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Coordinates: 36°59′12″N 89°07′50″W

Ohio River
The Ohio River is a 981-mile (1,579 km) long
river in the United States. It is located in the Ohio River
Midwestern United States, flowing
southwesterly from western Pennsylvania south
of Lake Erie to its mouth on the Mississippi
River at the southern tip of Illinois. It is the
third largest river by discharge volume in the
United States and the largest tributary by
volume of the north-south flowing Mississippi
River that divides the eastern from western
United States.[2] The river flows through or The widest point on the Ohio River is just north of
along the border of six states, and its drainage downtown Louisville, where it is one mile (1.6 km) wide.
basin includes parts of 14 states. Through its Indiana is on the right towards the locks, Kentucky on
largest tributary, the Tennessee River, the basin the left.
includes several states of the southeastern U.S.
It is the source of drinking water for three
million people.[3]

The lower Ohio River just below Louisville is

obstructed by rapids known as the Falls of the
Ohio where the water level falls 26 feet (7.9 m)
in 2 miles (3.2 km) and is impassible for
navigation. The McAlpine Locks and Dam, a
shipping canal bypassing the rapids, now allows
commercial navigation from the Forks of the
Ohio at Pittsburgh to the Port of New Orleans at
the mouth of the Mississippi on the Gulf of
Mexico.

The name "Ohio" comes from the Seneca,

Ohi:yo', lit. "Good River".[4] European discovery
Ohio River basin
of the Ohio River may be attributed to English
explorers from Virginia in the latter half of the Location
17th century. In his Notes on the State of Country United States
Virginia published in 1781–82, Thomas States Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia,
Jefferson stated: "The Ohio is the most Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois
beautiful river on earth. Its current gentle, Cities Pittsburgh, PA, East Liverpool, OH,
waters clear, and bosom smooth and unbroken Wheeling, WV, Parkersburg, WV,
by rocks and rapids, a single instance only Huntington, WV, Ashland, KY,
excepted."[5] In the late 18th century, the river Cincinnati, OH, Louisville, KY,
Owensboro, KY, Evansville, IN,
was the southern boundary of the Northwest Henderson, KY, Paducah, KY, Cairo, IL
Territory. It became a primary transportation
Physical characteristics
route for pioneers during the westward
expansion of the early U.S. Source Allegheny River
• location Allegany Township, Potter County,
The river is sometimes considered as the Pennsylvania
western extension of the Mason–Dixon Line • coordinates 41°52′22″N 77°52′30″W
that divided Pennsylvania from Maryland, and • elevation 2,240 ft (680 m)
thus part of the border between free and slave
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territory, and between the Northern and 2nd source Monongahela River
Southern United States or Upper South. Where • location Fairmont, West Virginia
the river was narrow, it was the way to freedom • coordinates 39°27′53″N 80°09′13″W
for thousands of slaves escaping to the North,
• elevation 880 ft (270 m)
many helped by free blacks and whites of the
Underground Railroad resistance movement. Source
confluence
The Ohio River is a climatic transition area, as • location Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
its water runs along the periphery of the humid • coordinates 40°26′32″N 80°00′52″W
subtropical and humid continental climate • elevation 730 ft (220 m)
areas. It is inhabited by fauna and flora of both
climates. In winter, it regularly freezes over at Mouth Mississippi River
Pittsburgh but rarely farther south toward • location at Cairo, Illinois / Ballard County,
Cincinnati and Louisville. At Paducah, Kentucky
Kentucky, in the south, near the Ohio's • coordinates 36°59′12″N 89°07′50″W
confluence with the Mississippi, it is ice-free • elevation 290 ft (88 m)
year-round. Length 981 mi (1,579 km)
Basin size 189,422 sq mi (490,600 km2)
Discharge
Contents • location Cairo, Illinois(1951–80)[1]
• average 281,000 cu ft/s (8,000 m3/s)(1951–80)[1]
Etymology
• maximum 1,850,000 cu ft/s (52,000 m3/s)
History
Basin features
Ecology
Progression Ohio River → Mississippi River → Gulf
Economy of Mexico
Geography and hydrography Tributaries
River depth • left Little Kanawha River, Kanawha River,
List of major tributaries Guyandotte River, Big Sandy River,
Little Sandy River, Licking River,
Drainage basin
Kentucky River, Salt River, Green River,
Climate transition zone Cumberland River, Tennessee River
• right Beaver River, Little Muskingum River,
Geology Muskingum River, Little Hocking River,
Upper Ohio River Hocking River, Shade River, Scioto
Middle Ohio River River, Little Miami River, Great Miami
River, Wabash River
Cities and towns along the river
Gallery
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
External links

