Ohio River

 

river, 981 mi (1,579 km) long, formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in SW Pa., at Pittsburgh; it flows northwest, then generally southwest to enter the Mississippi River at Cairo, Ill. The Ohio's course follows a portion of the southern edge of the region covered by continental ice during the late Cenozoic era; glacial meltwater probably cut its original channel. The river is a major tributary of the Mississippi and supplies more water to it than does the Missouri River. The Ohio River basin covers c.204,000 sq mi (528,400 sq km); the chief tributaries are the Tennessee, Cumberland, Wabash, and Kentucky.

Flood Control and Canals

The Ohio is prone to spring flooding, and extensive flood control and protection devices have been constructed along the river and its tributaries. These devices also improve the river's navigability; a 9-ft (2.7-m) channel is maintained along its entire length. A system of modern locks and dams, constructed since 1955 to replace older structures, speeds the transit of barges and leisure craft. A canal (first opened in 1830) at Louisville bypasses the Falls of the Ohio, a 2¹/₄-mi (3.6-km)-long series of rapids having a 24-ft (7-m) drop.

Human Impact

The Ohio River basin is one of the most populated and industrialized regions of the United States. Oil and steel account for most of the cargoes moved on the river. The principal river ports are Cincinnati, Louisville, and Pittsburgh. Eight states (Ill., Ind., Ky., N.Y., Ohio, Pa., Va., and W.Va.) affected by the river's industrial pollution ratified (1948) the Ohio River Valley Sanitation Compact. Some results of their cleanup efforts have become discernible, and the river now supports marinas and recreational facilities.

History

The French explorer La Salle reportedly reached the Ohio River in 1669, but there was no significant interest in the valley until the French and the British began to struggle for control of the river in the 1750s. An early settlement was established at the forks of the Ohio (modern Pittsburgh) by the Ohio Company of Virginia in 1749, but it was captured by the French in 1754, and the unfinished Fort Prince George was renamed Fort Duquesne; it was recaptured by the British and renamed Fort Pitt in 1758. At the end of the French and Indian Wars, Britain gained control of the river by the treaty of 1763, but settlement of the area was prohibited. Britain ceded the region to the United States at the end of the Revolutionary War (1783), and it was opened to settlement by the Ordinance of 1787, which established the Northwest Territory.

Until the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, the Ohio River was the main route to the newly opened West and the principal means of market transportation of the region's growing farm output. Traffic declined on the river after the railroads were built in the mid-1800s, although it revived after World War II. Comparatively little traffic remains on the Ohio, despite the new locks, dams, and channel improvements, which were all meant to spur economic activity on the river.

Bibliography

See W. Havighurst, River to the West (1970); W. Burmeister, Appalachian Waters 5: The Upper Ohio and Its Tributaries (1978).

Ohio River (Oyo)
The widest point on the Ohio River is just west of downtown Louisville, where it is one mile wide
Country	United States
States	Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois
Major cities	Pittsburgh, PA, Cincinnati, OH, Louisville, KY, Evansville, IN
Length	mi ( km)
Watershed	mi² ( km²)
Discharge at	Cairo, IL
- average	ft³/s ( m³/s) (1951-80) [1]
Primary source	Allegheny River
- location	Allegany Township, Pennsylvania
- coordinates	41°51′24″N 77°52′30″W / 41.85667, -77.875
- elevation	ft ( m)
- length	mi ( km)
Other source	Monongahela River
- location	Fairmont, West Virginia
- coordinates	39°27′53″N 80°09′13″W / 39.46472, -80.15361
- elevation	ft ( m)
- length	mi ( km)
Source confluence
- location	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- coordinates	40°26′32″N 80°00′52″W / 40.44222, -80.01444
- elevation	ft ( m)
Mouth	Mississippi River
- location	Cairo, Illinois
- coordinates	36°59′12″N 89°07′52″W / 36.98667, -89.13111
- elevation	ft ( m)
Major tributaries
- left	Kanawha River, Kentucky River, Cumberland River, Tennessee River
- right	Wabash River
Ohio River basin

The Ohio River is the largest tributary by volume of the Mississippi River. It is approximately 981 miles (1,579 km) long and is located in the eastern United States. The river had great significance in the history of the Native Americans. It was a primary transportation route during the westward expansion of the early U.S. It flows through or along the border of six states, and its watershed encompasses 14 states, including many of the states of the southeastern U.S. through its largest tributary, the Tennessee River. During the eighteenth century, it was the southern boundary of the Northwest Territory, thus serving as the border between free and slave territory. It is sometimes referred to as the "Mason-Dixon line" as it is commonly acknowledged as the western natural extension of the original Mason-Dixon line that divided Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and West Virginia (and at one time part of Virginia) thus being the unofficial, and at times disputed, border between the Northern United States and the American South or upland South. The Ohio River interestingly is also a climatic transition area, its water runs along the periphery of the humid subtropical climate and humid continental climate thereby being inhabited by fauna and flora of both climates.

Geography and hydrography

The river is formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at Point State Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From Pittsburgh, it flows northwest through Allegheny & Beaver Counties, before making an abrupt turn to the south-southwest at the West Virginia—Ohio—Pennsylvania triple state line (near East Liverpool, Ohio, Chester, West Virginia, and Midland, Pennsylvania), from which point it forms the border between West Virginia and Ohio, upstream of Wheeling, West Virginia.

The river then follows a roughly southwest and then west-northwest course before bending to a west-southwest course for most of its length. It flows along the borders of West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, until it joins the Mississippi near the city of Cairo, Illinois.

Major tributaries of the river, indicated by the location of their mouth, include:

• Allegheny River — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Monongahela River — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Chartiers Creek - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Beaver River — Rochester, Pennsylvania
• Wheeling Creek — Wheeling, West Virginia
• Little Muskingum River — Ohio
• Duck Creek — Ohio
• Muskingum River — Marietta, Ohio
• Little Kanawha River — Parkersburg, West Virginia
• Hocking River — Ohio
• Kanawha River — Point Pleasant, West Virginia
• Guyandotte River — Huntington, West Virginia
• Big Sandy River — Kentucky-West Virginia border
• Scioto River — Portsmouth, Ohio
• Little Miami River — Cincinnati, Ohio
• Licking River — Newport-Covinton, Kentucky
• Great Miami River — Ohio-Indiana border
• Salt River — West Point, Kentucky
• Kentucky River — Carrollton, Kentucky
• Green River — Kentucky
• Wabash River — Indiana-Illinois border
• Saline River — Illinois
• Cumberland River — Kentucky
• Tennessee River — Paducah, Kentucky
• Cache River — Illinois

Drainage basin

The Ohio's drainage basin covers 189,422 square miles (490,603 km²), including the eastern-most regions of the Mississippi Basin. States drained by the Ohio include:

• Illinois (the southeast quarter of the state),
• Indiana (all but the northern area of the state),
• Ohio (the southern half of the state),
• New York (a small area of the southern border along the headwaters of the Allegheny River),
• Pennsylvania (a corridor from the southwestern corner to north central border),
• Maryland (a small corridor along the Youghiogheny River on the state's western border),
• West Virginia (all but the eastern panhandle of the state),
• Kentucky (all but a small part in the extreme west of the state drained directly by the Mississippi River),
• Tennessee (all but a small part in the extreme west of the state drained directly by the Mississippi River and a small area in the southeastern corner of the state which is drained by the Conasauga River),
• Virginia (most of Southwest Virginia),
• North Carolina (the western quarter of the state),
• Georgia (the northwest corner of the state),
• Alabama (the northern portion of the state), and
• Mississippi (the northeast corner of the state).

Geology

The Ohio River is young from a geologic standpoint. The river formed on a piecemeal basis beginning between 2.5 and 3 million years ago. The earliest Ice Ages occurred at this time and dammed portions of north flowing rivers. The Teays River was the largest of these rivers, and the modern Ohio River flows within segments of the ancient Teays. The ancient rivers were rearranged or consumed by glaciers and lakes.

Upper Ohio River

The upper Ohio River formed when one of the glacial lakes overflowed into a south flowing tributary of the Teays River. Prior to that event, the north flowing Steubenville River (no longer in existence) ended between New Martinsville and Paden City, West Virginia. Likewise, the south flowing Marietta River (no longer in existence) ended between the cities. The overflowing lake carved through the separating hill and connected the rivers. The resulting floodwaters enlarged the small Marietta valley to a size more typical of a large river. The new large river subsequently drained glacial lakes and melting glaciers at the end of several Ice Ages. The valley grew with each major Ice Age.

Many small rivers were altered or abandoned after the upper Ohio River formed. Valleys of some abandoned rivers can still be seen on satellite and aerial images of the hills of Ohio and West Virginia between Marietta, Ohio, and Huntington, West Virginia. As testimony to the major changes that occurred, the valleys are actually found on hilltops.^[clarify]

Middle Ohio River

The middle Ohio River formed in a manner similar to formation of the upper Ohio River. A north-flowing river was temporarily dammed southwest of present-day Louisville, Kentucky, creating a large lake until the dam burst. A new route was carved to the Mississippi River, and eventually the upper and middle sections combined to form what is essentially the modern Ohio River.

