Home to thousands of species and a recreational area for many people, the Mighty Mississippi River flows through 10 of our great states in the US. Being the second largest river in the United States, the Mississippi stretches 2,350 miles from Minnesota flowing rapidly down to the Gulf of Mexico. Many people today don’t really understand that the river wasn’t always as deep, controlled, and easy to navigate, but back in the mid 1800s the Upper Mississippi was a dangerous place. To change this treacherous stream, they installed locks and dams. The locks and dams are a big part of our Upper Mississippi, both economically and physically. The development and creation of the locks and dams are a one of the main reasons we still navigate on the Mississippi river today.
Before the locks and dams were even created, the Army Corps of Engineers had to first fix the river. As said before, the Upper Mississippi was a dangerous place. Boats would get caught on trees, large rocks, (and) the water levels would fluctuate from dangerously low to dangerously high. To avoid rapid flooding at extreme lows on the river, the Army Corps of Engineers
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The Corps of Engineers then created what they call the 9-foot Project. This was the beginning of the production of the locks and dam systems. The lock and dam system helps control the levels of water throughout only the Upper Mississippi. The Middle and Lower Mississippi doesn’t need any locks and dams because it is easier to navigate. The locks and dams were installed to create a stairway of water. Each level or stair of water has to keep the minimum of 9 feet to help big barges/towboats go through. This system made it easier for us to transport goods such as coal and grains up and down the Mississippi. After the locks and dams were installed, people had to understand how they worked, and to this day, people still are trying to understand
There are three dams directly on the Genesee River, one at the south end of the park and two at the north end (Fish, n.d.). According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, the dam at the south end of the park is the Portageville Dam, which was built for irrigation and affects 45.16 miles of river. The Portageville Dam is not documented on the cu...
How is the Mississippi controlled ? How & why used ? Benefits Problems Levees Mounds of earth are built parallel to the river, along its banks. These contain the rising river in flood times and protect buildings along the valley on the flood plain behind. · Known & successful technology which follows nature (rivers deposit silt to build natural levees anyway) · Protect settlements ·
The South Fork Dam collapsed and unleashed 20 million tons of water from its reservoir. A wall of water, reaching up to 70 feet high, swept 14 miles down the Little Conemaugh River Valley, carrying away steel mills, houses, livestock and people. At 4:07 p.m., the floodwaters rushed into the industrial city of Johnstown, crushing houses and downtown businesses in a whirlpool that lasted 10 minutes. (New York Times, 1889).
The positive aspects of ‘Lake’ Powell are few yet noteworthy. Glen Canyon Dam’s hydroelectric power-plant generates one thousand three hundred mega watts of electricity at full operation. That is enough power to supply three hundred fifty thousand homes. Glen Canyon Dam holds twenty seven million acre feet of water, which is equivalent to twice the Colorado River’s annual flow (Living Rivers: What about the hydroelectric loss?). One of the most valuable reasons for the dam to remain active is that “Lake Powell generates four hundred fifty five million dollars per year in tourist revenue, without this cash inflow, gas-and-motel towns . . . would undoubtedly wilt, and surrounding counties and states would lose a substantial tax base” (Farmer 185). These positive aspects are of no surprise considering they are the reason dams are built in the first place.
First, it is important to know a few facts concerning the resources of the state state. The state gets its name from the Mississippi River, which flows along the western boundary of the state. Mississippi is heavily forest except for the Delta area, which is mainly agricultural. Its primary crops in the Delta are cotton beans, rice, potatoes, peanuts, and catfish. Its aquaculture farms produce the majority of the farm raised catfish in the U.S. Belzoni, Mississippi is widely known as the “Catfish Capital” of the world. Mississippi has a wide variety of land forms. Its many lakes and streams make it conducive to attract tourists who are interested in hunting and fishing. The lakes and parks are attractive to persons looking for good vacations spots. The thriving coastal area creates a perfect place to live with a wealth of opportunities along the coastline for shrimps, lobsters and deep water fishing. Within the last 20 years, Mississippi has become a great tourism are, especially along the Mississippi coast. There are casinos at Biloxi, Gulfport, Natchez, Vicksburg and all along the Mississippi River from Tunica to Natchez. Many Civil War Battles were fought in Mississippi. Some are the Battle of Vicksburg, the Battle of Clinton, the Battle of Natchez, the Battle of Jackson and therefore, now serves as memorial area that attract many tourists each year.
Most of the destructions from the events of August 29th 2005, when Katrina Hit the City Of New Orleans, were not only caused by the storm itself; but also, by failure of the engineering of the levee system protecting the entire infrastructure of the city. The years of poor decision making and avoidance of the levee system led to one of the most catastrophic events in the history of the United States. Throughout our research, we have identified three key players in charge of the levee system design, construction and maintenance. These three organizations are the Unites States Corps of Engineers, the New Orleans Levee District and the Louisiana Department of Transportation. The consequences of the hurricane showed the organizations negligence in the design, construction and maintenance of the protective walls. Later independent sresearch showed that more than 50 levees and food walls failed during the passage of the hurricane. This failure caused the flooding of most of New Orleans and all of ST. Bernard Parish. The Unites States Corps of Engineers had been in charge of the of the levee system and flood walls construction since the 1936 flood act. According to the law, the Louisiana Department of Transportation is in charge to inspect the overall design and engineering practices implemented in the construction of the system. Once the levee systems were finished, they were handed over to the New Orleans Levee District for regular maintenance and periodically inspections. The uncoordinated actions of these three agencies resulted in the complete failure of a system that was supposed to protect the people of New Orleans. The evidence is clear that this catastrophic event did not happened by chance. The uncoordinated response of these...