Etymology
The name "Ohio" comes from the Seneca language (an Iroquoian language), Ohi:yo' (roughly
pronounced oh-hee-yoh, with the vowel in "hee" held longer), a proper name derived from ohiːyoːh
("good river"), therefore literally translating to "Good River".[4][6] "Great river" and "large creek"
have also been given as translations.[7][8]

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Native Americans, including the Lenni Lenape and Iroquois, considered the Ohio and Allegheny
rivers as the same, as is suggested by a New York State road sign on Interstate 86 that refers to the
Allegheny River also as Ohi:yo';[9] the Geographic Names Information System lists O-hee-yo and O-
hi-o as variant names for the Allegheny.[10]

An earlier Miami-Illinois language name was also applied to the Ohio River, Mosopeleacipi ("river of
the Mosopelea" tribe). Shortened in the Shawnee language to pelewa thiipi, spelewathiipi or peleewa
thiipiiki, the name evolved through variant forms such as "Polesipi", "Peleson", "Pele Sipi" and "Pere
Sipi", and eventually stabilized to the variant spellings "Pelisipi", "Pelisippi" and "Pellissippi".
Originally applied just to the Ohio River, the "Pelisipi" name later was variously applied back and
forth between the Ohio River and the Clinch River in Virginia and Tennessee.[11][12] In his original
draft of the Land Ordinance of 1784, Thomas Jefferson proposed a new state called "Pelisipia", to the
south of the Ohio River, which would have included parts of present-day Eastern Kentucky, Virginia
and West Virginia.[11]

History
The river had great significance in the history of the Native
Americans, as numerous civilizations formed along its valley.[13]
For thousands of years, Native Americans used the river as a
major transportation and trading route.[14] Its waters connected
communities. In the five centuries before European conquest, the
Mississippian culture built numerous regional chiefdoms and
major earthwork mounds in the Ohio Valley, such as Angel
Mounds near Evansville, Indiana, as well as in the Mississippi
Valley and the Southeast. The Osage, Omaha, Ponca and Kaw
lived in the Ohio Valley, but under pressure from the Iroquois to Steamboat Morning Star, a
the northeast, migrated west of the Mississippi River in the 17th Louisville and Evansville mail
century to territory now defined as Missouri, Arkansas and packet, in 1858.
Oklahoma.

The discovery and traversal of the Ohio River by Europeans admits of several possibilities, all in the
latter half of the 17th century. Virginian Englishman Abraham Wood's trans-Appalachian expeditions
between 1654 and 1664;[15] Frenchman Robert de La Salle's putative Ohio expedition of 1669;[16] and
two expeditions of Virginians sponsored by Colonel Wood: the Batts and Fallam expedition of
1671,[17] and the Needham and Arthur expedition of 1673-74.[18][19] The first known European to
traverse the length of the river, from the headwaters of the Allegheny to its mouth on the Mississippi,
was a Dutchman from New York, Arnout Viele, in 1692.[20][21]

In 1749 Great Britain established the Ohio Company to settle and trade in the area. Exploration of the
territory and trade with the Indians in the region near the Forks brought British colonials from both
Pennsylvania and Virginia across the mountains, and both colonies claimed the territory. The
movement across the Allegheny Mountains of British settlers and the claims of the area near modern-
day Pittsburgh led to conflict with the French, who had forts in the Ohio River Valley. This conflict
was called the French and Indian War, and would merge into the global Anglo-French struggle, the
Seven Years' War. In 1763, following the war, France ceded the area to Britain, and thus to the settlers
in the colonies of Britain.

The 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix opened Kentucky to colonial settlement and established the Ohio
River as a southern boundary for American Indian territory.[22] In 1774 the Quebec Act restored the
land east of the Mississippi River and north of the Ohio River to Quebec, in effect making the Ohio
the southern boundary of Canada. This appeased the British subjects of Canada, but angered the
colonists of the Thirteen Colonies. Lord Dunmore's War south of the Ohio river also contributed to
giving the land north to Quebec to stop further encroachment of the British colonials on native land.
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During the American Revolution, in 1776 the British military engineer John Montrésor created a map
of the river showing the strategic location of Fort Pitt, including specific navigational information
about the Ohio River's rapids and tributaries in that area.[23] However, the Treaty of Paris (1783)
gave the entire Ohio Valley to the United States.

The economic connection of the Ohio Country to the East was

significantly increased in 1818 when the National Road being
built westward from Cumberland, Maryland reached Wheeling,
Virginia (now West Virginia), providing an easier overland
connection from the Potomac River to the Ohio River.[24] The
Wheeling Suspension Bridge was built over the river at Wheeling
from 1847 to 1849, making the trip west easier. For a brief time,
until 1851, it was the world's largest suspension bridge. Built between 1847 and 1849, the
Fortunately, the bridge was not blown up during the American Wheeling Suspension Bridge was
Civil War. The bridge has been improved in 1859 and 1872, and the first bridge across the river and
remains in use as the oldest vehicular suspension bridge in the a crucial part of the National Road.
U.S.

Louisville was founded in 1779 at the only major natural navigational barrier on the river, the Falls of
the Ohio. The Falls were a series of rapids where the river dropped 26 feet (7.9 m) in a stretch of
about 2 miles (3.2 km). In this area, the river flowed over hard, fossil-rich beds of limestone. The first
locks on the river – the Louisville and Portland Canal – were built to circumnavigate the falls between
1825 and 1830. Fears that Louisville's transshipment industry would collapse proved ill-founded: the
increasing size of steamships and barges on the river meant that the outdated locks could only service
the smallest vessels until well after the Civil War. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers improvements
were expanded again in the 1960s, forming the present-day McAlpine Locks and Dam.

Because the Ohio River flowed westward, it became a convenient

means of westward movement by pioneers traveling from
western Pennsylvania. After reaching the mouth of the Ohio,
settlers would travel north on the Mississippi River to St. Louis,
Missouri. There, some continued on up the Missouri River, some
up the Mississippi, and some farther west over land routes. In the
early 19th century, river pirates such as Samuel Mason, operating
out of Cave-In-Rock, Illinois, waylaid travelers on their way down
the river. They killed travelers, stealing their goods and scuttling
their boats. The folktales about Mike Fink recall the keelboats
Cave-in-rock, view on the Ohio used for commerce in the early days of American settlement. The
(circa 1832, Cave-In-Rock, Illinois): Ohio River boatmen were the inspiration for performer Dan
aquatint by Karl Bodmer from the Emmett, who in 1843 wrote the song "The Boatman's Dance".
book Maximilian, Prince of Wied's
Travels in the Interior of North Trading boats and ships traveled south on the Mississippi to New
America, during the years 1832– Orleans, and sometimes beyond to the Gulf of Mexico and other
1834 ports in the Americas and Europe. This provided a much-needed
export route for goods from the west, since the trek east over the
Appalachian Mountains was long and arduous. The need for
access to the port of New Orleans by settlers in the Ohio Valley is one of the factors that led to the
Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

Because the river is the southern border of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, it was part of the border
between free states and slave states in the years before the American Civil War. The expression "sold
down the river" originated as a lament of Upper South slaves, especially from Kentucky, who were
shipped via the Ohio and Mississippi to cotton and sugar plantations in the Deep South.[25][26] Before
and during the Civil War, the Ohio River was called the "River Jordan" by slaves crossing it to escape
to freedom in the North via the Underground Railroad.[27] More escaping slaves, estimated in the
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thousands, made their perilous journey north to freedom across the Ohio River than anywhere else
across the north-south frontier. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, the bestselling novel
that fueled abolitionist work, was the best known of the anti-slavery novels that portrayed such
escapes across the Ohio. The times have been expressed by 20th-century novelists as well, such as the
Nobel Prize-winning Toni Morrison, whose novel Beloved was adapted as a film of the same name.
She also composed the libretto for the opera Margaret Garner (2005), based on the life and trial of
an enslaved woman who escaped with her family across the river.

The colonial charter for Virginia defined its territory as extending to the north shore of the Ohio, so
that the riverbed was "owned" by Virginia. Where the river serves as a boundary between states
today, Congress designated the entire river to belong to the states on the east and south, i.e., West
Virginia and Kentucky at the time of admission to the Union, that were divided from Virginia. Thus
Wheeling Island, the largest inhabited island in the Ohio River, belongs to West Virginia, although it
is closer to the Ohio shore than to the West Virginia shore. Kentucky brought suit against Indiana in
the early 1980s because of the building of the never-completed Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant in
Indiana, which would have discharged its waste water into the river.

The U.S. Supreme Court held that Kentucky's jurisdiction (and, implicitly, that of West Virginia)
extended only to the low-water mark of 1793 (important because the river has been extensively
dammed for navigation, so that the present river bank is north of the old low-water mark.) Similarly,
in the 1990s, Kentucky challenged Illinois' right to collect taxes on a riverboat casino docked in
Metropolis, citing its own control of the entire river. A private casino riverboat that docked in
Evansville, Indiana, on the Ohio River opened about the same time. Although such boats cruised on
the Ohio River in an oval pattern up and down, the state of Kentucky soon protested. Other states had
to limit their cruises to going forwards, then reversing and going backwards on the Indiana shore
only. Both Illinois and Indiana have long since changed their laws to allow riverboat casinos to be
permanently docked, with Illinois changing in 1999 and Indiana in 2002.

The Silver Bridge at Point Pleasant, West Virginia collapsed into

the river on December 15, 1967. The collapse took the lives of 46
people who had been crossing on the bridge at the moment of its
failure. The bridge had been built in 1929, and by 1967 was
carrying too heavy a load for its design.[28] The bridge was rebuilt
about one mile downstream and in service as the Silver Memorial
Bridge in 1969.
Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant,
In the early 1980s, the Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife West Virginia which collapsed into
Conservation Area was established at Clarksville, Indiana. the Ohio River on December 15,
1967, killing 46 persons.

Ecology
The Ohio River as a whole is ranked as the most polluted river in the United States, based on 2009
and 2010 data, although the more industrial and regional West Virginia/Pennsylvania tributary, the
Monongahela River, ranked behind 16 other American rivers for water pollution at number 17.[29]
The river again ranked as the most polluted in 2013 and has been the most polluted river since at
least 2001, according to the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO). The
Commission found that 92% of toxic discharges were nitrates, including farm runoff and waste water
from industrial processes like steel production. The Commission also noted mercury pollution as an
ongoing concern, citing a 500% increase in mercury discharges between 2007 and 2013.[30]

The Ohio River was polluted with hundreds of thousands of pounds of PFOA, a fluoride-based
chemical used in making teflon, among other things, by the DuPont chemical company from an
outflow pipe at its Parkersburg, West Virginia, facility for several decades beginning in the 1950s.[31]

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Economy
The Ohio River is heavily industrialized and populated and sees traffic from large barge cargoes
carrying oil, steel and other industrial goods. There are several major cities located along the
northern and southern banks of the river including Cincinnati, Ohio; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and
Louisville, Kentucky.[14]

