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Locks in the canals raise and lower the water level in the river, enabling ships to travel the entire length of the Ohio River.

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Navigation. Almost all the cargo transported on the Ohio River moves on large barges. These barges are pushed by tugboats. Dams and canals provide a minimum water depth of 9 feet (2.7 meters).

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Virginia and Kentucky. It empties into the Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois. Major branches of the Ohio include the Muskingum, Kanawha, Big Sandy, Scioto, Licking, Great Miami, Kentucky, Green, Wabash, Cumberland, and Tennessee rivers.

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More than 60 steamboats were active on the Ohio by 1820. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, the river became a major corridor for the shipment of raw materials and industrial products. During the early 1900's, the steamboats were gradually replaced by powerful tugboats pushing heavy barges.

Flooding along the Ohio often causes heavy damage. Severe floods in 1937, 1945, and 1963 brought great losses of life and property. Since the 1950's, the federal government has worked with the states bordering the river to build or update about 20 dam and canal structures that control most flooding on the Ohio.

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History. In 1669, the French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, became the first European to see the Ohio River. At that time, Shawnee and other Indians lived along its shores. Throughout the 1700's, traders used the river to explore the entire Ohio River Valley. Settlers traveled on the Ohio to the Northwest Territory after that region was established in 1787.

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Second most used river [blue]
Ohio flows [pink]
Other [white]
Most important river [green]
Ohio river history/ Donald Francis Shula /[purple]
Climate [orange]

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Animal and plant life. Forests of beech, hickory, oak, poplar, and sycamore trees cover the Ohio River Valley. Animals in these forests include chipmunks, muskrats, raccoons, red foxes, squirrels, white-tailed deer, and woodchucks. Among the fishes in the Ohio are bullheads, bass, catfish, and trout.

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Ohio river shores

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It drains an area of about 204,000 square miles (528,400 square kilometers).

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About 200 million tons (180 million metric tons) of freight are transported annually on the Ohio.

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Coal makes up about half of all the items shipped on the Ohio. Farm products, chemicals, crushed rock, gravel, oil products, sand, and steel products are also shipped on the Ohio.

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Donald Francis Shula was born in Grand River, Ohio, in 1930. He graduated from John Carroll University. Shula was a defensive back with the Cleveland Browns from 1951 to 1952; the Baltimore Colts from 1953 to 1956; and the Washington Redskins in 1957.

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Ohio river history

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Ohio River is the second most heavily used commercial river in the United States. Only the Mississippi River has more cargo shipped on it.

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The Ohio River is an important river in the United States. It is the second busiest river for shipping in the United States. Only the Mississippi River has more shipping.

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Ohio flows 981 miles (1,579 kilometers) through some of the nation's busiest industrial regions and richest farmlands. About 200 million tons (180 million metric tons) of freight are transported annually on the Ohio.

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The Ohio River begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers meet. The Ohio flows mainly southwestward and forms the southern borders of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, and the northern boundaries of West Virginia and Kentucky.