6:00 I've worked the 6 on / 6 off shifts at sea before, I know it's not the point of the video, but I have to mention how awful that life is. It takes time to get your gear off and on, eat, use the toilet, do a load of laundry, god forbid you want to brush your teeth or shower (for literally 3 minutes before people start screaming at you to stop masturbating, regardless of the amount of engine grease you went in there covered in), so those 6 hour breaks to sleep start looking more like four and a half, _maybe_ five hours if you're lucky and fast. And of course you cant survive on 4.5 hours of sleep, even with a nap, so you try to catch as much sleep as possible, meaning every twelve hours is the exact same, every day, day after day. I dont know if you've ever tried busting your ass for a full twelve hours a day (because getting ready is your time, not shift time) while attempting to fit the necessities of human life in two "six hour" chunks, but you become a zombie. Time starts melting together and days turn into weeks, weeks turn into hours, and all you can think about is the next time you get to sleep. The cooks get their own schedules, they're only ever awake during the day, so unless youre lucky and have good timing you're generally surviving on cold leftovers and whatever cereal or ramen bowls you can pull out of the pantry. That doesn't even mention the work itself, which is gruelling, incredibly tightly scheduled, and _indescribably_ fishy. It's a shame the pay is so good, it's not worth the lifestyle. Not to mention everyone blowing their paycheques at the nearest bar whenever we docked. One dude got the shakes three days out and we had to turn back to get him to land. Strange life to live...
@kempo_95 or even 8h shifts? A family member is an EMT doc with 12-12 shifts. If you don't get a couple of days after several shifts you become the same zombie
@rampel1 For 8h shifts, they would need to have 50% more crew on board. On a ocean ship people work for like 8 months and then have 4 months off. The river crew might do 8 weeks on and 4 weeks off.
I worked the Mississippi and Illinois for forty one years as an engineer. Thank you for putting this together. It is hands down the best thumbnail description of inland water transportation with it's promises, problems and potential that I know of. You also powerfully make the point (Without ever actually saying it oit loud!) of how much we need a national transportation policy. You're a true educator: we're out there 365 days a year moving millions of tons of various bulk cargos, yet we're invisible while in plain sight. Thanks for a thorough and fair handed explanation of what we do, and how it affects the nation. Here's a small example, a cargo story. For a period of time while I was on the Lower Mississippi, we were moving barges loaded to full draft with huge blocks of basic aluminum. These had traveled halfway around the world, and we were the last leg of the trip. They had been smelted in Siberia, near Irkutsk. They traveled the Trans Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, were transfered to ocean shipping there, across the Pacific and through the Panama Canal to New Orleans. They were transferred to river barges there; we took them from New Orleans to Cairo, Illinois. We dropped then there, and another company boat picked them up at Cairo. That boat then moved them up the Ohio to an ALCOA plant somewhere in the Louisville area. That's one damn long trip, the cost of transportation had to be close to if not exceeding the cost of the product.
@@michaelmccarthy4615 Makes sense. Aluminum production uses a truly terrifying amount of electricity so it's going to be EXTREMELY dependent on the cost of electricity. It's a shame that it is relying on the super cheap fossil fuels in Russia, but it makes sense. It's interesting because the earth is absolutely chock full of aluminum, the actual physical resource itself will never have supply issues for as long as humanity survives basically...but the refinement process is the choke point and where the cost comes from.
@Tinil0 the rest of the world is largely still shoveling coal into a boiler furnace. Which is ironic considering how much untapped coal still remains in the US and Canada.
As someone who's lived in Louisville all of my life, I've always been wholly fascinated by the systems that our waterways had developed. One of the most important history lessons I learned in school was the fact that rivers are CRUCIAL to a civilization's development and I never forgot that.
Over here in The Netherlands we move a crazy amount of cargo via inland waterways. The Amsterdam-Rhine canal is the busiest in the world with around 100,000 vessels per year.
And it's tiny in comparison (at least in physical size). Barges typically only come in configurations of one, maybe two. The channel is wide enough for a large barge on either side, and maybe a few small boats in between, but it's nowhere near the gigantic size of the Mississippi river. The Amsterdam-Rhine channel is only 90m wide, while the Mississippi is easily 250m all the way up to Minneapolis. At Baton Rouge and New Orleans there are bridges that span over 660m. Even the biggest river of western Europe, which is the Rhine itself, only ever reaches a "natural" width of about 300m (but this is more or less constant all the way up to Koblenz, only really thinning out to 200m at Basel, which is the limit of its navigability).
It would be really interesting to have a comparison of how transportation is organized on the Rhine and the Mississippi, they are organized very differently. One thing is that you don't see many tug&barges combos on the Rhine anymore. They were quite common when I was young in the 1980s, but nowadays nearly all of the shipping is in ships that are roughly the size of one barge plus tug. (My guess(!) is that most of those are actually family owned, with each owner only having one or a few ships.) Another difference is that all kinds of goods are transported on the Rhine, the usual bulk cargo but also a lot of container transport. And more and more in the recent years there are river cruises.
I’m in the video! lol that’s my white work truck with me driving in the video at 19:20 !!! My crew and I rerailed those locomotives that you see on their side.
I work at the national Mississippi River museum and we have lots of good information on this and the history, both human and natural, of America's waterways. If anyone's around Dubuque Iowa I highly recommend dropping by
1.3 Billion dollars a year is negligible (0.02% of the budget) and I do want my taxes going to public works such as this.For a sense of scale, San Francisco pays 850m/year to NOT solve a homelessness issue. If you asked me "Hey, would you pay $4 a year for us to have a kickass waterway system that helps industries and hedges against food scarcity?" I'd say "Yes actually here's $20 and do go spend it all in one place thank you"
Absolutely agree exclamation point I hate that some people are pushing for a federal high-speed rail system when the money should instead go towards improving our freight rail system and dramatically improving our waterways.
Inland towboat pilot here! Fantastic, thorough and accurate overview of our nation's commerce juggernaut. Only thing I'd add, there's a rather large amount of petrochemical commerce that utilizes the inland waterways as well, ranging from gas/diesel to black oils and chemicals used in refineries to make end goods. It's a fascinating, beautiful, difficult and sometimes dangerous lifestyle out here, but so very critical to the success of our nation. Thanks for highlighting it, Sam!
It's that time of year where we move cutting oil from Oklahoma to refineries in Louisiana to cut the viscosity of gasoline without changing its octane in order to create winter blends for northern states. Someone else takes the products north, I just lock down the cutting oil barges.
