A Tribute to the Mississippi’s Tributaries

Having grown up only a couples miles from the Mississippi, I’ve always been aware of its prominence. The city flag even features an illustration of the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers near the city. I remember being young, fascinated with the idea of two rivers joining; or the idea that even a single drop of water in Minneapolis would flow south past St. Louis and out past New Orleans and into the Gulf of Mexico. It’s a wonderful thought.

But unlike a lake or ocean you didn’t go in it – it was just there. And at face value it’s only one squiggly line. But it’s actually more, a whole lot more. Check this out:

The Mississippi River delta in the great state of Louisiana.

National Atlas have a map “streamer” for tracing up- and downstream paths. Okay, click!

Scroll north of NOLA, you can see the Mississippi really starts to branch out.

Further north still, with lots of tributaries.

Where I grew up in St. Louis, you can see the entire region pays homage to the Mississippi.

Zoom out and you can see the entire tri- quad- octo-state region pays homage!

But nothing could prepare you for…..

It’s unfathomable how many rivers (7,000, actually) and regions pump water towards and into the Mississippi. Simply fascinating!

Check out the map “Streamer” for yourself. Maps!!

[via Slate and Reddit]

UPDATE: with the news in West Virginia of that great state’s drinking water being shut off for several days due to a faulty chemical storage unit and the turds who run Freedom Industries not really giving a shit about peoples’ water while they sip Aquafina from bottles, this was a prescient post, and that chemistry will eventually find its way to the Gulf of Mexico:

Of course, as we all know, Obama and regulations (and maps no doubt!) are to blame for this tragedy.