El río Ohio es un largo 981 millas (1579 kilometros) río en el Estados Unidos . Se encuentra en el medio oeste y sur de los Estados Unidos , fluyendo hacia el suroeste desde el oeste de Pensilvania al sur del lago Erie hasta su desembocadura en el río Mississippi en el extremo sur de Illinois . Es el tercer río más grande por volumen de descarga en los Estados Unidos y el mayor afluente por volumen del río Mississippi que fluye de norte a sur y que divide el este del oeste de los Estados Unidos. [2] El río fluye a través o a lo largo de la frontera.de seis estados , y su cuenca de drenaje incluye partes de 14 estados. A través de su afluente más grande, el río Tennessee , la cuenca incluye varios estados del sureste de los Estados Unidos. Es la fuente de agua potable para tres millones de personas. [3]
Río Ohio | |
---|---|
Localización | |
País | Estados Unidos |
Estados | Pensilvania , Ohio , Virginia Occidental , Kentucky , Indiana , Illinois |
Ciudades | Pittsburgh, PA , East Liverpool, OH , Wheeling, WV , Parkersburg, WV , Huntington, WV , Ashland, KY , Cincinnati, OH , Louisville, KY , Owensboro, KY , Evansville, IN , Henderson, KY , Paducah, KY , El Cairo , ILLINOIS |
Características físicas | |
Fuente | Río Allegheny |
• localización | Municipio de Allegany , condado de Potter , Pensilvania |
• coordenadas | 41 ° 52′22 ″ N 77 ° 52′30 ″ O / 41,87278 ° N 77,87500 ° W |
• elevación | 2.240 pies (680 m) |
2da fuente | Río Monongahela |
• localización | Fairmont , Virginia Occidental |
• coordenadas | 39 ° 27′53 ″ N 80 ° 09′13 ″ W / 39,46472 ° N 80,15361 ° W |
• elevación | 880 pies (270 m) |
Confluencia de fuentes | |
• localización | Pittsburgh , Pensilvania |
• coordenadas | 40 ° 26′32 ″ N 80 ° 00′52 ″ O / 40,44222 ° N 80,01444 ° W |
• elevación | 730 pies (220 m) |
Boca | río Mississippi |
• localización | en El Cairo, Illinois / Condado de Ballard, Kentucky |
• coordenadas | 36 ° 59′12 ″ N 89 ° 07′50 ″ O / 36,98667 ° N 89,13056 ° W / 36,98667; -89.13056Coordenadas : 36 ° 59′12 ″ N 89 ° 07′50 ″ O / 36,98667 ° N 89,13056 ° W / 36,98667; -89.13056 |
• elevación | 290 pies (88 m) |
Largo | 1.579 km (981 mi) |
Tamaño de la cuenca | 490,600 km 2 (189,422 millas cuadradas ) |
Descarga | |
• localización | El Cairo, Illinois (1951-1980) [1] |
• promedio | 281.000 pies cúbicos / s (8.000 m 3 / s) (1951-1980) [1] |
• máximo | 1.850.000 pies cúbicos / s (52.000 m 3 / s) |
Características de la cuenca | |
Progresión | Río Ohio → Río Mississippi → Golfo de México |
Afluentes | |
• izquierda | Poco río Kanawha , río Kanawha , río Guyandotte , Big Sandy río , poco río de arena , río de lamedura , río de Kentucky , Salt River , Green River , río Cumberland , río Tennessee |
• derecho | Beaver River , poco río Muskingum , río Muskingum , poco río Hocking , río de Hocking , Shade River , río Scioto , pequeño río de Miami , gran río de Miami , río Wabash |
La parte baja del río Ohio, justo debajo de Louisville, está obstruida por rápidos conocidos como las Cataratas del Ohio, donde el nivel del agua cae 26 pies (7,9 m) en 2 millas (3,2 km) y es intransitable para la navegación. La finalización de McAlpine Locks and Dam , un canal de envío que pasa por alto los rápidos, permite la navegación comercial desde Forks of the Ohio en Pittsburgh hasta el puerto de Nueva Orleans en la desembocadura del Mississippi en el Golfo de México.
El nombre "Ohio" proviene del Seneca , Ohi: yo ' , lit. "Buen río". [4] El descubrimiento europeo del río Ohio puede atribuirse a los exploradores ingleses de Virginia en la segunda mitad del siglo XVII. En sus Notas sobre el estado de Virginia, publicado en 1781-1782, Thomas Jefferson declaró: "El Ohio es el río más hermoso de la tierra. Su corriente es suave, sus aguas claras y su seno es suave y no está interrumpido por rocas y rápidos, un solo caso exceptuados ". [5] A finales del siglo XVIII, el río era el límite sur del Territorio del Noroeste . Se convirtió en una ruta de transporte principal para los pioneros durante la expansión hacia el oeste de los primeros años de EE. UU.
