Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
[quote user="penncentral2002"] [quote user="futuremodal"]That's quite a statement - "all navigation on the Mississippi is completely unnatural".  Hard to give you any credibility there, given that the river has been used for navigation long before railroads were even "invented".  Again, most improvements on the river are at particular points on the river.  You make is sound like the river has been turned into a de facto canal.  PS - "ships" generally refers to ocean going vessels, so it's not suprising that ships of yore couldn't make it past Baton Rouge, nor can they today.[/quote]You left out the word "almost."  Hard to give much creditability to someone who misquotes someone to give the impression that they are saying something that they are not.Naturally, the Mississippi River was suitable for navigation south of Baton Rouge for ocean going ships and north of Baton Rouge for small flat boats.  However, the small boats would have had to have several transfer points or canals to travel that route due to local obstructions.  The type of navigation that exists today would be impossible without the canalization of the river, which yes, did include the construction of levees one of whose purposes was to keep the river in the course which existed when the navigation improvements started.  Naturally, like all natural rivers, the Mississippi River seeks the shortest path to sea level.  The path of a natural river constantly shifts in the quest for lowest land.  The river was not suited for large scale navigation in its natural state (definitely not on the scale of the modern barges) because the channel was constantly shifting.  During the riverboat era, wrecks were common because the navigable channel was constantly shifting - many boats sunk after being snagged on branches or sandbars.  That the natural depth of the river exceeded 9 feet doesn't mean that there would be a reliable channel of 9 feet - to create a reliable channel out of even a large river, still requires a large scale dredging and control program (you need to make sure that the river doesn't shift paths when the river naturally shifts paths - which is why the Mississippi like other large rivers has created some oxbow lakes).  Also do not forget that flood control did not start until after the 1927 Mississippi River floods - around 75 years after the beginning of navigation improvements on the river.  By that point, levee construction had occurred, but you didn't have the large scale flood control programs after that.  However, keep in mind that one of the rolls of the levees was the goal to keep the Mississippi within its defined channel.  Plus, to keep the river from following its natural instincts which pass right through the city of New Orleans.The use of the Mississippi River as a reliable source of navigation only came after large scale navigation programs that did essentially transform the nature of the river.  The technical term for that is in fact, canalization because that does provide the best description of what happened - they locked the Mississippi into the path that existed at that point when the canalization began.  The Mississippi River of today resembles the Mississippi River of 200 years ago only in the extend that it follows generally the same path.  You can't say that naturally the Mississippi River provides efficient and reliable navigation when using the natural river would not have.  While small scale navigation could have taken place, it would have been expensive and unreliable due to the unpredictable nature of the river.  That is what is unnatural about it.No one disputes that river transportation as it exists today is reliable and efficient.  No one disputes that navigation improvements on the inland waterways were good ideas based on what we knew at the time.  However, to pretend that there is anything natural about it and to deny that these benefits also have created costs is simply not a viable argument.[/quote]Do you really want to go down this path?What percentage of Mississippi River navigation should we allocate as being "natural", and what percentage shall we designate as "unnatural"?And what has this to do with anything regarding the AAR's Mr. White feeling the need to call out barging as being "subsidized", implying that railroads aren't?And how is the nation's comprehensive transportation system benefitted by his statement?
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag