2.0 The Role and Function of the U.S. Inland Waterway System The inland waterway system in the United States is made up of several connected rivers that include infrastructure that enables commercial navigation. The primary part of this system is the Mississippi River, its major tributaries, and connecting canals, including the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. Unconnected rivers on the system include the Snake River, the Sacramento Deep Water Ship Canal, and the Hudson River. Several other coastal waterways, canals, and bays are part of the marine waterway network, but not part of the inland system. The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway are treated as separate waterway systems because of their shared border and governance with Canada. Figure 1 shows the most heavily used portion of the inland waterway network, made up of roughly 12,000 miles of rivers and 237 lock chambers at 192 different locations on the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, Illinois, Snake, and connecting rivers and canals.4 Figure 1 also shows the locations of non-navigable dams, demonstrating the limited navigability of the systems. Much of this area extends through the Midwest and the Gulf Coast connecting the two regions, linking import and export channels and facilitating commerce.
Figure 1: U.S. Inland Waterway System, Select Rivers
Sources: United States Army Corps of Engineers, 2022; National Weather Service, 2010; Esri Data and Maps 2021; Google Maps Satellite Images 2022. Full interactive map here: https://arcg.is/0vvrCW
Waterborne Competitiveness
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