El río se considera a veces como la extensión occidental de la línea Mason-Dixon que dividía Pennsylvania de Maryland , y por lo tanto parte de la frontera entre territorio libre y esclavista , y entre el norte y el sur de los Estados Unidos o el sur superior . Donde el río era angosto, lo atravesaban miles de esclavos que escapaban hacia el norte en busca de libertad; muchos fueron ayudados por negros y blancos libres del movimiento de resistencia del Ferrocarril Subterráneo .
El río Ohio es un área de transición climática, ya que su agua corre a lo largo de la periferia de las áreas de clima continental húmedo y subtropical húmedo . Está habitada por fauna y flora de ambos climas. En invierno, se congela regularmente en Pittsburgh, pero rara vez más al sur hacia Cincinnati y Louisville . En Paducah, Kentucky , en el sur, cerca de la confluencia de Ohio con el Mississippi, no hay hielo durante todo el año.
Etimología
El nombre "Ohio" proviene de la lengua Séneca (una lengua iroquesa ), Ohi: yo ' (pronunciado aproximadamente oh-hee-yoh, con la vocal en "hee" sostenida por más tiempo ), un nombre propio derivado de ohiːyoːh ("buen río "), por lo que literalmente se traduce como" Good River ". [4] [6] "Gran río" y "gran arroyo" también se han dado como traducciones. [7] [8]
Los nativos americanos, incluidos los Lenni Lenape e Iroquois , consideraban los ríos Ohio y Allegheny como lo mismo, como sugiere una señal de tráfico del estado de Nueva York en la Interestatal 86 que se refiere al río Allegheny también como Ohi: yo ' . [9] De manera similar, el Sistema de Información de Nombres Geográficos enumera O-hee-yo y O-hi-o como nombres variantes para Allegheny. [10]
También se aplicó un nombre de idioma anterior de Miami-Illinois al río Ohio, Mosopeleacipi ("río de la tribu Mosopelea "). Acortado en el idioma Shawnee a pelewa thiipi , spelewathiipi o peleewa thiipiiki , el nombre evolucionó a través de formas variantes como "Polesipi", "Peleson", "Pele Sipi" y "Pere Sipi", y finalmente se estabilizó con las variantes ortográficas "Pelisipi". , "Pelisippi" y "Pellissippi". Originalmente aplicado solo al río Ohio, el nombre "Pelisipi" más tarde se aplicó de forma diversa entre el río Ohio y el río Clinch en Virginia y Tennessee . [11] [12] En su borrador original de la Ordenanza de Tierras de 1784 , Thomas Jefferson propuso un nuevo estado llamado "Pelisipia", al sur del río Ohio, que habría incluido partes del actual este de Kentucky , Virginia y Virginia Occidental . [11]
Historia
El río tuvo un gran significado en la historia de los nativos americanos , ya que numerosas civilizaciones prehistóricas e históricas se formaron a lo largo de su valle. [13] Durante miles de años, los nativos americanos utilizaron el río como una importante ruta de transporte y comercio. [14] Sus aguas conectaban comunidades.
En los cinco siglos anteriores a la conquista europea, la cultura de Mississippi construyó numerosos cacicazgos regionales e importantes montículos de movimiento de tierras en el Valle de Ohio, como Angel Mounds cerca de Evansville, Indiana , así como en el Valle de Mississippi y el sureste. Los pueblos históricos Osage , Omaha , Ponca y Kaw vivían en el valle de Ohio, pero bajo la presión del comercio de pieles de las naciones iroquesas hacia el noreste, emigraron al oeste del río Mississippi en el siglo XVII al territorio que ahora se define como Missouri , Arkansas. y Oklahoma .
