Ohio River - History, Cities and towns

River in EC USA; formed at Pittsburgh by the union of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers; flows generally SW for 1578 km/980 mi to join the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois; forms the state boundary between Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois (N) and West Virginia and Kentucky (S); chief tributaries the Kanawha, Licking, Kentucky, Tennessee (left); the Scioto, Miami, Wabash (right); navigable all the way, with the help of a canal at Louisville; length 2101 km/1306 mi (including the Allegheny).

Ohio River
Ohio River viewed from Liberty Hill in Ripley, Ohio.
Origin	Confluence of Allegheny and Monongahela at Pittsburgh
Mouth	Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois
Basin countries	USA
Length	981 miles (1,579 km)
Source elevation	~730 feet (223 m)
Avg. discharge	248,000 cubic feet/s (7,440 m³/s) at Metropolis, Illinois
Basin area	189,422 square miles (490,603 km²)

The Ohio River is the largest tributary by volume of the Mississippi River. It was a primary transportation route during the westward expansion of the early U.S. It flows through or along the border of six states, and its watershed encompasses 14 states, including many of the states of the southeastern U.S. through its largest tributary, the Tennessee River.

Major tributaries of the river, indicated by the location of their mouth, include:

Allegheny River — Pennsylvania Monongahela River — Pennsylvania Beaver River— Pennsylvania Big Wheeling Creek— West Virginia Little Muskingum River — Ohio Duck Creek — Ohio Muskingum River — Ohio Little Kanawha River — West Virginia Hocking River — Ohio Kanawha River — West Virginia Guyandotte River — West Virginia Big Sandy River — Kentucky-West Virginia border Scioto River — Ohio Little Miami River — Ohio Licking River — Kentucky Great Miami River — Ohio-Indiana border Kentucky River — Kentucky Green River — Kentucky Wabash River — Indiana-Illinois border Saline River — Illinois Cumberland River — Kentucky Tennessee River — Kentucky Cache River — Illinois

Drainage Basin

The Ohio's drainage basin covers 189,422 square miles (490,603 km2), including the eastern-most regions of the Mississippi Basin. States drained by the Ohio include:

Illinois (the southeast quarter of the state), Indiana (all but the northern area of the state), Ohio (the southern half of the state), New York (a small area of the southern border along the headwaters of the Allegheny River), Pennsylvania (a corridor from the southwestern corner to north central border), Maryland (a small corridor along the Youghiogheny River on the state's western border), West Virginia (all but the eastern border of the state), Kentucky (all but a small part in the extreme west of the state drained directly by the Mississippi River), Tennessee (all but a small part in the extreme west of the state drained directly by the Mississippi River), Virginia (the western border of the state), North Carolina (the western border of the state), Georgia (the northwest corner of the state), Alabama (the northern portion of the state), and Mississippi (the northeast corner of the state). The Teays River was the largest of these rivers, and the modern Ohio River flows within segments of the ancient Teays.

Upper Ohio River

The upper Ohio River formed when one of the glacial lakes overflowed into a south flowing tributary of the Teays River.

Many small rivers were altered or abandoned after the upper Ohio River formed.

Middle Ohio River

The middle Ohio River formed in a manner similar to formation of the upper Ohio River. A new route was carved to the Mississippi River, and eventually the upper and middle sections combined to form what is essentially the modern Ohio River.

History

Since it was considered by pre-Columbian inhabitants of eastern North America to be part of a single river continuing on through the lower Mississippi, it is perhaps an understatement to characterize the Ohio as a mere tributary of the Mississippi.

Louisville, Kentucky, was founded at the only major natural navigational barrier on the river, the Falls of the Ohio.

Because the Ohio River flowed westwardly, it became the convenient means of westward movement by pioneers traveling from western Pennsylvania.

Because it is the southern border of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, the Ohio River was considered a part of the border that divided free states and slave states in the years before the American Civil War. Today, the Ohio River generally separates Midwestern and Great Lakes states from Southern border states.

The charter for Virginia went not to the middle of the Ohio River, but to its far shore so the entire river was included. Wherever the river serves as a boundary between states, the river essentially belongs to the two states on the south that were divided from Virginia. 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 disputed Illinois' right to collect taxes on a riverboat casino docked in Metropolis, citing their control of the entire river.

Cities and towns

Cities along the Ohio include:

Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Monaca Beaver Falls Rochester Shippingport Aliquippa Sewickley McKees Rocks Coraopolis Ohio East Liverpool Steubenville Marietta Belpre Pomeroy Gallipolis Ironton Portsmouth Ripley Cincinnati

West Virginia Weirton Wheeling Moundsville New Martinsville Paden City St. Marys Parkersburg Ravenswood Point Pleasant Huntington Kenova Kentucky Ashland Newport Maysville Covington Louisville Owensboro Henderson Paducah

Indiana Madison Jeffersonville Clarksville New Albany Tell City Evansville Mount Vernon Illinois Cairo Metropolis Brookport Old Shawneetown Cave-In-Rock Elizabethtown Golconda

Maps and aerial photos

Mouth or other endpoint (Mississippi River)

WikiSatellite view at WikiMapia Street map from MapQuest Topographic map from TopoZone Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA Satellite image from Google Maps Other maps and aerial photos

Source (Pittsburgh)