If you look closely at the map above, you’ll see the finger of Maryland that reaches over the top of West Virginia. Route 50 passes through that finger, and on Backbone Mountain in Maryland it enters the eastern edge of the Mississippi River watershed.
Beginning at that point, the shape of the land forces the water in all the creeks, streams, and rivers you pass on Route 50 to eventually flow into the Mississippi, if not prevented from doing so by a local land formation, evaporation, consumption by animals or plants, or acts of man. The watershed covers 1.15 million square miles and includes all or parts of 31 states and two provinces in Canada. Route 50 reaches the western end of the watershed at Monarch Crest, Colorado, on the Continental Divide. Some 1,660 of Route 50’s 3,000-plus miles are in the Mississippi River watershed.
But take another look at the map. You’ll see that the Missouri River flows into the Mississippi (at St. Louis, Missouri). Rivers that reach an ocean are generally named for the longest upriver branch. Based on that approach, it should be the Missouri River that flows south of St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico, not the Mississippi, and we should be entering the Missouri River watershed.
Perhaps the naming difference occurred because it was in 1541, near what is now Natchez in the state of Mississippi, that Hernando de Soto became the first European to report seeing the Mississippi. It wasn’t until 132 years later, in 1673, that Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, French explorers, reported seeing the Missouri.
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The map of the Mississippi River watershed is from the U.S. National Park Service and available for public use.
The Gateway Arch rises on the bank of the Mississippi River in St. Louis. A museum in the arch’s base commemorates the 1804 Lewis and Clark expedition, which explored lands — prairies, deserts, and mountains — from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean. The arch’s name recognizes the St. Louis claim to be “the gateway to the west.”
The arch, the museum, and the surrounding grounds form the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. In 1803, during Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, a treaty effectively expanded the area of the United States by conveying the right to develop the territory explored by Lewis and Clark, and more, without interference from European countries.
France had long controlled European rights to these lands, then called the Louisiana Territory, and the treaty came to be called the Louisiana Purchase. It covered land in the Mississippi River’s watershed, west of the river. This is a huge area, as you can see from a map of the watershed, here. The rights of the Native Americans who lived in this vast expanse were not considered.
The centerpiece of the Memorial, the Gateway Arch, is the tallest arch in the world. Architect Eero Saarinen designed it in the form of an upside-down “weighted catenary arch.” In layman’s terms, this means the arch is the shape formed by a hanging link chain when the links are not all the same size.
Saarinen designed the arch in 1947, but construction didn’t begin until 1963. The two legs were built separately. To connect them and finish the arch, the tops were jacked slightly further apart so the final piece could be slipped in. This had to be done early in the day, to account for expansion of the Arch’s legs caused by the St. Louis heat. A movie shown in the museum shows the arch’s construction, including the insertion of the finishing piece. The movie also celebrates the fact that no one died during construction, despite the arch’s 630 foot height — a net was strung between the two legs to catch anyone who might fall. The movie does not mention whether anyone ever did, in fact, fall into the net.
The arch’s legs are hollow, and eight-car trams in each leg take visitors to a viewing area at the top. When you get there, you’ll be in that final piece mentioned above. The tram cars pivot as they ascend and descend, to keep the floors level and passengers upright.
The Eads Bridge
The Eads Bridge is one of several bridges that cross the Mississippi River at St. Louis, connecting Missouri and Illinois.
It was completed in 1874 and is named for its designer and builder, James B. Eads, who was an inventor and civil engineer. Early in his career, he designed and built boats and equipment used to salvage sunken river boats from the Mississippi. He came to know the river so well he was called “captain” by riverboat pilots. During the Civil War he designed and built ironclad warships used by the Union on the Mississippi and in the Gulf of Mexico.
After the Civil War, Eads turned his attention to bridging the Mississippi. The Eads Bridge was the first major bridge to use steel as a primary structural element, and when it was completed it was the longest arch bridge in the world.
The arches you see in the photos were considered a daring innovation. So daring that the citizens of St. Louis worried that the bridge might not be safe. To allay their fears, Eads arranged for an elephant from a traveling circus to be led across the bridge. At the time, it was believed elephants would not cross unsafe structures.
He organized a more convincing demonstration two weeks later, sending fourteen locomotives across the bridge at the same time.
As you can see, the Eads Bridge was safe enough to endure for over 170 years. It earned Eads a number of architectural awards, and is still in use today.