I once read an article (?) making the point that Europe developed economically at a rate higher than the rest of the world after the middle ages because their rivers were way more navigable than anywhere else. Crazy how this medieval "tech" is still completely key in the world today.
Just like how the best we can do in large scale power production is the victorian era steam (or some variation of a thermal cycle of an energy carier) tech. Some technology is just supreme level, can't improve perfection I guess
It's probably also to do with when navigable watercourses began to be exploited. Propelled by the cumulative effect of technologies the Europeans developed, they fairly had a head-start in this area.
This was such an excellent video that few - none that I know of - have covered in the modern era. Thank you. I did travel locks in a pontoon boat one weekend, and we were amazed that those huge (now too small) locks would open and close for we little boats for free.
You have the capacity to make even the most seemingly mundane subject fascinating. How I wish schools spent more time on truly vital subjects like this one.
My grandparents grew up in the Appalachian town of Eagle Rock, VA. At one point, it was supposed to be a stop on the Kanawha Canal, which would've connected the James River to the Mississippi watershed. You can still see the remnants of the work to extend the canal there, before it was canceled and replaced with a rail line. Between that and the C&O Canal (which would've connected the Potomac to the Ohio between DC and Pittsburgh) I always wonder how our transportation systems might be different now if they had successfully connected the Mississippi rivershed to the Chesapeake Bay. Would've made a huge difference for cities like Charleston, WV and Richmond and would've made our inland waterway network even more massive
It would've been different of course, but then they would've had to build a canal over the Appalachians. The reason they built the Erie Canal where they did was because there's a low gap between the northern Appalachians and the Adirondack Mountains (which are actually geologically separate from the Appalachians; they're actually even older). The New York Central Railroad, which runs roughly along the canal, once used the nickname "the Water Level Route".
There were once even more canals. PA built a whole mainly canal system to connect Philly to Pittsburgh in order to reduce transit across the state called the Main Line, back in the 1820s that operated through the 1830s - 1857 when a key stretch was privatized and bought by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR). The problem was that it was mostly canals, but there was a section, known as the Allegheny Portage Railroad, that was a railroad instead. The barges for the system were amphibious, switching from boats to trains for that one section. The Main Line also provided an infamous lesson on the dangers of neglecting infrastructure. The South Forks Dam was built as part of the Main Line but neglected once the PRR bought and shut down the Main Line. It was used to make a hunting and fishing club where many of the members were PRR executives. PRR played multiple roles in causing the infamous Johnstown flood.
@@Pankkeli The geography around southeastern Michigan is kinda similar to that around Istanbul. Detroit=Istanbul, Detroit River=Bosporus, Lake St. Clair=Sea of Marmara, Lake Erie=Mediterranean Sea, Lake Huron=Black Sea.
Its blessed with every biome Rocky Mountains in the west Great Plains in the mid west Desserts in the south west Forest in the north west Rainforest in south east And Tundra in Alaska
10 years ago right after high school we’d take the pontoon boat over night from St. Louis to party in Chicago for the weekend. It was always an adventure. Way better than the times we drove.
Spent my entire life in the Cincinnati area and went to college in baton rouge and seeing the Mississippi and Ohio rivers almost every day is truly amazing to think about how lucky I am because this really is the most prosperous pocket in the world
I live in a town in Kansas that was founded by settlers who landed on the banks of the Kansas River (here at its former head of navigation before a hydroelectric dam was built a hundred miles downstream at Lawrence) in a steamboat that embarked from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the 1850s, you could take a boat all the way from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Manhattan, Kansas. You could also fish catadromous ocean fish like eel thousands of miles inland. That's no longer possible with various obstructions that have been placed on the rivers downstream.
It's amazing how much of river traffic is taken for granted, the infrastructure, the amount of work, the costs. At an approx a million dollars a load, the value of a tow is amazing and the impact of movement of large volumes of materials, salt, fertilizer, grains, raw metals, even windmill blades is hard to imagine. Thanx
@@kdm_entertainmentunwatchable is a pathetically dramatic statement. It is fine. Is it the best quality audio? No. Is it fine? Yes. Get over yourself mate.
You are right, it would be orders of magnitude more if say it rivalled the budget of the military which apart from its deterrent value is pretty much a waste of space.
19:22 young people are unwilling to work as truck drivers, not because the industry is aging. But because the industry has stopped paying good wages for long haul.
Lots of us would drive trucks. But how are we going to buy our own rig and training? And once we take all the risk, why is the pay commensurate with a fast food clerk?
The pay isn’t commensurate with fast food… maybe day one on the job, but after five years you can find your way into a 100k/yr without owning your own truck. I’ve been in the industry for ten years. Very few gen z are becoming truck drivers. It is largely an immigrant workforce now. All you need is about $3-5k for truck driving school and then you are pretty much guaranteed a job making 60-75k/yr. If you keep your driving record clean and look for opportunities, it is not hard make $100k a year or more after a couple years. My first year as a cdl driver (2018) I made $94k without owning a truck or doing long haul.
The United States’ large river system, allows it to outcompete other countries in agricultural production which allows it to flood other countries with cheap agricultural products like corn and forces local farmers in other countries, to then produce cash crops, which ultimately are exported in US dollars. The dollars get exchanged for local currency and end up in the coffers of central banks which have no choice but to purchase American assets, mainly us treasury bonds. This river system is critical for the United States to maintain its dominance and ensure the surpluses from other countries fund our budget deficit (military spending).
Just to emphasize how amazing this is. The Illinois river then gives access to Lake Michigan which gives access to Lake Huron and that gives access to Lake Erie and Ontario. Which then connects to the st Lawrence river out to the Atlantic! And the Ohio gives access to areas in NY PA WV MD DC via some canals and even some tributaries
There is one you missed, it is called Short Sea Shipping from Oakland to Stockton in California. Containers are offloaded at the Port of Oakland and floated on Barges down to the Port of Stockton, which is near I-5 and Higway 99, the main north south freeways in California. What that does is take a lot of trucks of I-580 the main Highway between the Bay Area and the Central valled.
@@skyh Stockton is a natural port. Sacramento has a man made channel and cannot handle the same types of Ships as Stockton's deep water port. If you are shipping things south you send them to Stockton.
