where do rivers begin?

[gusl]

When a river branches into two, how do people decide which branch is the legitimate one? Is it always the bigger one? The one with the longer subtree?

Pittsburghers like to say that their city has 3 rivers, but it's really 1.5. This is an exceptional situation, in which all named rivers "stop" at Point State Park.

I'd like to see an interactive map of the world's river basins that let you see any node in the tree. So if you click on "Ohio", you would see the Allegheny basin + Monongahela basin + the more western tributaries all in one area. If you click "on Mississippi", you would see all that plus more. This might be a useful visualization if you want to see the way pollution flows... or if you want to send a message in a bottle.

Comments

[mdinitz.livejournal.com]

I'd actually say that Pittsburgh really has two rivers. The Alleghany and Monongahela are really very different rivers, starting from different places. The Ohio is just the combination of the two at the point, so I wouldn't really call it a new river.

[douglasperkins.livejournal.com]

The Mississippi is smaller than the Missouri. It was also discovered (by Westerners) first, both its northern and southern parts.

[williamallthing.livejournal.com]

secret fourth river ftw

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

seriously?? where?