The Mississippi River

1. The Mississippi River
A kid has to be lucky to have good and inspiring teachers. In my 3rd grade
I had such a teacher. He taught us Geography, World History and French.
His fascinations were rivers and most of all, the great Mississippi. His
dream was to cruise the Mississippi on a paddlewheeler. The assignments
were to read the stories of Mark Twain. I fulfilled his dream. In 1984 on a
visit to St. Louis, I took a short cruise on a paddlewheeler and also visited
Mark Twain's (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) boyhood home.
The Mississippi River, is the second-longest named river in North America, with a
length of 2320 miles (3733 km) from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico. The
longest named river in North America is its tributary, the Missouri River, with a
length of 2341 miles (3767 km) from the confluence of the Jefferson, Madison, and
Gallatin to the Mississippi River. Taken together, the Jefferson, Missouri, and
Mississippi form the largest river system in North America.
If measured from the source of the Jefferson to the Gulf of Mexico, the length of
the Mississippi-Missouri-Jefferson combination is approximately 3900 miles (6275
km), making the combination the 3rd longest river in the world. The uppermost 207
mi (333 km) of this combined river are called the Jefferson, the lowest 1352 mi
(2175 km) are part of the Mississippi, and the intervening 2341 mi (3767 km) are
called the Missouri. Arthur

2. Ol' Man River
Old man river, that old man river,
He don't say nothin', but he must know somethin'
That old man river, he just keeps rolling along.
He don't plant tater's,
and we all know he don't pick cotton.
But them that plant 'em, are soon forgotten, that
Old man river, he just keeps rolling along, oh yes he does.
You and me, we sweat and toil,
Our bodies all achin' and racked with pain, now listen!
Lift that bar, you'd better, tote that bail,
And if ya' get a little drunk,
You'll land in jail.
I'm so weary, and sick of tryin',
I'm tired of livin', but afraid of dyin'.
That, that god-darn' old river, he just keeps rolling along.
Keep on rollin' along.
Keep on rollin' along.
Old man river don't you stop your way.
Keep on runnin' from the north, the south, the east or west,
you gotta roll it ...
Ol’ Man River by Paul Robeson

3. Map of the Mississippi River

4. Confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers at Cairo, Illinois.

5. The source of the Mississippi River on the edge of Lake Itasca

6. Mississippi River in New Orleans.

7. The Lock & Dam at Dubuque, Iowa.

8. River traffic in New Orleans

9. The Mississippi River just north of St. Louis

10. The Dubuque-Wisconsin Bridge. The bridge connects Dubuque, Iowa with Grant
County, Wisconsin.

11. The Stone Arch Bridge, the Third Avenue Bridge, and the Hennepin Avenue Bridge,
in Minneapolis, Minnesota

12. The Delta Queens

13. Natchez, Mississippi

14. The Dan River Queen

17. Katrina, Mississippi River

18. Vicksburg on the bluffs as viewed from across the Mississippi River.

19. Mississippi River Steamboat

20. Mississippi River Boats

21. Mississippi River Lock #6

22. Steamboats on the Mississippi

23. Mississippi River at dusk

24. The Mississippi at Minneapolis

25. "The Great Mississippi Steamboat Race"

26. St. Louis, Missouri

27. The St. Louis night skyline,

28. 1888 German map of New Orleans

29. Quincy, Illinois

30. Hannibal, Missouri

31. Mark Twain's boyhood home, in Hannibal, Missouri

32. Memphis, Tennessee

33. Baton Rouge, Louisiana

34. Mississippi River Bridge at Natchez, MS

35. Vicksburg, Mississippi

36. The Siege of Vicksburg, 1863

37. Slaves in Vicksburg Mississippi

38. The great Mississippi River flood of 1927

39. Delta Queen

40. Delta Queen

41. Mississippi River Delta