Mississippi River

Mississippi River
The great rivers of the North American Continent are what made the land so much easier to explore than other continents. Imagine the Mississippi River bisecting the continent in half north to south. The Ohio River and the St Lawrence River going east to west in the eastern half of the country. The Columbia, Fraser, and Yukon Rivers flowing in the Northwest. The Missouri River made the travels of Lewis and Clark possible. All of this country criss crossed with rivers that provided transport to early explorers, and later for commerce.
The Miss. Is also considered by many to be the bisecting mark of the country between the east and the west.
Look at Africa often times referred to as the “Dark Continent” because it did not have navigatable rivers that flowed to the ocean.
Here at Trempeauleau there is a dam and lock that allow barges and ships to go upriver and downriver more easily. You can see one of the tugboats pushing its cargo of barges going out of the lock.
The lock is 600 feet long and I do not know how long it takes to allow for the water to equalize in the lock.
There are I believe 26 locks on the upper Miss. and there is a total of some 400 feet in height difference between the lowest and the highest water mark.
1 The Mississippi
2 Tug boat in the locks
3 Leaving the locks