Basic Facts About the Mississippi River
Length: River length is a difficult measurement top in down because the river channel is constantly changing but it is about 2,350 miles long. Width: At Lake Itasca, the river is between 20-30 feet wide. The Mississippi is widest just downstream from its confluence with the !Missouri River (near Alton, Illinois) where it is nearly 1 mile across. Depth: At its headwaters, the Mississippi is less than 3 feet deep. 0 The river's deepest section is between Governor Nicholls Wharf and Algiers Point in New Orleans where it is 200 feet deep. . Elevation: The elevation of the Mississippi at Lake Itasca is 1,475 1 feet above sea level. It drops to 0 feet above sea level at the Gulf of Mexico. More than half of that drop in elevation occurs within the state of Minnesota. Sediment Load: The Mississippi carries an average of 436,000 tons of sediment each day. Over the course of a year, it moves an average of 159 million tons of sediment. Watershed Area: The Mississippi River Basin or Watershed drains 41% of the continental United States. Thirty-one states and 2 Canadian provinces are included in the watershed. The total area drained by the watershed is between 1.2 and 1.8 million square miles.