Existen varios relatos del descubrimiento y recorrido del río Ohio por los europeos en la segunda mitad del siglo XVII: las expediciones trans-Apalaches del inglés de Virginia Abraham Wood entre 1654 y 1664; [15] La supuesta expedición a Ohio del francés Robert de La Salle de 1669; [16] y dos expediciones de virginianos patrocinadas por el coronel Wood: la expedición Batts y Fallam de 1671, [17] y la expedición Needham y Arthur de 1673-74. [18] [19] El primer europeo conocido que atravesó la longitud del río, desde la cabecera del Allegheny hasta su desembocadura en el Mississippi, fue un holandés de Nueva York, Arnout Viele , en 1692. [20] [21]
En 1749, Gran Bretaña estableció la Compañía de Ohio para establecerse y comerciar en el área. La exploración del territorio y el comercio con los indios en la región cercana a Forks trajo a los colonos británicos de Pensilvania y Virginia a través de las montañas, y ambas colonias reclamaron el territorio. El movimiento a través de las montañas Allegheny de los colonos británicos y las reclamaciones del área cercana a la actual Pittsburgh llevaron a un conflicto con los franceses, que tenían fuertes en el valle del río Ohio . Este conflicto se llamó Guerra Francesa e India , y se fusionaría en la lucha global anglo-francesa, la Guerra de los Siete Años . En 1763, tras su derrota en la guerra, Francia cedió su área al este del río Mississippi a Gran Bretaña y, por lo tanto, a los colonos de las colonias de Gran Bretaña.
The British 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix with several tribes opened Kentucky to colonial settlement and established the Ohio River as a southern boundary for American Indian territory.[22] In 1774 the Quebec Act restored the land east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River to Quebec, in effect making the Ohio the southern boundary of Canada. This appeased the British subjects of Canada but angered the colonists of the Thirteen Colonies. Lord Dunmore's War south of the Ohio river also contributed to giving the land north to Quebec to stop further encroachment of the British colonials on native land. During the American Revolution, in 1776 the British military engineer John Montrésor created a map of the river showing the strategic location of Fort Pitt, including specific navigational information about the Ohio River's rapids and tributaries in that area.[23] However, the Treaty of Paris (1783) gave the entire Ohio Valley to the United States.
The economic connection of the Ohio Country to the East was significantly increased in 1818 when the National Road being built westward from Cumberland, Maryland reached Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), providing an easier overland connection from the Potomac River to the Ohio River.[24] The Wheeling Suspension Bridge was built over the river at Wheeling from 1847 to 1849, making the trip west easier. For a brief time, until 1851, it was the world's largest suspension bridge. The bridge survived the American Civil War, after having been improved in 1859. It was renovated again in 1872, and remains in use as the oldest vehicular suspension bridge in the U.S.
Louisville was founded in 1779 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 (7.9 m) in a stretch of about 2 miles (3.2 km). In this area, the river flowed over hard, fossil-rich beds of limestone. The first locks on the river – the Louisville and Portland Canal – were built between 1825 and 1830 to circumnavigate the falls. Fears that Louisville's transshipment industry would collapse proved ill-founded: but the increasing size of steamships and barges on the river meant that the outdated locks could serve only the smallest vessels until well after the Civil War when improvements were made. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers improvements were expanded again in the 1960s, forming the present-day McAlpine Locks and Dam.
During the nineteenth century, emigrants from Virginia, North Carolina and Kentucky traveled by the river and settled along its northern bank. Known as butternuts, they formed the dominant culture in the southern portions of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois with a society that was primarily Southern in culture. Largely devoted to agricultural pursuits, they shipped much of their produce along the river to ports such as Cincinnati.[25]
Because the Ohio River flowed westward, it became a 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 farther west over land routes. In the early 19th century, river pirates such as Samuel Mason, operating out of Cave-In-Rock, Illinois, waylaid travelers on their way down the river. They killed travelers, stealing their goods and scuttling their boats. The folktales about Mike Fink recall the keelboats used for commerce in the early days of American settlement. The Ohio River boatmen inspired performer Dan Emmett, who in 1843 wrote the song "The Boatman's Dance".
Trading boats and ships 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 export 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 is one of the factors that led to the United States' Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
Because the river is the southern border of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, it was part of the border between free states and slave states in the years before the American Civil War. The expression "sold down the river" originated as a lament of Upper South slaves, especially from Kentucky, who were shipped via the Ohio and Mississippi to cotton and sugar plantations in the Deep South. Changes in crops cultivated in the Upper South resulted in slaves available to be sold to the South, where the expansion of cotton plantations was booming. Invention of the cotton gin made cultivation of short-staple cotton profitable throughout the Black Belt of this region.[26][27]
Before and during the Civil War, the Ohio River was called the "River Jordan" by slaves crossing it to escape to freedom in the North via the Underground Railroad.[28] More escaping slaves, estimated in the thousands, made their perilous journey north to freedom across the Ohio River than anywhere else across the north-south frontier. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, the bestselling novel that fueled abolitionist work, was the best known of the anti-slavery novels that portrayed such escapes across the Ohio. The times have been expressed by 20th-century novelists as well, such as the Nobel Prize-winning Toni Morrison, whose novel Beloved was adapted as a film of the same name. She also composed the libretto for the opera Margaret Garner (2005), based on the life and trial of an enslaved woman who escaped with her family across the river.
