Mighty Mississippi: Numbers

Numbers



2,350: Miles of Mississippi River from north woods of Minnesota to Louisiana’s Gulf Coast.





195 feet: Length of standard barge on Mississippi. The standard width is 35 feet. The barge carries about 1,500 tons of cargo. Some newer barges are 290 feet long and 50 feet wide and hold double the capacity.



10,000: Horsepower of each towboat engine used to move a barge up and down the river.



300 million: Tons of bulk goods shipped on the Mississippi every year.



400,000: Number of workers who make a living on the river’s transportation system.



400 million: Tons of mud and silt dumped into the Gulf of Mexico every year by flow from the Mississippi and its tributaries.



200 billion: Dollars spent by federal government on building water-control levee system on Mississippi River from Missouri to Gulf Coast.



1,500: Square miles of coastal wetlands Louisiana has lost since 1930 because sediments from the Mississippi are diverted by levees and dams into the deep Gulf of Mexico.



8,000: Square mile dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico from polluted sediment dumped there by the Mississippi. The zone can’t support marine life.



1.2 million: Square miles of continental United States that drain into the Mississippi. This is 41 percent of the land area, including all or part of 31 states, making it the third largest watershed in the world.



1541: Year Spanish conquistador Hernando De Soto became the first European explorer known to see the Mississippi.





*Sources: Federal and state natural resource agencies