04/15/2007
America's Artery of Commerce
Mississippi by the numbers
CNHI photo
St. Louis: Much of the coast of the Mississippi River has an industrial feel to it with heavy barge traffic and factories.
2,350: Miles of Mississippi River from north woods of Minnesota to Louisiana's Gulf Coast.
195 feet: Length of standard barge on Mississippi. The standard width is 35 feet. The barge carries about 1,500 tons of cargo. Some newer barges are 290 feet long and 50 feet wide and hold double the capacity.
10,000: Horsepower of each towboat engine used to move a barge up and down the river.
300 million: Tons of bulk goods shipped on the Mississippi every year.
400,000: Number of workers who make a living on the river's transportation system.
400 million: Tons of mud and silt dumped into the Gulf of Mexico every year by flow from the Mississippi and its tributaries.
200 billion: Dollars spent by federal government on building a water-control levee system on Mississippi River from Missouri to the Gulf Coast.
1,500: Square miles of coastal wetlands Louisiana lost since 1930 because sediments from the Mississippi are diverted by levees and dams into the deep Gulf of Mexico.
8,000: Square-mile dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico from polluted sediment dumped there by the Mississippi. The zone can't support marine life.
1.2 million: Square miles of continental United States that drain into the Mississippi. This is 41 percent of the land area, including all or part of 31 states, making it the third largest watershed in the world.
1541: Year Spanish conquistador Hernando De Soto became the first known European explorer to see the Mississippi.
— Sources: Federal and state natural resource agencies
Quick facts
Speed: At the headwaters in Minnesota's Itasca State Park, about 1.2 miles per hour (people usually walk about 3.5 miles per hour). In New Orleans, about 3 miles per hour.
Length: U.S. Geological Survey says 2,300 miles; Environmental Protection Agency estimates 2,320 miles, and the National Park Service says 2,350 miles.
Width: From 20 to 30 feet at headwaters to up to four miles at Lake Onalaska near La Crosse, Wis., where the river is held back by Lock and Dam No. 7, and about a mile at the mouth on the Gulf Coast.
Depth: Less than three feet at headwaters and up to 200 feet between Governor Nicholls Wharf and Algiers Point in New Orleans.
Elevation: Drops from 1,475 feet above sea level at headwaters to sea level at the Gulf of Mexico. More than half of the elevation drop occurs within Minnesota.
Wildlife: There are 260 kinds of fish, 326 different birds, 98 types of mussels, 50 mammals and 145 different reptiles and amphibians. Forty percent of the nation's migratory waterfowl use the Mississippi corridor in spring and fall.
— Source: National Park Service
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