MOBILE RIVER

The Mobile River is located in southern Alabama in the United States. Formed out of the confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, the 50-mile-long (80 km) river drains an area of 44,000 square miles (110,000 km2) of Alabama, with a watershed extending into Mississippi, Georgia, and Tennessee.

Its drainage basin is the fourth-largest basin entirely in the United States. The river provides an alternative route into the Ohio River.

The Tombigbee and Alabama River join to form the Mobile River approximately 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Mobile. Some 6 miles (10 km) downstream from the confluence, the channel of the river divides, with the Mobile flowing along the western channel. The Tensaw River, a bayou of the Mobile River, flows alongside to the east, separated from 2 to 5 miles (3 to 8 km) as they flow southward. The Mobile River flows through the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta and reaches Mobile Bay on the Gulf of Mexico just east of downtown Mobile.

The main tributary is the Alabama River. The Alabama River is formed by the confluence of the Tallapoosa and Coosa rivers about 16 kilometres (10 miles) north of Montgomery. Its main tributary is the Cahaba River whose headwaters are near Birmingham.

The Alabama joins with the Tombigbee to flow south as the Mobile River and reaches the Gulf of Mexico in the swamps of the Mobile delta.

The Alabama has been improved for navigation throughout its length.