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This dramatic air view shows the river cutting across the folds of the Appalachians through a narrow gap. Notice how the gap also causes the roads and railroads to concentrate at this point.Length: 700 kilometres (450 miles); drainage basin: 71,000 square kilometres (27,500 square miles). The Susquehanna is the sixteenth largest river in the United States. It has its headwaters at Otsego Lake near Cooperstown on the Appalachian plateau of central New York State. It flows to the Atlantic through the states of New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland ending in the Chesapeake Bay at Havre de Grace, Md. By this time, the Susquehanna is contributing half of the fresh water that flows into Chesapeake Bay. In some places cutting through the folds of the Appalachians, and in others following the trend of the mountains, the river makes a 'dog-leg' path on its way to the head of the Chesapeake Bay. Important cities beside the Susquehanna include Harrisburg, Wilkes Barre, Scranton and Binghamton. The Susquehanna is a beautiful river that winds through wooded hills, little altered by water management. It is an unusually shallow river, which has meant that it is quite unsuited to navigation. As a result few cities line its banks and there has been little pressure to develop it. The river is prone to flooding, the last serious flood being in 1996, when much of Harrisburg was inundated and a bridge swept away. The co-ordinating authority for the basin in terms of river regulation (flood control and water supply), pollution control, environmental protection and recreational development is the Susquehanna River Basin Commission
Hyna Vista is an overlook as the Susquehanna cuts through one of the Appalachian ridges to the north west of Williamstown, Penn. Notice the flat, forested tableland on either side of the river gap.
Baltimore, one of the foremost East Coast port cities, lies near the head of Chesapeake Bay. This picture over the old docks looks almost due east.
St Marys was the first settlement on the Chesapeake Bay in a sheltered site where the tiny St Marys River entered. |