Geography and hydrography

The combined Allegheny-
Ohio river is 1,310 miles
(2,110 km) long and carries
the largest volume of water
of any tributary of the
Mississippi. The Indians and
early explorers and settlers of
the region also often
considered the Allegheny to
The confluence of the Mississippi be part of the Ohio. The forks
and Ohio rivers is at Cairo, Illinois. (the confluence of the
Allegheny and Monongahela
rivers at what is now
Pittsburgh) were considered a strategic military location.
A barge heads east on Ohio River in
The Ohio River is formed by the confluence of the Allegheny and Louisville, Kentucky.
Monongahela rivers at Point State Park in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. From there, it flows northwest through Allegheny
and Beaver counties, before making an abrupt turn to the south-southwest at the West Virginia–
Ohio–Pennsylvania triple-state line (near East Liverpool, Ohio; Chester, West Virginia; and Ohioville,
Pennsylvania). From there, it forms the border between West Virginia and Ohio, upstream of
Wheeling, West Virginia.

The river then follows a

roughly southwest and then
west-northwest course until
Cincinnati, before bending to
a west-southwest course for
most of its length. The course
forms the northern borders
of West Virginia and
Kentucky; and the southern
borders of Ohio, Indiana and The Ohio River as seen from
Fredonia, Indiana.
Illinois, until it joins the
Mississippi River at the city
of Cairo, Illinois. Where the
Ohio joins the Mississippi is the lowest elevation in the state of
Illinois, at 315 feet (96 m).
Natural-color satellite image of theThe Ohio River drains to the Mississippi River which flows to the
Wabash-Ohio confluence. Gulf of Mexico on the Atlantic Ocean. Among rivers wholly or
mostly in the United States, it is the second largest by discharge
volume, the tenth longest and has the eighth largest drainage
basin. It is considered to separate Midwestern Great Lakes states from the Upper South states, which
were historically border states in the Civil War.
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The Ohio River is a left (east) and largest tributary by volume of the Mississippi River in the United
States. At the confluence, the Ohio is considerably bigger than the Mississippi, measured by long-
term mean discharge. The Ohio River at Cairo is 281,500 cu ft/s (7,960 m3/s);[1] and the Mississippi
River at Thebes, Illinois, which is upstream of the confluence, is 208,200 cu ft/s (5,897 m3/s).[32]
The Ohio River flow is higher than that of the Mississippi River so hydrologically, the Ohio River is
the main stream of the river system.

River depth

The Ohio River is a naturally shallow river that was artificially

deepened by a series of dams. The natural depth of the river
varied from about 3 to 20 feet (0.91 to 6.10 m). The dams raise
the water level and have turned the river largely into a series of
reservoirs, eliminating shallow stretches and allowing for
commercial navigation. From its origin to Cincinnati, the average
depth is approximately 15 feet (5 m). The largest immediate drop
in water level is below the McAlpine Locks and Dam at the Falls
of the Ohio at Louisville, Kentucky, where flood stage is reached Lawrenceburg, Indiana, is one of
when the water reaches 23 feet (7 m) on the lower gauge. many towns that use the Ohio as a
However, the river's deepest point is 168 feet (51 m) on the shipping avenue.
western side of Louisville, Kentucky. From Louisville, the river
loses depth very gradually until its confluence with the
Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois, where it has an approximate depth of 19 feet (6 m).

Water levels for the Ohio River from Smithland Lock and Dam upstream to Pittsburgh are predicted
daily by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Ohio River Forecast Center.[33] The
water depth predictions are relative to each local flood plain based upon predicted rainfall in the Ohio
River basin in five reports as follows:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Hannibal Locks and Dam, Ohio (including the Allegheny and
Monongahela rivers)
Willow Island Locks and Dam, Ohio, to Greenup Lock and Dam, Kentucky (including the
Kanawha River)
Portsmouth, Ohio, to Markland Locks and Dam, Kentucky
McAlpine Locks and Dam, Kentucky, to Cannelton Locks and Dam, Indiana
Newburgh Lock and Dam, Indiana, to Golconda, Illinois

The water levels for the Ohio River from Smithland Lock and Dam to Cairo, Illinois, are predicted by
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center.[34]

Smithland Lock and Dam, Illinois, to Cairo, Illinois

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Panorama of the Ohio at its widest point, just west of downtown Louisville, Kentucky

List of major tributaries

The largest tributaries of the Ohio by discharge volume are:

Tennessee River 70,575 cfs Green River 14,574 cfs

Cumberland River 37,250 cfs Monongahela River 12,650 cfs
Wabash River 35,350 cfs Kentucky River 10,064 cfs
Allegheny River 19,750 cfs Muskingum River 8,973 cfs
Kanawha River 15,240 cfs Scioto River 6,674 cfs

By drainage basin area, the largest tributaries are:[35]

Tennessee River 40,910 sq.mi. Green River 9,230 sq.mi.

