10 -- states that border the Mississippi River
31 -- states drained by the Mississippi River watershed ¹
2 -- Canadian provinces drained by the Mississippi River watershed ¹
50 -- cities that rely on the river for their water supply ¹
40 -- percentage of U.S. that's part of the Mississippi River basin ¹

2,300 -- length of the river, in miles ¹

326 -- species of birds that migrate along the Mississippi corridor ¹
260 -- species of fish that call the Mississippi home ¹

12 million -- people who recreate annually along the Upper Mississippi ²
$1.2 billion -- amount they spend in riverfront communities ²

60 -- percentage of grain exported from the U.S. that's shipped on the Mississippi ¹
90 million -- tons of cargo moved on the Mississippi River between St. Paul, Minn., and St. Louis each year ³

58 -- semi-truck trailers of load capacity on one barge ⁴
2.25 million -- loaves of bread you could bake from the wheat in one barge load ⁴

68 -- days it took a Slovenian long-distance swimmer to cover the length of the river in 2002 ⁵
90 -- days it would take a raindrop to travel the length of the river ¹

29 -- lock-and-dam structures on the Upper Mississippi ⁶
9 -- depth of the shipping channel from Minneapolis to Baton Rouge, La., in feet ⁴

24 -- length of Lake Pontchartrain over-water highway bridge, the world's longest, in miles ⁶

6 -- average flow rate at the headwaters, in cubic feet per second ¹
600,000 -- average flow rate at New Orleans, in cubic feet per second ¹

3 -- depth of the river at its headwaters, in feet ¹
200 -- depth of the river at its deepest point, near Algiers Point, New Orleans, in feet ¹

436,000 -- tons of sediment the river carries each day ¹

85 -- years ago that waterskiing was invented on the Mississippi ⁶

Sources:

1: National Park Service, Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, General Information About the Mississippi River
2: American Rivers, Army Corps Reform: The Mississippi River, About the River
3: American Rivers, Army Corps Reform: The Mississippi River, A Brief History
4: Mississippi River Resource Page
5: Wikipedia, Martin Strel
6: Mississippi River Parkway Commission, River Facts & Fun

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