• Recently, a helicopter crashed into a barge in the Mississippi River near East Alton, Illinois, resulting in two fatalities.
• The Mississippi River, the longest in the United States and second longest in North America, stretches over 2,300 miles (3,700 km) from its source at Lake Itasca in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico.
• Its major tributaries include the Red, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio rivers. When combined with the Missouri River system, the Mississippi–Missouri becomes the world’s fourth-longest river system, following the Nile, Amazon, and Yangtze.
• The river’s vast 1,260,000-square-mile drainage basin — the largest in North America — supports a rich diversity of ecosystems, including cypress-dominated wet forests, brackish and freshwater marshes, sandy beaches, and salt marshes.
• This vital waterway not only sustains wildlife but also plays a central role in transportation, commerce, and culture in the United States.