Not mentioned and even more fascinating is river's tendency to change paths over centuries, and how this has happened with the Mississippi many times. In fact, left untouched, New Orleans would no longer be the current river's mouth, and there is a MASSIVE Army Corps of Engineers project to keep that from happening. To prevent this the Corps created the Old River Control Structure near Baton Rouge. The Corps built the Old River Control Structure in the 1960s to regulate how much water flows between the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers, preventing this shift and keeping New Orleans from drying up. It's a massive, critical ongoing effort.
Brazil would be a massive powerhouse if the Paraná was navigable all the way its course, but because it is not, we just build the biggest electricity power generator in the history of humanity.
@daacsb09 in size, yes, but Itaipu is the biggest in electricity production. In 10 of March of 2024 it reached 3 billion MWh of production in a single day, far more than what the Three gorges can produce, and 2 of the turbines of Itaipu was off.
@@C0lon0 This just is not true. The entire World generates only 3.5 TW (thats 8 million MWh/day, according to 'Our World In Data'). For the Itaipu Dam Wikipedia lists 8.7 GW (thats 200 000 MWh/day) while Three Georges is listed at 12 GW (thats > 30% more power!).
Last year we took a family canoe ride down the Mississippi in Minneapolis and went through the lock at Ford Dam (Lock & Dam #1). Let me tell you it felt hilarious to drop 40' in this huge lock just sitting in a canoe! Fortunately they have a little pull-rope on the side for self-propelled watercraft to alert the lock operator or he never would have seen us.
The Missouri River is not open to the Mississippi year round. Barges can only get to Kansas City on an ad hoc basis when the water is high enough. But they can make short runs. There's even some activity up in the Dakotas because of Lake Oahe.
Hey man, we will all still be here 2 days later if you just took those extra days to get better. We work for our ability to pay for good health, never give up your health you worked for to do work
I had an apartment for a few months on Mud Island in Memphis. The barges at night would shine a spotlight on the bank so they knew where they were (how far left/right in the channel and their location) And never failed to wake me up :). But it was cool thinking that they had been out there doing this since the days of Mark Twain.
A coordinated lock usage could help bring fuel cost down by slowing down boats that would otherwise have to wait (while still guaranteeing the same "first come, first served" order) (breaking requires fuel too)
This is a great video about the Mississippi River and agriculture, however, there is so much more to the subject of inland waterways! They transport crude oil and other chemicals to/from refineries, coal to power plants, the iron ore pellets you mentioned, and many other bulk commodities today. You could do an entire video on the Chicago Area Waterway System alone, which connects the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and, subsequently, the Gulf of Mexico. A key part of that being a 28-mile stretch called The Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal that utilized 8 individual locks to reverse the flow of the Chicago river and carry wastewater away from Lake Michigan, rather than into it, with the flow rate controlled by a hydroelectric powerhouse (the first in IL) capable of generating 30,000kWh that was constructed at the second lock in 1907. Following an update, the same powerhouse today generates around 40,000,000 kWh of hydroelectric power. There's a whole bunch of history related to those waterways and the key role they played in the growth of the Chicago Metropolitan Area in the 19th and early 20th century as well as the significance of the natural waterways to indigenous people. Etc. Etc.
@@z-army481 I have to try really hard to hear the voiceover. All I can focus on is the music. Makes it really hard to watch. I don’t really see what it adds tbh, especially when it’s that loud.
I loved this video. One of the best things I have ever watched. Opened my eyes to something I had very little understanding of and it's importance in commerce. Bravo. Well done!!
I love this. I live maybe 5 minutes from lock and damn #16 in Newburgh, Indiana. I often ride my motorcycle there to watch the barges come through and relax. It’s a simple but really cool technology.
I think it might be a misunderstanding of the price charged by the logistics company, versus the cost for that company. Those two tend to be releated of course, but not identical. Also, those are avergaes of the entire US presumably.
This is a terrific video and a perfect example of why Wendover is one of my favorite channels. Thank you for such excellent explanations of important but underreported issues.
Driving down the Columbia River valley for the first time as Texan my mind was blown how many dams and infrastructure there were that folks don’t realize is an engineering marvel.
Imagine ocean going ships going STRAIGHT UP TO THE GREAL LAKES to unload containers. Holy hell the rust belt might be revived. All of this cost are chump change compared to Defense spending or Health care spending and operators are begging to be taxed more to fund it. Why is it not funded?
Unfortunately, there seem to be some serious draft restrictions on getting oceangoing ships to the Great Lakes, not to mention the locks needed to pass dams on the river. It's probably better to upgrade US rail and barge infrastructure.
There may be some "ocean going" container barges (shallow draft) that could make the journey, but no one is trying to get the Ever Given (that blocked the Suez Canal) or a similar-sized ship up the Mississippi.
One statistic I would *REALLY* have loved to hear: What does the annualized budget for maintaining the Mississippi system divided by the number of ton miles. You talked about 'shipping cost', but what is the federal subsidy component?
It’s easy to find the the annual tonnage 150-200 million tons per year. The costs are so defuse, no one source seems to have even the federal expenditure by year. So, to someone in that process, mission accomplished?
there's not really a driver shortage in trucking. what there is, is a shortage of experienced drivers who are willing to be underpaid by the largest logistics companies. if there was an actual driver shortage, freight rates wouldn't be as shockingly low as they currently are.
You bring up several great points. 1st; the locks and dams should be upgraded along the route to include fish routes. 2nd; not mentioned in video (or I missed it) they should clean any pollution. 3rd; any goods not being sold or manufactured here in the USA should be taxed. Preferably the factory owner should have to pay. If they want to take advantage of it they should pay for it.
The Mississippi River truly plays a vital role in the U.S. economy, not only because of its impressive length but also due to its ability to connect cities through a network of water transportation. However, the deterioration and lack of funding for the maintenance of this system is an issue that needs immediate attention to ensure trade and exports remain viable in the future
15:35 compared to the amount of tax money used or even given away, $10 billion to fix something so important (and I'm assuming would create jobs) seems like nothing.
@@emmettturner9452Nope, Great Lakes eventually connect to the Atlantic and then the Lakes also connect to the Illinois/Mississippi and down to the Gulf so the original comment is correct
1:02 Trucks get 145 MPG? I know he doesnt exactly mean fuel efficiency, he means more of a fuel : weight ratio, but the way it's presented is a little confusing
18:27 I bet to differ as a boater and fisherman who has been through these locks multiple times. All this USACE infrastructure provides top tier recreational opportunities. Look up the Mississippi Headwaters project in Northern MN. They created some of the best lakes on the map
2024 October 23 - the Mississippi River at the Vicksburg bridge was at 2.22 ft above zero gauge. Seems like it gets low evey fall since the climate started changing; the only reason the river isn't lower is because of all the rain that was dumped on the Tennessee River watershed by hurricane Helene.