By August 28, evacuations were underway across the region. That day, the National Weather Service predicted that after the storm hit, “most of the [Gulf Coast] area will be uninhabitable for weeks…perhaps longer.” New Orleans was at particular risk. Though about half the city actually lies above sea level, its average elevation is about six feet below sea level–and it is completely surrounded by water. Over the course of the 20th century, the Army Corps of Engineers had built a system of levees and seawalls to keep the city from flooding. The levees along the Mississippi River were strong and sturdy, but the ones built to hold back Lake Pontchartrain, Lake Borgne and the waterlogged swamps and marshes to the city’s east and west were much less reliable. Even before the storm, officials worried that those levees, jerry-built atop sandy, porous, erodible soil, might not withstand a massive storm surge. Neighborhoods that sat below sea level, many of which housed the city’s poorest and most vulnerable people, were at great risk of
... the dam, leaving the workers to use just mud and some wood to try to reinforce the weakened dam. Further the fish screen that was installed to ensure that the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club did not lose any fish to the dam turned out to be a major catalyst in the dam’s final defeat. The failure of the dam to let off pressure due to the debris stuff in these net made what could have been avoided a certainty.
The Civil Rights Movement is usually seen as a social movement primarily throughout the Southern states during the 1950’s and throughout the 1960’s. However, the movement is taught by giving specific points, events, places, and people. The Civil Rights Movement in some regions such as the Mississippi Delta is not credited enough in history. The movement found crucial support inside of the Mississippi Delta due to its population being predominately African American. The Mississippi Delta played a key role not only in the movement, but in its development from encompassing Civil Rights activist, movements, tragic events, and more.
In a passage from his book, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America, author John M. Barry makes an attempt use different rhetorical techniques to transmit his purpose. While to most, the Mississippi River is only some brown water in the middle of the state of Mississippi, to author John M. Barry, the lower Mississippi is an extremely complex and turbulent river. John M. Barry builds his ethos, uses elevated diction, several forms of figurative language, and different styles of syntax and sentence structure to communicate his fascination with the Mississippi River to a possible audience of students, teachers, and scientists.
It was believed that the Southern frontier would gradually expand to the Mississippi River. However, the Southern frontier advanced West much quicker than anticipated, raising a large demand for cotton from the South. This led to the demand for more land along the Gulf Coasts to be opened. As it happens, this land was designated as the Indian lands, such as Florida, Northern Alabama, Northwest Georgia, etc. Because the Indians were not changing their life styles quick enough, Indian removal was thought to be the only practical way to further develop the lands to the Mississippi River. Eastern Oklahoma and Eastern Kansas were the chosen destinations because pf their potential for farming.
Michigan is the only state in the union composed to two separated peninsulas. At the closest point, the upper and lower peninsulas are a mere five miles apart. In the early twentieth century, the only way to make the trip across the five miles of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron was to take a boat ride from one side to the other. As businesses expanded and industry grew, the demand to cross the lakes for travel and commerce purposes grew. The only way to cross the lake was by means of a ferry service, which was unable to keep up with consumer demand. Michigan residents were unable to get convenient and frequent transport between the peninsulas. They needed a consistent, fast, and safe way to travel freely from the mainland to the upper-peninsula. In response, the construction of a five-mile-long suspension bridge to link the peninsulas was set into action. The construction of the Mackinac Bridge was greatly significant to the national economy, the field of engineering, the efficiency of travel, and the historic symbolism of the state of Michigan.
During the years between 1840 and 1890, the land west of the Mississippi River experienced a wild and sporadic growth. The natural environment contributed greatly to this growth spurt and helped shape the development of the trans-Mississippi west. The natural environment dictated and facilitated the development of the west by way of determining who settled where, how the people survived, why people wanted to settle, and whether they were successful or not.
The state offered to sell the canal, the railroad company bought it for the right of ways yet had no need to maintain the dam, which due to neglect, broke for the first time in 1862. McCullough stresses that man was responsible for the dam and its weaknesses nearly thirty years before the great flood as he explains how the initial repair work was carried out by unqualified people and how the discharge pipes were blocked up.... ... middle of paper ... ... McCullough makes a firm argument for the responsibility of man, and asserts the blame on the necessary people, therefore I feel he makes a fair and accurate assertion which I would agree with.
It was tradition. Every Sunday after church my dad, brother, and I would drive through the fields checking crops and whatever else made their homes in my father's fields. Then we'd drive down to the river to check how high or low it was, or to see how much worse the river was cutting into the land. The river flowed right at the end of the road, so my dad would always pretend he was going to drive straight into it. We live about one in a half miles from the Missouri River. We have our own private road that winds down to a small shoot that connects to it. Because of our closeness to the Missouri, I have grown to love and admire it. It is an enormous and amazing machine to me. I find peace and love for it. It's funny how much alike Jeff, Luke, (the two main characters in Kent Meyer's The River Warren) and I are towards our rivers. Their River Warren is my Big Missouri.