Messing with the Mighty Mississippi

Nature and fluid dynamics have their own way of doing things, and that's why rivers and streams left to their own designs, will change over time. But those changes interfere with human settlements and commerce, so various aspects of the Mississippi River have been engineered constantly. This video tells us about how riverboat captain Henry Miller Shreve arranged for a channel to be cut through a particularly difficult bend in the river to make navigation easier, with unintended consequences. The video is only 4:18; the rest is an ad.

However, Louisiana commenters tells us that the tendency of the Mississippi to spill into the Atchafalaya was actually due to the clearing of the Great Raft, a 150-mile logjam in the Atchafalaya and Red River that had been there for a few thousand years and was responsible for the bayous. The same Henry Miller Shreve was behind that clearing. I think the Great Raft would be the more interesting story. (via Digg)