History

Since it was considered by pre-Columbian inhabitants of eastern North America to be part of a single river continuing on through the lower Mississippi, it is perhaps an understatement to characterize the Ohio as a mere tributary of the Mississippi. The river is 981 miles (1,579 km) long and carries the largest volume of water of any tributary of the Mississippi. The Indians and early explorers and settlers of the region often considered the Allegheny to be part of the Ohio, though the forks (the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at what is now Pittsburgh) was considered a strategic military location.

On May 19, 1749, King George II of Great Britain granted the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks. Exploration of the territory and trade with the Indians in the region near the Forks by British colonials from both Pennsylvania and Virginia—both of whom claimed the territory—led to conflict with French forces that also claimed the region and had built forts along the Allegheny River. This directly led to the French and Indian War in North America. The French and Indian War was part of a more global conflict --perhaps the world's first truly global conflict --the Seven Years' War between England and France. After several initial defeats, the British evntually gained sovereignty over the Ohio Valley.

In 1774, the Quebec Act restored the land east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River to Quebec, appeasing the French-speaking British subjects, but angering the 13 Colonies. They listed it as one of the Intolerable Acts, which precipitated the American Revolution.

Louisville, Kentucky was founded at the only major natural navigational barrier on the river, the Falls of the Ohio. The Falls were a series of rapids where the river dropped 26 feet in about a two-mile stretch. In this area the river flowed over hard, fossil-rich beds of limestone. The first locks on the river were built at Louisville to circumnavigate the falls. Today it is the site of McAlpine Locks and Dam.

Because the Ohio River flowed westwardly, it became the convenient means of westward movement by pioneers traveling from western Pennsylvania. After reaching the mouth of the Ohio, settlers would travel north on the Mississippi River to St. Louis, Missouri. There, some continued on up the Missouri River, some up the Mississippi, and some further west over land routes. In the early 19th century, pirates, such as Samuel Mason, settled at Cave-In-Rock, Illinois, waylaid travelers on their way down the river, killed them, stole their goods, and scuttled their boats. The folktales of Mike Fink recall the keelboats used for commerce in the early days of European settlement. In 1843 the Ohio river boatmen were the inspiration for Dan Emmett's The Boatman's Dance.

Other boats traveled south on the Mississippi to New Orleans and sometimes beyond to the Gulf of Mexico and other ports in the Americas and Europe. This provided a much needed route for goods from the west, since the trek east over the Appalachian Mountains was long and arduous. The need for access to the port of New Orleans by settlers in the Ohio Valley led to the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

Because it is the Southern border of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, the Ohio River was a part of the border that divided free states and slave states in the years before the American Civil War. The expression "sold down the river" originated as a lament of Kentucky slaves being split apart from their families and sold in Louisville and other Kentucky locations to be shipped via the Ohio River down to New Orleans to be sold yet again to owners of cotton and sugar field plantations.^[2][3] Before and during the Civil War, the Ohio River was called the "River Jordan" by slaves escaping to freedom in the North via the Underground Railroad.^[4] As depicted in several novels by Harriet Beecher Stowe and Toni Morrison. More routes, and more escaping slaves made their perilous journey north to freedom across the Ohio River, than anywhere else across the north-south frontier. In 1831, in the Ohio River town of Ripley, Ohio, an irate slave catcher, in hot pursuit, coined the term, 'Underground Railroad,' when his quarry apparently just vanished' in one. Ripley was a hotbed of abolitionist activity. Runaway slaves were generally welcomed there. And free-to-operate-in-the-north Slave Catchers also worked openly in Ripley. In Ripley, Eliza was the true life character, of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel. Eliza and her baby, crossed the Ohio one winter night, slipping, and cutting her feet as she leaped from one ice floe to the next. Farther down the river, near Grandview, Indiana, slave Josiah Henson started his daring escape toward freedom with his entire family. Today, the Ohio River generally separates Midwestern Great Lakes states from Southern border states.

The charter for Virginia went not to the middle of the Ohio River, but to its far shore so the entire river was included. Wherever the river serves as a boundary between states, the river essentially belongs to the two states on the south that were divided from Virginia. Kentucky brought suit against Indiana in the early 1980s because of the building of the Marble Hill nuclear power plant in Indiana, which would have discharged its waste water into the river. The U.S. Supreme Court held that Kentucky's jurisdiction (and, implicitly, that of West Virginia) extended only to the low water mark of 1793 (important because the river has been extensively dammed for navigation, so that the present river bank is north of the old low water mark.) Similarly in the 1990s, Kentucky disputed Illinois' right to collect taxes on a riverboat casino docked in Metropolis, citing their control of the entire river. Aztar opened their own casino riverboat that docked in Evansville, Indiana at about the same time. Although cruises on the Ohio river were at first done in an oval pattern up and down the Ohio, the state of Kentucky soon protested and cruises were limited to going forwards then reversing and going backwards on the Indiana shore only.