Wabash River 33,100 sq.mi. Muskingum River 8,040 sq.mi
Cumberland River 17,920 sq.mi. Monongahela River 7,400 sq.mi.
Kanawha River 12,200 sq.mi. Kentucky River 6,970 sq.mi.
Allegheny River 11,700 sq.mi. Scioto River 6,510sq.mi.

The largest tributaries by length are:[35]

Cumberland River 693 mi. Licking River 320 mi.

Tennessee River 652 mi. Kentucky River 255 mi.
Wabash River 474 mi. Scioto River 237 mi.
Green River 370 mi. Great Miami River 161 mi.
Allegheny River 325 mi. Little Kanawha River 160 mi.

Major tributaries of the river, in order from the head to the mouth of the Ohio, include:[35]

Allegheny River – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Big Sandy River – Kentucky-West Virginia

Monongahela River – Pittsburgh border

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Saw Mill Run – Pittsburgh Little Sandy River – Greenup, Kentucky

Chartiers Creek – Pittsburgh
Montour Run – Coraopolis, Pennsylvania
Beaver River – Rochester, Pennsylvania
Breezewood Creek – Beaver, Pennsylvania
Raccoon Creek – Center Township
Little Beaver Creek – East Liverpool, Ohio
Wheeling Creek – Wheeling, West Virginia
Middle Island Creek – St. Marys, West Virginia
Little Muskingum River – Ohio
Duck Creek – Marietta, Ohio
Muskingum River – Marietta, Ohio
Little Kanawha River – Parkersburg, West
Virginia
Hocking River – Hockingport, Ohio
Kanawha River – Point Pleasant, West Virginia
Guyandotte River – Huntington, West Virginia
Little Scioto River – Sciotoville, Ohio
Scioto River – Portsmouth, Ohio
Kinniconick Creek – Vanceburg, Kentucky
Little Miami River – Cincinnati, Ohio
Licking River – Newport-Covington, Kentucky
Mill Creek – Cincinnati, Ohio
Great Miami River – Ohio-Indiana border
Kentucky River – Carrollton, Kentucky
Salt River – West Point, Kentucky
Green River – near Henderson, Kentucky
Wabash River – Indiana-Illinois-Kentucky
border
Saline River – Illinois
Cumberland River – Smithland, Kentucky
Tennessee River – Paducah, Kentucky
Cache River – Illinois

Drainage basin

The Ohio's drainage basin covers 189,422 square miles (490,600 km2), encompassing the
easternmost regions of the Mississippi Basin. The Ohio drains parts of 14 states in four regions.

Northeast
New York: a small area of the southern border along the headwaters of the Allegheny.
Pennsylvania: a corridor from the southwestern corner to north central border.
Mid-Atlantic/Upper South
Maryland: a small corridor along the Youghiogheny River on the western border.
West Virginia: all but the Eastern Panhandle.
Kentucky: all but a small part in the extreme west drained directly by the Mississippi.
Tennessee: all but a small part in the extreme west drained directly by the Mississippi, and a
very small area in the southeastern corner which is drained by the Conasauga River.
Virginia: most of southwest Virginia.
North Carolina: the western quarter.
Midwest
Ohio: 80% (all except a northern strip bordering Lake Erie, and the northwest corner)
Indiana: all but the northern area.
Illinois: the southeast quarter.
Deep South
Georgia: the far northwest corner.
Alabama: the northern portion.
Mississippi: the northeast corner.

