Athena Review Image Archive ™
Rivers Seen From Space: Mississippi & Missouri Confluence, St. Louis
Confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri (NASA/JPL SIR-C image)
The
Missouri River flows east (at center of image) and joins the
Mississippi at St. Louis, a bright orange zone near the bottom of the
picture. During the 18th and 19th centuries, St Louis grew into a major
trading center at the junction of these two important rivers. Long
before that, between AD 800 and 1400, the American Indian center of
Cahokia lay in this same place, the largest city of pre-Columbian
North America.
Farmland, mostly on river bottoms, appears blue in this SIR-C image, taken on April 17, 1994 on the space shuttle Endeavor.
Wooded areas are brown. Above, another large river with a long history
of human settlement, the Illinois, joins the Mississippi.
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