In the early 1980s, the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area was established at Louisville, Kentucky. In 2006, Cincinnati, Ohio, Indie Rock band Nevada Smith published a bootleg version of their song "Il Fiume Fluisce Colore Maronne", a humorous protest song against the pollution in the Ohio. In 1993, Louisville band Love Jones released a song about recreational life on the Ohio River called "Ohio River".

River depth

While the Ohio River is quite deep it is a naturally shallow river that was artificially deepened by series of dams. The dams raise the water level in shallow stretches, allowing for commercial navigation. Near its origin at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, the Ohio remains fairly shallow, never rising above around 30 feet deep all the way past Cincinnati. From its origin to Cincinnati, the average depth is approximately 27 feet. However, once past Cincinnati, the river deepens substantially. Due to the damming, along with glacier formations and migrations in the latter part of the second Ice Age, the rivers depth increases nearly fivefold over about 100 miles, coming to a maximum depth of 168 feet just west of Louisville, Kentucky. The 50 miles around Louisville represent the deepest area of the river with an average depth of approximately 132 feet, allowing for much larger vessels to traverse the river. From Louisville, the river loses its depth very gradually until its confluence with the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois where it has an approximate depth of 20 feet, due to the fact that it is more free flowing in the region.

Water levels for the Ohio River are predicted daily by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The water depth predictions are relative to each local flood plain based upon predicted rainfall in the Ohio River basin in 5 reports as follows:

• Pittsburgh, PA to Hannibal Dam, OH (including the Allegheny & Monongahela rivers) (click to see report)
• Willow Island Dam, OH to Greenup Dam, KY (including the Kanawha River) (click to see report)
• Portsmouth, OH to Markland Dam, KY (click to see report)
• McAlpine Dam, KY to Cannelton Dam, IN (click to see report)
• Newburgh Dam, IN to Golconda, IL (click to see report) ^[5]

Cities and towns

Metro Area	Population
Pittsburgh	2.4 million
Cincinnati	2.1 million
Louisville	1.2 million
Evansville	350,000
Huntington	290,000

Main article: List of cities and towns along the Ohio River

Cities along the Ohio include:

Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Monaca Beaver Rochester Shippingport Aliquippa Sewickley McKees Rocks Coraopolis Ohio East Liverpool Steubenville Marietta Belpre Pomeroy Gallipolis Ironton Portsmouth Manchester Aberdeen Ripley Cincinnati

West Virginia Weirton Wheeling Moundsville New Martinsville Paden City St. Marys Parkersburg Ravenswood Point Pleasant Huntington Kenova Kentucky Ashland Augusta Newport Maysville Covington Ludlow Louisville Owensboro Henderson Paducah

Indiana Madison Jeffersonville Clarksville New Albany Tell City Evansville Mount Vernon Illinois Cairo Metropolis Brookport Old Shawneetown Cave-In-Rock Elizabethtown Golconda

Recreation

The world record for the largest blue catfish taken in the line class (104 lbs.), was set on the Ohio River in 1999. The river also holds records for the following species for the state of Kentucky:^[6]

• Channel catfish (32 lbs.)
• Longnose gar (40 lbs.)
• Paddlefish (106 lbs.)
• Silver carp (9 lbs., 6oz.)
• Skipjack herring (3.1 lbs.)
• Saugeye (6.58 lbs.)

References

See also

• List of crossings of the Ohio River
• List of variant names of the Ohio River
• List of Pennsylvania rivers
• Ohio and Erie Canal
• Ohio River Bridges Project
• Ohio River flood of 1937
• Watersheds of Illinois
• List of islands in West Virginia (including islands on Ohio River)

External links

• Historic Ohio, the magazine
• Indiana Waterways-Ohio River Guidebook
• Ohio Historical Preservation Group
• Image at the confluence with the Mississippi River
• Watershed information
• Ohio River Forecast Center, which issues official river forecasts for rhe Ohio River and its tributaries
• [1], History-travel guide on the Ohio River

Online maps and aerial photos

Mouth or other endpoint (Mississippi River)

• WikiSatellite view at WikiMapia
• Street map from MapQuest
• Topographic map from TopoZone
• Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
• Satellite image from Google Maps
• Other maps and aerial photos

Source (Pittsburgh)

• WikiSatellite view at WikiMapia
• Street map from MapQuest
• Topographic map from TopoZone
• Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
• Satellite image from Google Maps
• Other maps and aerial photos

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