Parts of Europe where it is possible use navigable rivers to much greater extent and more efficiently. The busiest artificial waterway in the world is the Amsterdam-Rhein canal, which handles over 100k ships annually despite being a fraction of the size of the Mississipi. The industrial heartland of Rhein-Ruhr is connected to global trade by the Rhein river ending at the port of Rotterdam. The whole canal thing and using water to power industry was invented in England during the industrial revolution and they had to build navigable canals across the whole country to make it happen.
@@rulerfoodsfan07 I'm not saying you are incorrect but 30 years ago when I was a younger pup and visiting family in the area it was Cay-row. My grandparents grew up in the area and I still remember that pronunciation. Same with Vi-anna. Maybe it has changed over the years and the local population getting replaced.
@@jcclark2060 I'm not going to say that you are wrong either, it's almost certainly different for different people. I've got family who have lived all around Alexander County for well over a century and everyone in my family says "CARE-oh," and it's the same for the buddies I know out in Cape and Paducah. But, again, these are just my experiences and there is truth behind what you say.
I'm sorry that I sound so sick in this it's because I was sick
get better soon ❤
Hi sick
I completely lost might voice this morning. I wish I could sound like you lol
Not too sick though
Nah he smokin 3 packs a day
How dare you get sick when attempting to show me answers to questions I've never asked about rivers.
Really inconsiderate of him
And how dare he, doing it for free.
@@enkryptron he gets paid indirectly
Forreal, dude probably just gave us all a virus 🦠
How dare he show it to us for free
6:00 I've worked the 6 on / 6 off shifts at sea before, I know it's not the point of the video, but I have to mention how awful that life is.
It takes time to get your gear off and on, eat, use the toilet, do a load of laundry, god forbid you want to brush your teeth or shower (for literally 3 minutes before people start screaming at you to stop masturbating, regardless of the amount of engine grease you went in there covered in), so those 6 hour breaks to sleep start looking more like four and a half, _maybe_ five hours if you're lucky and fast.
And of course you cant survive on 4.5 hours of sleep, even with a nap, so you try to catch as much sleep as possible, meaning every twelve hours is the exact same, every day, day after day.
I dont know if you've ever tried busting your ass for a full twelve hours a day (because getting ready is your time, not shift time) while attempting to fit the necessities of human life in two "six hour" chunks, but you become a zombie. Time starts melting together and days turn into weeks, weeks turn into hours, and all you can think about is the next time you get to sleep.
The cooks get their own schedules, they're only ever awake during the day, so unless youre lucky and have good timing you're generally surviving on cold leftovers and whatever cereal or ramen bowls you can pull out of the pantry.
That doesn't even mention the work itself, which is gruelling, incredibly tightly scheduled, and _indescribably_ fishy.
It's a shame the pay is so good, it's not worth the lifestyle. Not to mention everyone blowing their paycheques at the nearest bar whenever we docked. One dude got the shakes three days out and we had to turn back to get him to land.
Strange life to live...
I wonder, would it be possible to do 12-hour shifts?
@kempo_95 or even 8h shifts? A family member is an EMT doc with 12-12 shifts. If you don't get a couple of days after several shifts you become the same zombie
@rampel1 For 8h shifts, they would need to have 50% more crew on board.
On a ocean ship people work for like 8 months and then have 4 months off. The river crew might do 8 weeks on and 4 weeks off.
You mentioned that the pay is SO good, how good is it?
Man, that's ROUGH :(
Offshore, our supply boat crews work 12 hour shifts.
When he said 6 hour shifts, I was certain he mispoke :(
I worked the Mississippi and Illinois for forty one years as an engineer.
Thank you for putting this together. It is hands down the best thumbnail description of inland water transportation with it's promises, problems and potential that I know of. You also powerfully make the point (Without ever actually saying it oit loud!) of how much we need a national transportation policy. You're a true educator: we're out there 365 days a year moving millions of tons of various bulk cargos, yet we're invisible while in plain sight. Thanks for a thorough and fair handed explanation of what we do, and how it affects the nation.
Here's a small example, a cargo story.
For a period of time while I was on the Lower Mississippi, we were moving barges loaded to full draft with huge blocks of basic aluminum. These had traveled halfway around the world, and we were the last leg of the trip. They had been smelted in Siberia, near Irkutsk. They traveled the Trans Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, were transfered to ocean shipping there, across the Pacific and through the Panama Canal to New Orleans. They were transferred to river barges there; we took them from New Orleans to Cairo, Illinois. We dropped then there, and another company boat picked them up at Cairo. That boat then moved them up the Ohio to an ALCOA plant somewhere in the Louisville area. That's one damn long trip, the cost of transportation had to be close to if not exceeding the cost of the product.
Mostly because the US can't produce aluminum at a competitive level, I would guess.
@@michaelmccarthy4615 Makes sense. Aluminum production uses a truly terrifying amount of electricity so it's going to be EXTREMELY dependent on the cost of electricity. It's a shame that it is relying on the super cheap fossil fuels in Russia, but it makes sense. It's interesting because the earth is absolutely chock full of aluminum, the actual physical resource itself will never have supply issues for as long as humanity survives basically...but the refinement process is the choke point and where the cost comes from.
@Tinil0 the rest of the world is largely still shoveling coal into a boiler furnace. Which is ironic considering how much untapped coal still remains in the US and Canada.
I think that you may be mistaken about the source of the electricity for Siberias smelters. Hydropower. Big dams and a lot of them
As someone who's lived in Louisville all of my life, I've always been wholly fascinated by the systems that our waterways had developed. One of the most important history lessons I learned in school was the fact that rivers are CRUCIAL to a civilization's development and I never forgot that.
Over here in The Netherlands we move a crazy amount of cargo via inland waterways.
The Amsterdam-Rhine canal is the busiest in the world with around 100,000 vessels per year.
And it's tiny in comparison (at least in physical size). Barges typically only come in configurations of one, maybe two. The channel is wide enough for a large barge on either side, and maybe a few small boats in between, but it's nowhere near the gigantic size of the Mississippi river. The Amsterdam-Rhine channel is only 90m wide, while the Mississippi is easily 250m all the way up to Minneapolis. At Baton Rouge and New Orleans there are bridges that span over 660m. Even the biggest river of western Europe, which is the Rhine itself, only ever reaches a "natural" width of about 300m (but this is more or less constant all the way up to Koblenz, only really thinning out to 200m at Basel, which is the limit of its navigability).
