] [16] From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it flows generally south for 2,340 miles (3,766 km) [16] to the Mississippi River Delta in the Gulf of Mexico.
A Mississippi River System-type riverboat, from an 1850s daguerrotype. A riverboat is a watercraft designed for inland navigation on lakes , rivers , and artificial waterways . They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for ...
After the development of railroads, passenger traffic gradually switched to this faster form of transportation, but steamboats continued to serve Mississippi River commerce into the early 20th century. A small number of steamboats are still used for tourist excursions in the 21st century.
A tow may consist of four or six barges on smaller waterways and up to over 40 barges on the Mississippi River below its confluence with the Ohio River. A 15-barge tow is common on the larger rivers with locks , such as the Ohio, Upper Mississippi, Illinois and Tennessee rivers.
The Lower Mississippi River is the portion of the Mississippi River downstream of Cairo, Illinois. From the confluence of the Ohio River and the Middle Mississippi River at Cairo, the Lower flows just under 1000 miles (1600 km) to the Gulf of Mexico. [1] It is the most heavily travelled component of the Mississippi River System. [2]
In the late 1830s, the steamboats in rivers on the west side of the Mississippi River were a long, wide, shallow draft vessel, lightly built with an engine on the deck. These newer steamboats could sail in just 20 inches of water. Contemporaries claimed that they could "run with a lot of heavy dew". [53]