Ohio River

The Ohio River, formed at Pittsburgh by the meeting of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers, runs 981 miles to Cairo, Illinois and has been a major force in American history and the nation’s economy. After the American Revolution, pioneers used it as a highroad to western expansion, while the Ohio Valley’s rich resources moved on its waters to a growing nation, and the river continues to carry industrial and agricultural products from along its banks. The busy Ohio and its thriving basin form the Lower Mississippi’s eastern connection to commerce and transportation. In prehistoric times, two sophisticated Indian cultures flourished in the Ohio Valley. The French first explored the river in the mid-1600’s and fought England for control of its headwaters until the British won in 1758. The American Revolution opened the way for settlers who persisted despite fierce Native American resistance. The Native American’s defeat in 1784 and the arrival of the steamboat in 1811 unleashed a flood of immigrants down the Ohio, making it the gateway to the West. The river flows from rugged hilly forests and highlands into rolling hills and scenic floodplains on its southward course. Three-fourths of America’s bituminous coal lies in Ohio Valley states, fueling steel-making plants and other heavy industries that dominate the river’s eastern third. From Portsmouth, Ohio, west to Cairo, Illinois, the river crosses farmland rich in corn, tobacco, and soybeans. Twenty-five million people live and work in the 204,000 square mile Ohio Basin. Although cities and industry brought pollution as well as prosperity to the once-clear river, conditions improved after valley states formed ORSANCO, a pollution control agency, in 1948. A new dam system begun in 1954 improved navigation and load capacity. Today, barge tows take less than a week to travel the 981 miles to Cairo, where the Ohio crowds the muddier Mississippi against its west bank and both continue downstream as the Lower Mississippi.

Memphis, Tennessee · United States