It would be really interesting to have a comparison of how transportation is organized on the Rhine and the Mississippi, they are organized very differently. One thing is that you don't see many tug&barges combos on the Rhine anymore. They were quite common when I was young in the 1980s, but nowadays nearly all of the shipping is in ships that are roughly the size of one barge plus tug. (My guess(!) is that most of those are actually family owned, with each owner only having one or a few ships.)
Another difference is that all kinds of goods are transported on the Rhine, the usual bulk cargo but also a lot of container transport. And more and more in the recent years there are river cruises.
I’m in the video! lol that’s my white work truck with me driving in the video at 19:20 !!! My crew and I rerailed those locomotives that you see on their side.
Cap
its a stock footage
He's lying it was actually me in the truck. Quit playing around Mike
and, have you been asked for permission? xD (tho, you're not identifyable, so not required.)
Ignore the haters. I'm glad you're in the video bro!
I work at the national Mississippi River museum and we have lots of good information on this and the history, both human and natural, of America's waterways. If anyone's around Dubuque Iowa I highly recommend dropping by
Quad Citizen here. I’ve always wanted to visit that museum
1.3 Billion dollars a year is negligible (0.02% of the budget) and I do want my taxes going to public works such as this.For a sense of scale, San Francisco pays 850m/year to NOT solve a homelessness issue. If you asked me "Hey, would you pay $4 a year for us to have a kickass waterway system that helps industries and hedges against food scarcity?" I'd say "Yes actually here's $20 and do go spend it all in one place thank you"
Or, the 1% and Big Corporation could just pay their fair share.
@@SayAhh Taxes Dodging and claming that it helps everybody is a rich americans pastime
Absolutely agree exclamation point I hate that some people are pushing for a federal high-speed rail system when the money should instead go towards improving our freight rail system and dramatically improving our waterways.
@@PASH3227 We have money for both, if we stopped giving away so many subsidies and tax cuts.
Yea im not sure why he made it sound like it was a lot. If anything its way too low for such an important waterway
Inland towboat pilot here! Fantastic, thorough and accurate overview of our nation's commerce juggernaut.
Only thing I'd add, there's a rather large amount of petrochemical commerce that utilizes the inland waterways as well, ranging from gas/diesel to black oils and chemicals used in refineries to make end goods.
It's a fascinating, beautiful, difficult and sometimes dangerous lifestyle out here, but so very critical to the success of our nation. Thanks for highlighting it, Sam!
Inland tanker captain from EU here :) in Netherlands, Germany and Belgium about a half of the traffic are tankers
It's that time of year where we move cutting oil from Oklahoma to refineries in Louisiana to cut the viscosity of gasoline without changing its octane in order to create winter blends for northern states. Someone else takes the products north, I just lock down the cutting oil barges.
Towboat pilot on the Ohio river here, it’s been a generational job for my family since the steam boat day.
@@phillipp121 right on! Pretty river for the most part!
I once read an article (?) making the point that Europe developed economically at a rate higher than the rest of the world after the middle ages because their rivers were way more navigable than anywhere else. Crazy how this medieval "tech" is still completely key in the world today.
Learned that too in geo class. Waterways are a cheat code to success.
Just like how the best we can do in large scale power production is the victorian era steam (or some variation of a thermal cycle of an energy carier) tech. Some technology is just supreme level, can't improve perfection I guess
It's probably also to do with when navigable watercourses began to be exploited. Propelled by the cumulative effect of technologies the Europeans developed, they fairly had a head-start in this area.
The main reason Europe developed at a higher rate than the rest of the world is because they are European.
How do you think it took the US only 100 years after independence to become a superpower, then again we did buy, steal and went to war for land.
You know you just through out "____ by THE ARMY CORP OF ENGINEERS" so many times you make me want a video on THE ARMY CORP OF ENGINEERS
Oddly enough, it's Army CORPS of Engineers, like it's the Marine Corps.
need a vid on that
Threw. Through. They mean different things.
The flood-control aspects deserve more emphasis.
They are also responsible for (and currently operate) the Cape Cod Canal and many other key infrastructure mega projects.
2:04 small note, "Sault" in Sault St. Marie is pronounced "Soo", just like the locks!
I was just going to comment that!😊
English and their spelling rules.
@@C0lon0 and foreign languages spelling native words
I complained about this in one of his videos from last year
@@C0lon0 Sault St. Marie is a French town, not english...
Growing up in the east you take rivers for granted. As you grow and travel, it comes to mind that rivers are fuckin awesome!
Especially if you live in the West but have family in the East and thus go there often. It's like night and day how much water both areas have.
I agree 💯
This was such an excellent video that few - none that I know of - have covered in the modern era. Thank you.
I did travel locks in a pontoon boat one weekend, and we were amazed that those huge (now too small) locks would open and close for we little boats for free.
You could have just surfed the spillover!
You have the capacity to make even the most seemingly mundane subject fascinating. How I wish schools spent more time on truly vital subjects like this one.
My grandparents grew up in the Appalachian town of Eagle Rock, VA. At one point, it was supposed to be a stop on the Kanawha Canal, which would've connected the James River to the Mississippi watershed. You can still see the remnants of the work to extend the canal there, before it was canceled and replaced with a rail line. Between that and the C&O Canal (which would've connected the Potomac to the Ohio between DC and Pittsburgh) I always wonder how our transportation systems might be different now if they had successfully connected the Mississippi rivershed to the Chesapeake Bay. Would've made a huge difference for cities like Charleston, WV and Richmond and would've made our inland waterway network even more massive
well we probably will never know thanks to the Jones Act
Hey man! I was just down in Natural Bridge and Lynchburg and saw stuff about the Kanawha Canal
It would've been different of course, but then they would've had to build a canal over the Appalachians. The reason they built the Erie Canal where they did was because there's a low gap between the northern Appalachians and the Adirondack Mountains (which are actually geologically separate from the Appalachians; they're actually even older). The New York Central Railroad, which runs roughly along the canal, once used the nickname "the Water Level Route".
There were once even more canals. PA built a whole mainly canal system to connect Philly to Pittsburgh in order to reduce transit across the state called the Main Line, back in the 1820s that operated through the 1830s - 1857 when a key stretch was privatized and bought by the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR).
