The Old River Control Structure complex, showing the three dams at the outlet to the Atchafalaya River. View is to the east-southeast. Louisiana is on the right and Mississippi is on the left.

The Old River Control Structure is an artifice built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the divergence of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers in order to maintain the water distribution between the two, at 70% and 30%, respectively. This was done in response to the increasing amounts of water flowing from the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya, due to the latter's shorter and increasingly steeper course to the Gulf of Mexico. The floodgate system was completed in 1963. The complex is located at river mile 315 on the lower Mississippi—315 miles (507 km) up the river from the Gulf of Mexico. Image File history File links Size of this preview: 750 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1500 × 1200 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 750 × 600 pixelsFull resolution (1500 × 1200 pixel, file size: 1. ... United States Army Corps of Engineers logo The United States Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, is made up of some 34,600 civilian and 650 military men and women. ... For the river in Canada, see Mississippi River (Ontario). ... The Atchafalaya River is a distributary of the Mississippi and Red rivers, approximately 170 mi (270 km) long, in south central Louisiana in the United States. ... Gulf of Mexico in 3D perspective. ... Year 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

If allowed to flow free, the Atchafalaya would capture the main flow of the Mississippi, forcing it to bypass its current path through Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The likelihood of this dramatic and disastrous event increases each year, and will eventually happen in spite of heroic human efforts.

The details of the Old River Control system are explored in the "Atchafalaya" section of the book "The Control of Nature" by John McPhee. Scars formed by debris flow in greater Los Angeles during the winter of 1968-1969. ... John McPhee John Angus McPhee (born March 8, 1931) is a writer widely considered one of the pioneers of creative nonfiction. ...

External links

• The Control of Nature reprinted in The New Yorker
• Information, photos, diagrams
• History, information
• History, maps
• Maps and aerial photos for 31°04′37″N 91°35′52″W / 31.0768, -91.5979Coordinates: 31°04′37″N 91°35′52″W / 31.0768, -91.5979
  • Maps from WikiMapia, Google Maps, Live Search Maps, Yahoo! Maps, or MapQuest
  • Topographic maps from TopoZone or TerraServer-USA

The New Yorker is an American magazine that publishes reportage, criticism, essays, cartoons, poetry and fiction. ... Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...

References

• McPhee, John (August 1989). The Control of Nature, 1st Edition, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 272pp. ISBN 0-374-12890-1. 
• Angert, Joe and Isaac. Old River Control. The Mighty Mississippi River. Retrieved on January 24, 2006.. Includes good map and pictures.