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Mississippi River Research Paper

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The Mississippi River, the third longest river in North America and one of the world’s major rivers in terms of habitat diversity, flows over 2,000 miles and passes through 10 different states in the United States. Even with its massive size, there has been an ongoing problem and scares that the Mississippi might be taken over by a river called the Atchafalaya. By being taken over, it is meant that there was a navigation lock in the Mississippi River where ships can escape that descends about 30 feet which is drawing off more and more water from the river as years go by. Naturally, the water of the Mississippi’s current flows that direction, and has made a waterscape known as the Atchafalaya.
Louisiana itself has been shaped and formed by …show more content…

Even though the navigation of ships along the river used to be very difficult, as advancements in river transportation made huge leaps, there was a significant increase in the amount of steamboats traveling along the Mississippi in the early 1800’s. Most traveled to New Orleans for purposes related to trade, and thus New Orleans’s major reliance on the navigation of the Mississippi River began. Many industries were built along the coast of the Mississippi and had come for navigational convenience and fresh water. These businesses did not stay because of the probability of flooding and the river taking over the coast. A major shift in nature was becoming a hazard to all of Louisiana. Because navigation on the Mississippi was still more difficult than it should be, Congress proposed money to survey the river and found that snags had been causing the navigation problems. Altogether, Congress spent over 3 million dollars on the removal of snags, and special snag boats were even constructed for raising and cutting the …show more content…

Army Corps of Engineering that resembled a five hundred and sixty six mile long bridge, but was actually built as a channel between the Mississippi and Atchafalaya to control the flow of water so that only 30% of the Mississippi’s water volume was flowing into the Atchafalaya. This artificial meander also served the purpose of controlling the flows of the Mississippi so that it doesn’t change course, and the water is directed into the Atchafalaya. The water flowing through the new Old River flowed significantly fast, and most people underestimated the strength of the water on the waterless bridge. It was constructed with a high sill and a low sill, where the low sill dealt with the water every day, and the high sill was meant to regulate the flow of extremely high water, and could restrict waters two feet above the flood

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