The problem was that it was mostly canals, but there was a section, known as the Allegheny Portage Railroad, that was a railroad instead. The barges for the system were amphibious, switching from boats to trains for that one section. The Main Line also provided an infamous lesson on the dangers of neglecting infrastructure. The South Forks Dam was built as part of the Main Line but neglected once the PRR bought and shut down the Main Line. It was used to make a hunting and fishing club where many of the members were PRR executives. PRR played multiple roles in causing the infamous Johnstown flood.
The geography of the USA is absolutely fascinating
It’s the most blessed land on the planet. Basically Istanbul of the entire world
@@abdiganiadenleast patriotic american
@@Pankkeli The geography around southeastern Michigan is kinda similar to that around Istanbul. Detroit=Istanbul, Detroit River=Bosporus, Lake St. Clair=Sea of Marmara, Lake Erie=Mediterranean Sea, Lake Huron=Black Sea.
Its blessed with every biome
Rocky Mountains in the west
Great Plains in the mid west
Desserts in the south west
Forest in the north west
Rainforest in south east
And Tundra in Alaska
Yeah, as a nation/culture we really lucked out with the fertile lands in the middle and the transportation system within.
10 years ago right after high school we’d take the pontoon boat over night from St. Louis to party in Chicago for the weekend. It was always an adventure. Way better than the times we drove.
Spent my entire life in the Cincinnati area and went to college in baton rouge and seeing the Mississippi and Ohio rivers almost every day is truly amazing to think about how lucky I am because this really is the most prosperous pocket in the world
I live in a town in Kansas that was founded by settlers who landed on the banks of the Kansas River (here at its former head of navigation before a hydroelectric dam was built a hundred miles downstream at Lawrence) in a steamboat that embarked from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the 1850s, you could take a boat all the way from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Manhattan, Kansas. You could also fish catadromous ocean fish like eel thousands of miles inland. That's no longer possible with various obstructions that have been placed on the rivers downstream.
Thank you for making this video, as someone who works in the river industry we just do not have enough information out there for what we do
It's amazing how much of river traffic is taken for granted, the infrastructure, the amount of work, the costs. At an approx a million dollars a load, the value of a tow is amazing and the impact of movement of large volumes of materials, salt, fertilizer, grains, raw metals, even windmill blades is hard to imagine.
Thanx
As a port professional, I always appreciate when you float out some waterways/maritime content
I replaced the wire in my speakers because I thought it was fried hahah, get well soon Wendover
Yeah unwatchable sadly..
Didn’t even compare it with another audio file first, huh?
Sounds very normal to me so mabey they are broken
@@kdm_entertainmentunwatchable is a pathetically dramatic statement. It is fine. Is it the best quality audio? No. Is it fine? Yes. Get over yourself mate.
@@kdm_entertainmentgrow a pair
0:53 Omaha mentioned 🗣️🗣️🗣️
Day ruined
😂
At 20:11 That is actually a picture of the Missouri River at St Charles. I drive over that bridge every day for work in St Louis County.
"upgrading the entire Mississippi's locks would possibly have a budget rivalling the annual budget of NASA"
...that's not a lot
You are right, it would be orders of magnitude more if say it rivalled the budget of the military which apart from its deterrent value is pretty much a waste of space.
I’d argue it is far more important than NASA as well.
19:22 young people are unwilling to work as truck drivers, not because the industry is aging. But because the industry has stopped paying good wages for long haul.
Lots of us would drive trucks. But how are we going to buy our own rig and training? And once we take all the risk, why is the pay commensurate with a fast food clerk?
The pay isn’t commensurate with fast food… maybe day one on the job, but after five years you can find your way into a 100k/yr without owning your own truck. I’ve been in the industry for ten years. Very few gen z are becoming truck drivers. It is largely an immigrant workforce now. All you need is about $3-5k for truck driving school and then you are pretty much guaranteed a job making 60-75k/yr. If you keep your driving record clean and look for opportunities, it is not hard make $100k a year or more after a couple years. My first year as a cdl driver (2018) I made $94k without owning a truck or doing long haul.
@@michailbest1122 fair enough
The United States’ large river system, allows it to outcompete other countries in agricultural production which allows it to flood other countries with cheap agricultural products like corn and forces local farmers in other countries, to then produce cash crops, which ultimately are exported in US dollars. The dollars get exchanged for local currency and end up in the coffers of central banks which have no choice but to purchase American assets, mainly us treasury bonds. This river system is critical for the United States to maintain its dominance and ensure the surpluses from other countries fund our budget deficit (military spending).
Not military spending but social security
@@justinsutton5005 both
Fascinating analysis - you should make YT videos! (Seriously)
Get well soon :) Been loving your videos, theres just so much cool stuff I'm learning about the US
Thank you Sam, for another great video.
Get well soon.
Greetings from the UK,
Anthony
Just to emphasize how amazing this is. The Illinois river then gives access to Lake Michigan which gives access to Lake Huron and that gives access to Lake Erie and Ontario. Which then connects to the st Lawrence river out to the Atlantic!
And the Ohio gives access to areas in NY PA WV MD DC via some canals and even some tributaries
17:13 just a reminder we pay a single defense contractor (lockheed martin: 47.5B) more than the entire budget of NASA (33B)....
Well, in fairness, the alternative is paying Boeing that money, and NASA and the Military both agree that's not worth it
LockMart makes the best fighter jet in the world, in addition to other services, like building satellites.
Sounds like we need to invest more in Lockheed
@@neolithictransitrevolution427 crazy that the alternative is not, yknow, putting that money literally anywhere but war
@@p3zzer well said, and over the internet too. If only productive tools came out of these investments.
There is one you missed, it is called Short Sea Shipping from Oakland to Stockton in California. Containers are offloaded at the Port of Oakland and floated on Barges down to the Port of Stockton, which is near I-5 and Higway 99, the main north south freeways in California. What that does is take a lot of trucks of I-580 the main Highway between the Bay Area and the Central valled.
He mentioned California's capital which is more inland than Stockton port via Sacramento, San Joaquin River delta from S.F. Bay.
@@skyh Stockton is a natural port. Sacramento has a man made channel and cannot handle the same types of Ships as Stockton's deep water port. If you are shipping things south you send them to Stockton.
Not mentioned and even more fascinating is river's tendency to change paths over centuries, and how this has happened with the Mississippi many times. In fact, left untouched, New Orleans would no longer be the current river's mouth, and there is a MASSIVE Army Corps of Engineers project to keep that from happening. To prevent this the Corps created the Old River Control Structure near Baton Rouge.