Climate transition zone

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The Ohio River is a climatic transition area, as its water runs along the periphery of the humid
continental and humid subtropical climate areas. It is inhabited by fauna and flora of both climates.
In winter, it regularly freezes over at Pittsburgh but rarely farther south toward Cincinnati and
Louisville. At Paducah, Kentucky, in the south, at the Ohio's confluence with the Tennessee River, it
is ice-free year-round.

In the 21st century, with the 2016 update of climate zones,[36] the humid subtropical zone has
stretched across the river, into the southern portions of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

Geology
From a geological standpoint, the Ohio River is
young. Before the river was created, large parts of
North America were covered by water forming a
saltwater lake about 200 miles across and 400
miles in length. The bedrock of the Ohio Valley
was mostly set during this time.[14] The river
formed on a piecemeal basis beginning between
2.5 and 3 million years ago. The movement of
glaciers during the earliest ice ages the present
day river drainages of the Kanawha, Sandy,
Kentucky, Green, Cumberland and Tennessee
rivers northward created the Ohio system and the Glacial Lake Ohio
course of early tributaries of the Ohio River,
including the Monongahela and the Allegheny
rivers, were set.[14] The Teays River was the largest of these rivers. The modern Ohio River flows
within segments of the ancient Teays. The ancient rivers were rearranged or consumed.

The section of the river that runs southwest from Pittsburgh to Cairo, Illinois is around tens of
thousands of years old.

Upper Ohio River

The upper Ohio River formed when one of the glacial lakes overflowed into a south-flowing tributary
of the Teays River. Prior to that event, the north-flowing Steubenville River (no longer in existence)
ended between New Martinsville and Paden City, West Virginia. The south-flowing Marietta River
(no longer in existence) ended between the present-day cities. The overflowing lake carved through
the separating hill and connected the rivers. The floodwaters enlarged the small Marietta valley to a
size more typical of a large river. The new large river subsequently drained glacial lakes and melting
glaciers at the end of the ice ages. The valley grew during and following the ice age. Many small rivers
were altered or abandoned after the upper Ohio River formed. Valleys of some abandoned rivers can
still be seen on satellite and aerial images of the hills of Ohio and West Virginia between Marietta,
Ohio, and Huntington, West Virginia.

Middle Ohio River

The middle Ohio River formed in a manner similar to formation of the upper Ohio River. A north-
flowing river was temporarily dammed by natural forces southwest of present-day Louisville, creating
a large lake until the dam burst. A new route was carved to the Mississippi. Eventually the upper and
middle sections combined to form what is essentially the modern Ohio River.

Cities and towns along the river

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Along the banks of the Ohio are some of the largest cities in their respective states:[note 1] Pittsburgh,
the largest city on the river and second-largest city in Pennsylvania; Cincinnati, the third-largest city
in Ohio; Louisville, the largest city in Kentucky; Evansville, the third-largest city in Indiana;
Owensboro, the fourth-largest city in Kentucky; and three of the five largest cities in West Virginia—
Huntington (second), Parkersburg (fourth), and Wheeling (fifth). Only Illinois, among the border
states, has no significant cities on the river. There are hundreds of other cities, towns, villages and
unincorporated populated places on the river, most of them very small.

Cities along the Ohio are also among the oldest cities in their respective states and among the oldest
cities in the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains (by date of founding): Old
Shawneetown, Illinois, 1748; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1758; Wheeling, West Virginia, 1769;
Huntington, West Virginia, 1775; Louisville, Kentucky, 1779; Clarksville, Indiana, 1783; Maysville,
Kentucky, 1784; Martin's Ferry, Ohio, 1785; Marietta, Ohio, 1788; Cincinnati, Ohio, 1789;
Manchester, Ohio, 1790; Beaver, Pennsylvania, 1792; and Golconda, Illinois, 1798.