The colonial charter for Virginia defined its territory as extending to the north shore of the Ohio, so that the riverbed was "owned" by Virginia. Where the river serves as a boundary between states today, Congress designated the entire river to belong to the states on the east and south, i.e., West Virginia and Kentucky at the time of admission to the Union, that were divided from Virginia. Thus Wheeling Island, the largest inhabited island in the Ohio River, belongs to West Virginia, although it is closer to the Ohio shore than to the West Virginia shore. Kentucky sued the state of Indiana in the early 1980s because of their construction of the never-completed Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant in Indiana, which would have discharged its waste water into the river. This would have adversely affected Kentucky's water supplies.
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 challenged Illinois's right to collect taxes on a riverboat casino docked in Metropolis, citing its own control of the entire river. A private casino riverboat that docked in Evansville, Indiana, on the Ohio River opened about the same time. Although such boats cruised on the Ohio River in an oval pattern up and down, the state of Kentucky soon protested. Other states had to limit their cruises to going forward, then reversing and going backward on the Indiana shore only. Both Illinois and Indiana have long since changed their laws to allow riverboat casinos to be permanently docked, with Illinois changing in 1999 and Indiana in 2002.
The Silver Bridge at Point Pleasant, West Virginia collapsed into the river on December 15, 1967. The collapse killed 46 people who had been crossing when the bridge failed. The bridge had been built in 1929, and by 1967 was carrying too heavy a load for its design.[29] The bridge was rebuilt about one mile downstream and in service as the Silver Memorial Bridge in 1969.
In the early 1980s, the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area was established at Clarksville, Indiana.
Ecología
The Ohio River as a whole is ranked as the most polluted river in the United States, based on 2009 and 2010 data. The more industrial and regional West Virginia/Pennsylvania tributary, the Monongahela River, ranked 17th for water pollution, behind 16 other American rivers.[30] The Ohio again ranked as the most polluted in 2013, and has been the most polluted river since at least 2001, according to the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO). The Commission found that 92% of toxic discharges were nitrates, including farm runoff and waste water from industrial processes such as steel production. The Commission also noted mercury pollution as an ongoing concern, citing a 500% increase in mercury discharges between 2007 and 2013.[31]
For several decades beginning in the 1950s, the Ohio River was polluted with hundreds of thousands of pounds of PFOA, a fluoride-based chemical used in making teflon, among other things, by the DuPont chemical company from an outflow pipe at its Parkersburg, West Virginia, facility.[32]
Economía
The Ohio River is extensively industrialized and populated. Regular barge traffic carries cargoes of oil, steel and other industrial goods produced in the region. Major cities located along the northern and southern banks of the river include Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Louisville, Kentucky; and Cincinnati, Ohio.[14]
Geografía e hidrografía
The combined Allegheny-Ohio river is 1,310 miles (2,110 km) long and carries the largest volume of water of any tributary of the Mississippi. The Indians and early European explorers and settlers of the region often considered the Allegheny to be part of the Ohio. The forks (the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at what is now Pittsburgh) were considered a strategic military location by colonial French and British, and later independent American military authorities.
The Ohio River is formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers at what is now Point State Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From there, it flows northwest through Allegheny and 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 Ohioville, Pennsylvania). From there, it forms the border between West Virginia and Ohio, upstream of Wheeling, West Virginia.
The river follows a roughly southwest and then west-northwest course until Cincinnati, before bending to a west-southwest course for most of the remainder of its length. The course forms the northern borders of West Virginia and Kentucky; and the southern borders of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, until it joins the Mississippi River at the city of Cairo, Illinois. Where the Ohio joins the Mississippi is the lowest elevation in the state of Illinois, at 315 feet (96 m).
The Mississippi River flows to the Gulf of Mexico on the Atlantic Ocean. Among rivers wholly or mostly in the United States, the Ohio is the second largest by discharge volume and the tenth longest and has the eighth largest drainage basin. It serves to separate the Midwestern Great Lakes states from the Upper South states, which were historically border states in the Civil War.
The Ohio River is a left (east) and the largest tributary by volume of the Mississippi River in the United States. At the confluence, the Ohio is considerably bigger than the Mississippi, measured by long-term mean discharge. The Ohio River at Cairo is 281,500 cu ft/s (7,960 m3/s);[1] and the Mississippi River at Thebes, Illinois, which is upstream of the confluence, is 208,200 cu ft/s (5,897 m3/s).[33] The Ohio River flow is greater than that of the Mississippi River, so hydrologically the Ohio River is the main stream of the river system.