The Corps built the Old River Control Structure in the 1960s to regulate how much water flows between the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers, preventing this shift and keeping New Orleans from drying up. It's a massive, critical ongoing effort.
Love this! I live in Vermont and have water access to the ocean because of the Champlain canal to NYC. Amazing!
Minnesota mentioned, rah!
I was going to say this exact same thing. We don’t come up often here 😂
For real- especially the iron range 😂
Y'all get more shout outs than Tulsa
Maple Grove!!!
Got to visit for the first time last month…. It’s stunningly beautiful!
As a western KY native it’s always weird to hear Cairo pronounced “correctly”. People in the area pronounce it Kay-row lol.
In Florida "Punta" is pronounced like a football punt + uh. Punt-uh Gorda.
Brazil would be a massive powerhouse if the Paraná was navigable all the way its course, but because it is not, we just build the biggest electricity power generator in the history of humanity.
Third biggest. The chinese three gorges and baihetan dams are bigger.
Panera
@daacsb09 in size, yes, but Itaipu is the biggest in electricity production. In 10 of March of 2024 it reached 3 billion MWh of production in a single day, far more than what the Three gorges can produce, and 2 of the turbines of Itaipu was off.
@@C0lon0 This just is not true. The entire World generates only 3.5 TW (thats 8 million MWh/day, according to 'Our World In Data'). For the Itaipu Dam Wikipedia lists 8.7 GW (thats 200 000 MWh/day) while Three Georges is listed at 12 GW (thats > 30% more power!).
@@C0lon0good to know. I had no idea
Hope you get better soon Sam, don’t overburden yourself in work! Self care is immensely important!
Last year we took a family canoe ride down the Mississippi in Minneapolis and went through the lock at Ford Dam (Lock & Dam #1). Let me tell you it felt hilarious to drop 40' in this huge lock just sitting in a canoe! Fortunately they have a little pull-rope on the side for self-propelled watercraft to alert the lock operator or he never would have seen us.
The Missouri River is not open to the Mississippi year round. Barges can only get to Kansas City on an ad hoc basis when the water is high enough. But they can make short runs. There's even some activity up in the Dakotas because of Lake Oahe.
Hey man, we will all still be here 2 days later if you just took those extra days to get better. We work for our ability to pay for good health, never give up your health you worked for to do work
And the Cumberland River connects Nashville to this system as well. Great video as always, love this stuff!
I had an apartment for a few months on Mud Island in Memphis. The barges at night would shine a spotlight on the bank so they knew where they were (how far left/right in the channel and their location) And never failed to wake me up :). But it was cool thinking that they had been out there doing this since the days of Mark Twain.
Mark one. Mark two. Mark twain. Or so goes the barge man’s depth measures.
A coordinated lock usage could help bring fuel cost down by slowing down boats that would otherwise have to wait (while still guaranteeing the same "first come, first served" order)
(breaking requires fuel too)
This is a great video about the Mississippi River and agriculture, however, there is so much more to the subject of inland waterways! They transport crude oil and other chemicals to/from refineries, coal to power plants, the iron ore pellets you mentioned, and many other bulk commodities today.
You could do an entire video on the Chicago Area Waterway System alone, which connects the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River and, subsequently, the Gulf of Mexico. A key part of that being a 28-mile stretch called The Chicago Sanitary & Ship Canal that utilized 8 individual locks to reverse the flow of the Chicago river and carry wastewater away from Lake Michigan, rather than into it, with the flow rate controlled by a hydroelectric powerhouse (the first in IL) capable of generating 30,000kWh that was constructed at the second lock in 1907. Following an update, the same powerhouse today generates around 40,000,000 kWh of hydroelectric power. There's a whole bunch of history related to those waterways and the key role they played in the growth of the Chicago Metropolitan Area in the 19th and early 20th century as well as the significance of the natural waterways to indigenous people. Etc. Etc.
The Yukon River also has riverboats and barges in the summer.
Excellent talk, never imagined how big the Mississippi is, A+ for the report!!!
Fascinating content but loud piano music in the background at 7:00 is painfully distracting.
Meh I liked it
@@z-army481 I have to try really hard to hear the voiceover. All I can focus on is the music. Makes it really hard to watch. I don’t really see what it adds tbh, especially when it’s that loud.
I loved this video. One of the best things I have ever watched. Opened my eyes to something I had very little understanding of and it's importance in commerce. Bravo. Well done!!
Best TH-cam channel out there!!
I love this. I live maybe 5 minutes from lock and damn #16 in Newburgh, Indiana. I often ride my motorcycle there to watch the barges come through and relax. It’s a simple but really cool technology.
1:43 where did you get that info exactly? You're lucky to see $3/mile on non contract freight these days
just wanted to comment this!
I think it might be a misunderstanding of the price charged by the logistics company, versus the cost for that company. Those two tend to be releated of course, but not identical. Also, those are avergaes of the entire US presumably.
Who ships freight without a contract?!?
I think he means on a per weight basis like per 100 pounds
Truckers would be millionaires in no time at that rate. That's likely cost for one truck not one ton/mile.
I just enjoy your TH-cam channel so much. Every video is great. Thanks
This is a terrific video and a perfect example of why Wendover is one of my favorite channels. Thank you for such excellent explanations of important but underreported issues.
the whole video was so serious serene and straight to the point that it was like seeing a real life lore video
Get well, Wendower Productions
Driving down the Columbia River valley for the first time as Texan my mind was blown how many dams and infrastructure there were that folks don’t realize is an engineering marvel.
Imagine ocean going ships going STRAIGHT UP TO THE GREAL LAKES to unload containers. Holy hell the rust belt might be revived. All of this cost are chump change compared to Defense spending or Health care spending and operators are begging to be taxed more to fund it.
Why is it not funded?
because of The Jones Act. your welcome
@@bm1588so, corruption. cool.
Unfortunately, there seem to be some serious draft restrictions on getting oceangoing ships to the Great Lakes, not to mention the locks needed to pass dams on the river. It's probably better to upgrade US rail and barge infrastructure.
Zebra mussels
There may be some "ocean going" container barges (shallow draft) that could make the journey, but no one is trying to get the Ever Given (that blocked the Suez Canal) or a similar-sized ship up the Mississippi.
This video topic and production feels like an old style Wendover video from the early years and I’m loving it
One statistic I would *REALLY* have loved to hear: What does the annualized budget for maintaining the Mississippi system divided by the number of ton miles. You talked about 'shipping cost', but what is the federal subsidy component?