Other cities of interest include Cairo, Illinois, at the confluence of the Ohio with the Mississippi River
and the southernmost and westernmost city on the river; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the easternmost
city on the river at the head or Forks of the Ohio, where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers join
to create the Ohio; and Beaver, Pennsylvania, the site of colonial Fort McIntosh and the
northernmost city on the river. It is 548 miles as the crow flies between Cairo and Pittsburgh, but 981
miles by water. Direct water travel the length of the river is obstructed by the Falls of the Ohio just
below Louisville, Kentucky. The Ohio River Scenic Byway follows the Ohio River through Illinois,
Indiana and Ohio ending at Steubenville, Ohio, on the river.

Before there were cities, there were colonial forts. These forts played a dominant role in the French
and Indian War, Northwest Indian War and pioneering settlement of Ohio Country. Many cities got
their start at or adjacent to the forts. Most were abandoned by 1800. Forts along the Ohio river
include Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania), Fort McIntosh (Pennsylvania), Fort Randolph (West Virginia), Fort
Henry (West Virginia), Fort Harmar (Ohio), Fort Washington (Ohio), and Fort Nelson (Kentucky).
Short-lived special purpose forts included Fort Steuben (Ohio), Fort Finney (Indiana), Fort Finney
(Ohio) and Fort Gower (Ohio).

Gallery

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The Allegheny River, left, and Louisville, Kentucky, The deepest point of the
Monongahela River join to form the Ohio River is a scour hole just below
Ohio River at Pittsburgh, Cannelton locks and dam (river mile 720.7).
Pennsylvania, the largest
metropolitan area on the river.

Carl Perkins Bridge in

Portsmouth, Ohio with
A barge hauls coal in the Louisville Cincinnati skyline showing the
Ohio River and Scioto
and Portland Canal, the only John A. Roebling Suspension
River tributary on right.
artificial portion of the Ohio River. Bridge to Covington, Kentucky.

See also
Lists of dams and bridges

List of crossings of the Ohio River

List of locks and dams of the Ohio River
Lists of Rivers

List of variant names of the Ohio River

List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem)
List of rivers of Illinois
List of rivers of Indiana
List of rivers of Kentucky
List of rivers of Ohio
List of rivers of Pennsylvania
List of rivers of West Virginia
Ohio Valley, etc.

Ohio and Erie Canal

Ohio River flood of 1937
Watersheds of Illinois

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Ohio River Valley AVA

Ohio Valley in Kentucky
Ohio River Trail
Ohio River Water Trail
Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area

Notes
1. Cities and towns of pop. at least 25,000 and among the 10 largest in the state, and whose
municipal boundary comes within less than a mile of the river. Florence, Kentucky, a city of
33,500 and that state's eighth-largest, for example, is a near miss because its northernmost
boundary only comes within 2.7 miles of the river.

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87371-120-3.
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Further reading
Dunn, J. P. (December 1912). "Names of the Ohio River". The Indiana Quarterly Magazine of
History. 8 (4): 166–70. JSTOR 27785389 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/27785389).
Hay, Jerry M. (2010). Ohio River Guidebook (https://books.google.com/books?id=-CWFN4uL8L8
C) (1st ed.). Indiana Waterways. ISBN 978-1605852171.

External links
Ohio River Flows and Forecasts (https://web.archive.org/web/20170620183035/http://hydromojo.
com/streamcast?state=kentucky%7Cpennsylvania%7Cwest%20virginia%7Cindianna%7Cillinois
&river=ohio)
U.S. Geological Survey: PA stream gauging stations (https://web.archive.org/web/201602100702
43/http://waterdata.usgs.gov/pa/nwis/current?type=flow)
Ohio River Forecast Center (http://www.erh.noaa.gov/ohrfc/), which issues official river forecasts
for the Ohio River and its tributaries from Smithland Lock and Dam upstream
Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center (http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lmrfc/), which issues official
river forecasts for the Ohio River and its tributaries downstream of Smithland Lock and Dam
Texts on Wikisource:
"Ohio River". Encyclopædia Britannica. 20 (11th ed.). 1911.
"Ohio River". The American Cyclopædia. 1879.
"Ohio River". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
"Ohio, a river of the United States". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.
"Ohio, a river of the United States". Collier's New Encyclopedia. 1921.

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