Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Life On the Mississippi: Barge Traffic

The United States has a great inland water transportation system. The Mississippi River is the spine. It runs north from New Orleans, past St. Louis and almost to the Canadian border. The Missouri River, which bisects my state of the same name, starts in Montana, far to the northwest, and joins the Mississippi near my city's northern suburbs. The Ohio River is formed to the east at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by the confluence of two smaller rivers. The Great Lakes are connected to the Mississippi by canal.

Enormous barges carry bulk freight up and down the riverways. This one, carrying coal, is northbound as it passes St. Louis. I took this picture on a cloudless autumn day from Eads Bridge, which I've featured here before. See, for example, last Friday's post, to the left of the statue of Lewis and Clark.

TOMORROW Life On the Mississippi Continues: Tom Sawyer in Autumn

11 comments:

Chuckeroon said...

Wow...pushed AND pulled...that's America. Fine shot of the Missisippi/Ohio. Just about sums it up.

Tks for leaving a sign of "intelligent life" on RuT. Do you have a Vogon driver's licence?

U "R" Us AKA Captain Crowe said...

Really stunning. Did you use a wide angle on this?

Bob Crowe said...

Sort of. I was using my 24 - 105 zoom pulled all the way back to 24 mm.

Jen said...

Nice prespective on the barge. Good picture.

Oswegan said...

I'm sort of dumb when it comes to geography, but is this the same river that separates Kentucky and Indiana and Ohio, and flows past Cinncinati?

~Oswegan

Bob Crowe said...

No, Oswegan, that's the Ohio River, the one that starts at Pittsburgh at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela. It joins the Mississippi at the southern tip of Illinois, some distance to the south of us. What we got here is the Mississippi (New Orleans - Memphis - St. Louis - Minneapolis-St. Paul, and thence up to a trickle in central Minnesota).

Janet said...

Wonderful perspective here.

TORUĊƒ DAILY PHOTO said...

What an amazing photo! Love the perspective. They are some really loooooooooooong barges!

Olivier said...

la perspective est superbe.une belle idee cette promenade pour suivre les aventures de Tom Sawyer


The prospect is superbe.une beautiful promenade this idea to follow the adventures of Tom Sawyer

M. CHRISTOPHE said...

Nice construction on your picture.

Anonymous said...

I am doing research for my college paper, thanks for your helpful points, now I am acting on a sudden impulse.

- Laura