History

The inland waterway system in the United States consists of about 25,000 mi of inland waterways. The inland waterways were originally used by Native Americans for trade. In 1910, Congress passed the Rivers and Harbors Act, which authorized construction of a series of locks and dams to provide a 9 ft navigation depth on the Ohio River. This chapter presents a chronology of Navigation Development Activities on the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois Waterways. The Columbia-Snake Rivers developed a high lift lock-and-dam system with hydropower features between 1938 and 1975. Since the 1880s, a Trinity River barge canal was envisioned between Trinity Bay, near Houston and Dallas, Texas. The Trinity River navigation project was restarted in the 1960s, after Congress approved navigation by barges in 1965. Future work on the inland waterways in the United States will include replacement of current system components and potential construction of new waterways.