River depth
The Ohio River is a naturally shallow river that was artificially deepened by a series of dams. The natural depth of the river varied from about 3 to 20 feet (0.91 to 6.10 m). The dams raise the water level and have turned the river largely into a series of reservoirs, eliminating shallow stretches and allowing for commercial navigation. From its origin to Cincinnati, the average depth is approximately 15 feet (5 m). The largest immediate drop in water level is below the McAlpine Locks and Dam at the Falls of the Ohio at Louisville, Kentucky, where flood stage is reached when the water reaches 23 feet (7 m) on the lower gauge. However, the river's deepest point is 168 feet (51 m) on the western side of Louisville, Kentucky. From Louisville, the river loses depth very gradually until its confluence with the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois, where it has an approximate depth of 19 feet (6 m).
Water levels for the Ohio River from Smithland Lock and Dam upstream to Pittsburgh are predicted daily by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ohio River Forecast Center.[34] The water depth predictions are relative to each local flood plain based upon predicted rainfall in the Ohio River basin in five reports as follows:
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Hannibal Locks and Dam, Ohio (including the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers)
- Willow Island Locks and Dam, Ohio, to Greenup Lock and Dam, Kentucky (including the Kanawha River)
- Portsmouth, Ohio, to Markland Locks and Dam, Kentucky
- McAlpine Locks and Dam, Kentucky, to Cannelton Locks and Dam, Indiana
- Newburgh Lock and Dam, Indiana, to Golconda, Illinois
The water levels for the Ohio River from Smithland Lock and Dam to Cairo, Illinois, are predicted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center.[35]
- Smithland Lock and Dam, Illinois, to Cairo, Illinois
List of major tributaries
The largest tributaries of the Ohio by discharge volume are:
- Tennessee River 70,575 cfs
- Cumberland River 37,250 cfs
- Wabash River 35,350 cfs
- Allegheny River 19,750 cfs
- Kanawha River 15,240 cfs
- Green River 14,574 cfs
- Monongahela River 12,650 cfs
- Kentucky River 10,064 cfs
- Muskingum River 8,973 cfs
- Scioto River 6,674 cfs
By drainage basin area, the largest tributaries are:[36]
- Tennessee River 40,910 sq.mi.
- Wabash River 33,100 sq.mi.
- Cumberland River 17,920 sq.mi.
- Kanawha River 12,200 sq.mi.
- Allegheny River 11,700 sq.mi.
- Green River 9,230 sq.mi.
- Muskingum River 8,040 sq.mi
- Monongahela River 7,400 sq.mi.
- Kentucky River 6,970 sq.mi.
- Scioto River 6,510sq.mi.
The largest tributaries by length are:[36]
- Cumberland River 693 mi.
- Tennessee River 652 mi.
- Wabash River 474 mi.
- Green River 370 mi.
- Allegheny River 325 mi.
- Licking River 320 mi.
- Kentucky River 255 mi.
- Scioto River 237 mi.
- Great Miami River 161 mi.
- Little Kanawha River 160 mi.
Major tributaries of the river, in order from the head to the mouth of the Ohio, include:[36]
- Allegheny River – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Monongahela River – Pittsburgh
- Saw Mill Run – Pittsburgh
- Chartiers Creek – Pittsburgh
- Montour Run – Coraopolis, Pennsylvania
- Beaver River – Rochester, Pennsylvania
- Breezewood Creek – Beaver, Pennsylvania
- Raccoon Creek – Center Township, Pennsylvania
- Little Beaver Creek – East Liverpool, Ohio
- Wheeling Creek – Wheeling, West Virginia
- Middle Island Creek – St. Marys, West Virginia
- Little Muskingum River – Ohio
- Duck Creek – Marietta, Ohio
- Muskingum River – Marietta, Ohio
- Little Kanawha River – Parkersburg, West Virginia
- Hocking River – Hockingport, Ohio
- Kanawha River – Point Pleasant, West Virginia
- Guyandotte River – Huntington, West Virginia
- Big Sandy River – Kentucky-West Virginia border
- Little Sandy River – Greenup, Kentucky
- Little Scioto River – Sciotoville, Ohio
- Scioto River – Portsmouth, Ohio
- Kinniconick Creek – Vanceburg, Kentucky
- Little Miami River – Cincinnati, Ohio
- Licking River – Newport-Covington, Kentucky
- Mill Creek – Cincinnati, Ohio
- Great Miami River – Ohio-Indiana border
- Kentucky River – Carrollton, Kentucky
- Salt River – West Point, Kentucky
- Green River – near Henderson, Kentucky
- Wabash River – Indiana-Illinois-Kentucky border
- Saline River – Illinois
- Cumberland River – Smithland, Kentucky
- Tennessee River – Paducah, Kentucky
- Cache River – Illinois
Drainage basin
The Ohio's drainage basin covers 189,422 square miles (490,600 km2), encompassing the easternmost regions of the Mississippi Basin. The Ohio drains parts of 14 states in four regions.