It’s easy to find the the annual tonnage 150-200 million tons per year. The costs are so defuse, no one source seems to have even the federal expenditure by year. So, to someone in that process, mission accomplished?
This really reminds me of the old Wendover videos.
This also makes me want a boat.
Man, I love water and boats and rivers.
2:04 its actually still pronounced soo saint marie michigan, not salt. also I got to see my house in a wendover video which is a dream come true
Ive been waiting my whole life for this video.
there's not really a driver shortage in trucking. what there is, is a shortage of experienced drivers who are willing to be underpaid by the largest logistics companies. if there was an actual driver shortage, freight rates wouldn't be as shockingly low as they currently are.
You bring up several great points.
1st; the locks and dams should be upgraded along the route to include fish routes.
2nd; not mentioned in video (or I missed it) they should clean any pollution.
3rd; any goods not being sold or manufactured here in the USA should be taxed. Preferably the factory owner should have to pay. If they want to take advantage of it they should pay for it.
9:08 Wendover Productions said "Oversimplified", does that mean we're gonna get a Wendover Productions & Oversimplified collab?
The Mississippi River truly plays a vital role in the U.S. economy, not only because of its impressive length but also due to its ability to connect cities through a network of water transportation. However, the deterioration and lack of funding for the maintenance of this system is an issue that needs immediate attention to ensure trade and exports remain viable in the future
2:56 casually forgetting the erie canal which was vital in expanding westward.
It’s cause he was sick
Dude, that was perfect.
Informative
Accurate
Interesting
Inspiring
Knowledgeable
Perfect
Fabulous job man
15:35 compared to the amount of tax money used or even given away, $10 billion to fix something so important (and I'm assuming would create jobs) seems like nothing.
Still as soothing as always TY
You sound a little sick man 😢
I read that as "you sound like a sick little man"
What is your problem? Do you sit at your keyboard to criticise someone who put in a lot of work to make a video? Get a life.
Thanks for making these videos, I always end up learning about important and pretty cool topics
Chickamauga Locks in Chattanooga shown 🙌🏻
1:03 Could I get a source on these fuel efficiency numbers?
I'm researching this for college
13:21 Good places to drink whiskey and rye in your Chevy, amirite?
Don't forget the 100mi of navigable Muskingum river from Dresden to Marietta OH! Awesome river and lock system!
The eastern half of the USA is technically an island because of this
I never thought of it that way. You just melted my brain, you're not wrong tho.
I guess. Not a natural one though
@@emmettturner9452Nope, Great Lakes eventually connect to the Atlantic and then the Lakes also connect to the Illinois/Mississippi and down to the Gulf so the original comment is correct
@@emmettturner9452Wouldn’t canals and rivers connecting to Lake Michigan cut off the Eastern US?
i think you meant to say it's practically an island. Which i agree with.
Chuffed you mentioned the Danube!! Greetings from Vienna!
You mean the Duna? Greetings from Budapest!
Peter Zeihan likes this video
2:03 Sault Ste. Marie is more pronounced as "sue" saint marie, interestingly enough is the name of the locks: Soo Locks
Nice
Nice
And all of it depends on the Old River Control Structure working, because when that fails the Mississippi delta is going to move.
1:02 Trucks get 145 MPG? I know he doesnt exactly mean fuel efficiency, he means more of a fuel : weight ratio, but the way it's presented is a little confusing
It's the mpg per ton, so comparable vs different sized transportation methods.
I get about 8.9 mpg in my semi, and my truck holds 130 gallons of fuel.
When you take into account the weight of the truck itself and the size of the load, it makes sense.
Ty
Came here looking for exactly this comment, as I was equally confused wondering "Did Sam make a huge error or what exactly did he mean?"
12:30 someday people will learn how to say Cairo like a native of Little Egypt, but today is not that day 😢
I was waiting for him to say it, I knew he had to say it at some point. I was wondering if someone advised him on it.
11:08 This is just a natural part of getting older.
That’s what I’m sayin
I cleared my throat four times watching this.
early to wendover what is happening to my life
18:27 I bet to differ as a boater and fisherman who has been through these locks multiple times. All this USACE infrastructure provides top tier recreational opportunities. Look up the Mississippi Headwaters project in Northern MN. They created some of the best lakes on the map
"Trucks can transport cargo 145mi on a gallon of gas" (1:13); dang, epic fuel economy on that there truck ;)
I wonder what the actual statistic was referring to.
@@atulbali8230 Well, I bet he meant 145mi/tank; cause there's no way a semi can get 145mi/ga - that's _insane_
That statistic immediately jumped out at me, this cannot possibly be true
likely meant to say 'per ton of cargo'
2024 October 23 - the Mississippi River at the Vicksburg bridge was at 2.22 ft above zero gauge. Seems like it gets low evey fall since the climate started changing; the only reason the river isn't lower is because of all the rain that was dumped on the Tennessee River watershed by hurricane Helene.
Why doesn't America have as much rail as Europe? The Mississippi
It does have a lot of rail. Just not passenger rail.
Parts of Europe where it is possible use navigable rivers to much greater extent and more efficiently. The busiest artificial waterway in the world is the Amsterdam-Rhein canal, which handles over 100k ships annually despite being a fraction of the size of the Mississipi. The industrial heartland of Rhein-Ruhr is connected to global trade by the Rhein river ending at the port of Rotterdam.
The whole canal thing and using water to power industry was invented in England during the industrial revolution and they had to build navigable canals across the whole country to make it happen.
Very informative video, as always!
USA USA!!!!!!!!
Showing this to my earth science class for surface and ground water
obligatory 12:30 mention: "it's CAY-ro, not CAI-ro"
as a resident of the area it's usually "CARE-oh"
@@rulerfoodsfan07 I'm not saying you are incorrect but 30 years ago when I was a younger pup and visiting family in the area it was Cay-row. My grandparents grew up in the area and I still remember that pronunciation. Same with Vi-anna. Maybe it has changed over the years and the local population getting replaced.
@@jcclark2060 I'm not going to say that you are wrong either, it's almost certainly different for different people. I've got family who have lived all around Alexander County for well over a century and everyone in my family says "CARE-oh," and it's the same for the buddies I know out in Cape and Paducah. But, again, these are just my experiences and there is truth behind what you say.
With the same spelling but different pronunciation of the locals it may as well be a local grown accent
Beautifully edited :)
join the army they said, see the world they said....now I'm stuck raising lochs
pretty impressive they can raise whole Scottish lakes