- Northeast
- New York: a small area of the southern border along the headwaters of the Allegheny.
- Pennsylvania: a corridor from the southwestern corner to the north-central border.
- Mid-Atlantic/Upper South
- Maryland: a small corridor along the Youghiogheny River on the western border.
- West Virginia: all but the Eastern Panhandle.
- Kentucky: all but a small part in the extreme west drained directly by the Mississippi.
- Tennessee: all but a small part in the extreme west drained directly by the Mississippi, and a very small area in the southeastern corner which is drained by the Conasauga River.
- Virginia: most of southwest Virginia.
- North Carolina: the western quarter.
- Midwest
- Ohio: 80% (all except a northern strip bordering Lake Erie, and the northwest corner)
- Indiana: all but the northern area.
- Illinois: the southeast quarter.
- Deep South
- Georgia: the far northwest corner.
- Alabama: the northern portion.
- Mississippi: the northeast corner.
Zona de transición climática
The Ohio River is a climatic transition area, as its water runs along the periphery of the humid continental and humid subtropical climate areas. It is inhabited by fauna and flora of both climates. In winter, it regularly freezes over at Pittsburgh but rarely farther south toward Cincinnati and Louisville. At Paducah, Kentucky, in the south, at the Ohio's confluence with the Tennessee River, it is ice-free year-round.
In the 21st century, with the 2016 update of climate zones,[37] the humid subtropical zone has stretched across the river, into the southern portions of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
Geología
From a geological standpoint, the Ohio River is young. Before the river was created, large parts of North America were covered by water forming a saltwater lake about 200 miles across and 400 miles in length. The bedrock of the Ohio Valley was mostly set during this time.[14] The river formed on a piecemeal basis beginning between 2.5 and 3 million years ago. The movement of glaciers during the earliest ice ages the present-day river drainages of the Kanawha, Sandy, Kentucky, Green, Cumberland and Tennessee rivers northward created the Ohio system and the course of early tributaries of the Ohio River, including the Monongahela and the Allegheny rivers, were set.[14] The Teays River was the largest of these rivers. The modern Ohio River flows within segments of the ancient Teays. The ancient rivers were rearranged or consumed.
The section of the river that runs southwest from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois is around tens of thousands of years old.
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. The south-flowing Marietta River (no longer in existence) ended between the present-day cities. The overflowing lake carved through the separating hill and connected the rivers. The 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 the ice ages. The valley grew during and following the 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.
Middle Ohio River
The middle Ohio River formed in a manner similar to that of the upper Ohio River. A north-flowing river was temporarily dammed by natural forces southwest of present-day Louisville, creating a large lake until the dam burst. A new route was carved to the Mississippi. Eventually, the upper and middle sections combined to form what is essentially the modern Ohio River.
Ciudades y pueblos a lo largo del río.
Along the banks of the Ohio are some of the largest cities in their respective states:[note 1] Pittsburgh, the third largest city on the river and second-largest city in Pennsylvania; Cincinnati, the third-largest city in Ohio; Louisville, the largest city on the river and in Kentucky; Evansville, the third-largest city in Indiana; Owensboro, the fourth-largest city in Kentucky; and three of the five largest cities in West Virginia—Huntington (second), Parkersburg (fourth), and Wheeling (fifth). Only Illinois, among the border states, has no significant cities on the river. There are hundreds of other cities, towns, villages and unincorporated populated places on the river, most of them very small.
Cities along the Ohio are also among the oldest cities in their respective states and among the oldest cities in the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains (by date of founding): Old Shawneetown, Illinois, 1748; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1758; Wheeling, West Virginia, 1769; Huntington, West Virginia, 1775; Louisville, Kentucky, 1779; Clarksville, Indiana, 1783; Maysville, Kentucky, 1784; Martin's Ferry, Ohio, 1785; Marietta, Ohio, 1788; Cincinnati, Ohio, 1789; Manchester, Ohio, 1790; Beaver, Pennsylvania, 1792; and Golconda, Illinois, 1798.
Other cities of interest include Cairo, Illinois, at the confluence of the Ohio with the Mississippi River and the southernmost and westernmost city on the river; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the easternmost city on the river at the head or Forks of the Ohio, where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers join to create the Ohio; and Beaver, Pennsylvania, the site of colonial Fort McIntosh and the northernmost city on the river. It is 548 miles as the crow flies between Cairo and Pittsburgh, but 981 miles by water. Direct water travel over the length of the river is obstructed by the Falls of the Ohio just below Louisville, Kentucky. The Ohio River Scenic Byway follows the Ohio River through Illinois, Indiana and Ohio ending at Steubenville, Ohio, on the river.
Before there were cities, there were colonial forts. These forts played a dominant role in the French and Indian War, Northwest Indian War and pioneering settlement of Ohio Country. Many cities got their start at or adjacent to the forts. Most were abandoned by 1800. Forts along the Ohio river include Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania), Fort McIntosh (Pennsylvania), Fort Randolph (West Virginia), Fort Henry (West Virginia), Fort Harmar (Ohio), Fort Washington (Ohio), and Fort Nelson (Kentucky). Short-lived, special-purpose forts included Fort Steuben (Ohio), Fort Finney (Indiana), Fort Finney (Ohio) and Fort Gower (Ohio).
Galería
The Allegheny River, left, and Monongahela River join to form the Ohio River at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the largest metropolitan area on the river.
Louisville, Kentucky, The deepest point of the Ohio River is a scour hole just below Cannelton locks and dam (river mile 720.7).
A barge hauls coal in the Louisville and Portland Canal, the only artificial portion of the Ohio River.
Cincinnati skyline showing the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge to Covington, Kentucky.
Carl Perkins Bridge in Portsmouth, Ohio with Ohio River and Scioto River tributary on right.
The Ohio River seen at Sciotoville, from the "Geography of Ohio," 1923
Ver también
- Lists of dams and bridges
- List of crossings of the Ohio River
- List of locks and dams of the Ohio River
- Lists of Rivers
- List of variant names of the Ohio River
- List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem)
- List of rivers of Illinois
- List of rivers of Indiana
- List of rivers of Kentucky
- List of rivers of Ohio
- List of rivers of Pennsylvania
- List of rivers of West Virginia
- Ohio Valley, etc.
- Ohio and Erie Canal
- Ohio River flood of 1937
- Watersheds of Illinois
- Ohio River Valley AVA
- Ohio Valley in Kentucky
- Ohio River Trail
- Ohio River Water Trail
- Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area
Notas
- ^ Cities and towns of pop. at least 25,000 and among the 10 largest in the state, and whose municipal boundary comes within less than a mile of the river. Florence, Kentucky, a city of 33,500 and that state's eighth-largest, for example, is a near miss because its northernmost boundary only comes within 2.7 miles of the river.
Referencias
- ^ a b c Leeden, Frits van der; Troise, Fred L.; Todd, David Keith (1990). The Water Encyclopedia (Second ed.). Chelsea, Michigan: Lewis Publishers. p. 126. ISBN 978-0-87371-120-3.
- ^ "Largest Rivers in the United States". United States Geological Survey. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
- ^ "Ohio River Facts".
- ^ a b Bright, William (2004). Native American Placenames of the United States. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 344. ISBN 978-0-8061-3598-4. Retrieved April 11, 2011.
- ^ Jefferson, Thomas, 1743–1826. Notes on the State of Virginia Archived August 29, 2013, at the Wayback Machine; the single instance refers to the former rapids near Louisville.
- ^ "Native Ohio". American Indian Studies. Ohio State University. Archived from the original on February 2, 2007. Retrieved February 25, 2007.
Ohio comes from the Seneca (Iroquoian) 'ohiiyo' 'good river'
- ^ "Quick Facts About the State of Ohio". Ohio History Central. Retrieved July 2, 2010.
From Iroquois word meaning 'great river'
- ^ Mithun, Marianne (1999). "Borrowing". The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 311–3. ISBN 978-0-521-29875-9.
Ohio ('large creek')
- ^ Stewart, George R. (1967). Names on the Land. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-938530-02-2.
- ^ "Allegheny River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved May 13, 2010.
- ^ a b "The Winding River Home: Pellissippi State researches the meaning of 'Pellissippi'". Pellissippi State News. Pellissippi State Community College. June 7, 2017. Archived from the original on July 26, 2018. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
- ^ "Shawnees Webpage". Shawnee's Reservation. 1997. Archived from the original on June 30, 2013. Retrieved April 26, 2013.
- ^ "Ohio River | river, United States". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
- ^ a b c d McNeese, Tim. The Ohio River. Chelsea House Publishing.
- ^ Drake, Richard B. (August 1, 2003). A History of Appalachia. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-9060-0.
- ^ "Rene R. de La Salle". Ohio History Central. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
- ^ Rice, Otis (September 12, 2010). West Virginia: A History. University Press of Kentucky. p. 13. ISBN 9780813127330.
- ^ "Needham and Arthur Expedition". The West Virginia Encyclopedia. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
- ^ Steelhammer, Rick. "Presenter re-enacts 17th-century man's journey through Kanawha Valley". Charleston Gazette-Mail. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
- ^ "The Planting of civilization in western Pennsylvania". University of Pittsburgh Press Digital Editions. University of Pittsburgh Press. 1967. p. 47. Retrieved April 27, 2019.
- ^ McNeese, Tim (2004). Ohio River. Infobase Publishing. p. 16. ISBN 9781438125206.
- ^ Taylor, Alan (2006). The Divided Ground: Indians, Settlers, and the Northern Borderland of the American Revolution. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 44, see map on 39. ISBN 978-0-679-45471-7.
- ^ Montrésor, John (1776). "Map of the Ohio River from Fort Pitt". World Digital Library. Pennsylvania. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
- ^ Fowler, Thaddeus Mortimer (1906). "Bird's Eye View of Cumberland, Maryland 1906". World Digital Library. Retrieved July 22, 2013.
- ^ Howe, Daniel Walker. What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848. Oxford University Press, 2007. p.136-138
- ^ "Geography". KET's Underground Railroad: Passage to Freedom, with Kentucky Humanities Association. Archived from the original on October 20, 2014. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
- ^ Dunaway, Wilma A. (2000). "Put in Master's Pocket: Interstate Slave Trading and the Black Appalachian Diaspora" (DOC). In Inscoe, John C. (ed.). Appalachians and Race: The Mountain South from Slavery to Segregation. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-0813121734. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
Bluegrass dealers made a business of buying up Negroes at auction sales and shipping them down to New Orleans to be sold to owners of cotton and sugar cane plantations. . . . This practice gave rise to the expression 'sold down the river.
- ^ Hudson, J. Blaine. "Crossing the "Dark Line": Fugitive Slaves and the Underground Railroad in Louisville and North Central Kentucky (excerpt)". KET's Underground Railroad: Passage to Freedom, with Kentucky Humanities Association. Archived from the original on February 12, 2013. Retrieved February 25, 2007.
- ^ LeRose, Chris (October 2001). "The Collapse of the Silver Bridge". West Virginia Historical Society Quarterly. 15 (4).
- ^ "Report: Ohio River most polluted in U.S." Pittsburgh Business Times. March 23, 2012. Retrieved April 24, 2012.
- ^ Jerry, Bruggers. "Ohio River again tops list for industrial pollution". Louisville Courier Journal.
- ^ Rich, Nathaniel (January 6, 2016). "The Lawyer Who Became DuPont's Worst Nightmare". The New York Times.
- ^ "Water Data Report: 07022000 Mississippi River at Thebes, IL Summary Statistics" (PDF). US Geological Survey. Retrieved December 19, 2018.
- ^ "Ohio RFC". US Department of Commerce, NOAA, National Weather Service. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
- ^ "Lower Mississippi RFC". US Department of Commerce, NOAA, National Weather Service. Retrieved March 10, 2017.
- ^ a b c "Tributaries". www.orsanco.org.
- ^ Beck, Hylke E.; Zimmermann, Niklaus E.; McVicar, Tim R.; Vergopolan, Noemi; Berg, Alexis; Wood, Eric F. (October 30, 2018). "Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution". Scientific Data. 5: 180214. Bibcode:2018NatSD...580214B. doi:10.1038/sdata.2018.214. ISSN 2052-4463. PMC 6207062. PMID 30375988.
Otras lecturas
- Dunn, J. P. (December 1912). "Names of the Ohio River". The Indiana Quarterly Magazine of History. 8 (4): 166–70. JSTOR 27785389.
- Hay, Jerry M. (2010). Ohio River Guidebook (1st ed.). Indiana Waterways. ISBN 978-1605852171.
enlaces externos
- Ohio River Flows and Forecasts
- U.S. Geological Survey: PA stream gauging stations
- Ohio River Forecast Center, which issues official river forecasts for the Ohio River and its tributaries from Smithland Lock and Dam upstream
- Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center, which issues official river forecasts for the Ohio River and its tributaries downstream of Smithland Lock and Dam
- Texts on Wikisource:
- "Ohio River". Encyclopædia Britannica. 20 (11th ed.). 1911.
- "Ohio River". The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
- "Ohio River". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
- "Ohio, a river of the United States". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.
- "Ohio, a river of the United States". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.