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Known as the 'Rio Grande' in the United States and as the 'Río Bravo' (or, more formally, the 'Río Bravo del Norte') in Mexico, the river, long, is the third longest river system in the United States.^[1]

Contents

Description

Names and pronunciation

Literature

In Fiction

See also

References

External links

Description

The Rio Grande rises in the San Juan Mountains of the U.S. state of Colorado, flows through the San Luis Valley, then south into New Mexico through Albuquerque and Las Cruces to El Paso, Texas, where it begins to form the border between the U.S. and Mexico. A major tributary, the Río Conchos, enters at Ojinaga, Chihuahua, below El Paso, and supplies most of the water in the Texas border segment. Other known tributaries include the Pecos and the smaller Devils, which join the Rio Grande on the site of Amistad Dam. Despite its name and length, the Rio Grande is not navigable at all by oceangoing ships, nor are there smaller craft using it as a route. In fact it is barely navigable at all. Its natural flow is only 1/20 the volume of the Colorado River, and less than 1/100 that of the Mississippi.
The river has, since 1848, marked the boundary between Mexico and the United States from the twin cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, to the Gulf of Mexico. As such, it was across this river that Texan slaves fled when seeking their freedom, aided by Mexico's liberal colonization policies and abolitionist stance.^[2]
The major international border crossings along the river are Ciudad Juárez and El Paso; Presidio, Texas and Ojinaga, Chihuahua; Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas; McAllen-Hidalgo, Texas, and Reynosa, Tamaulipas; and Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros. Other notable border towns are the Texas/Coahuila pairings of Del Rio–Ciudad Acuña and Eagle Pass–Piedras Negras.

The US and Mexico share the waters of this river under a series of agreements administered by the joint US-Mexico Boundary and Water Commission. The most notable of these were signed in 1906 and 1944.
Use of that belonging to the US is regulated by the Rio Grande Compact, an interstate pact between Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. The Rio Grande is over-appropriated, that is, there are more users for the water than there is water in the river. Because of both drought and overuse the section from El Paso downstream through Ojinaga was recently tagged "The Forgotten River" by those wishing to bring attention to the river's deteriorated condition.
During the summer of 2001 a 100m wide sandbar formed at the mouth of the river, marking the first time in recorded history that the Rio Grande failed to empty into the Gulf of Mexico. The sandbar was subsequently dredged, but it re-formed almost immediately. Spring rains the following year flushed the re-formed sandbar out to sea, but it was back by summer 2002. Since then the sandbar has remained and now forms a usable land bridge between the US and Mexico. Ecologists fear that unless rainfall returns to normal levels during the next few years and strict water conservation measures are adopted by communities along the river, the Rio Grande may soon become extinct.
The Rio Grande rises in high mountains and flows for much of its length at high elevation; El Paso is above sea level. In New Mexico, the river flows through the Rio Grande Rift from one sediment-filled basin to another, cutting canyons between the basins and supporting a fragile bosque ecosystem in its floodplain. From El Paso eastward the river flows through desert. Only in the sub-tropical lower Rio Grande Valley is there extensive irrigated agriculture. The river ends in a small sandy delta at the Gulf of Mexico. Due to the persistent period of dry weather, the river has only occasionally emptied into the Gulf Of Mexico since 2002. Google Satellite Map
Millions of years ago, the Rio Grande ended at the bottom of the Rio Grande Rift in Lake Cabeza de Vaca. But about one million years ago the stream was "captured" and began to flow east.
The Rio Grande was designated as one of the American Heritage Rivers in 1997.

Names and pronunciation

''Río Grande'' is Spanish for "Big River" and ''Río Grande del Norte'' means "Great Northern River" (literally "Great River of the North"). Rio Grande is pronounced either /ɹioʊ gɹænd/ or /ɹioʊ gɹændi/ (where "Grande" is pronounced like the English word "grand") by English speakers. Because "río" means "river" in Spanish, the phrase "Rio Grande River" is redundant. In Mexico it is known as "Río Bravo."

Literature

★ Paul Horgan, ''Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History''. Volume 1, Indians and Spain. Vol. 2, Mexico and the United States. 2 Vols. in 1, 1038 pages - Wesleyan University Press 1991, 4th Reprint, ISBN 0-8195-6251-3

In Fiction

★ In the 1959 movie Rio Bravo, which is set in a small town in southwest Texas, starring John Wayne as the town sheriff.

★ In Star Trek there was a Starfleet Runabout called the ''USS Rio Grande'' assigned to Deep Space Nine. All Starfleet Runabouts are named after Earth rivers. The ''USS Rio Grande'' had the honour of discovering the Bajoran Wormhole and being the only runabout to survive all seven seasons of Deep Space Nine.

See also

★ Rio Grande border disputes

★ List of crossings of the Rio Grande

★ List of Colorado rivers

★ List of New Mexico rivers

★ List of Texas rivers

★ Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River

★ Rio Grande Valley

★ Rio Grande Gorge

References

1.
2.

External links

★

★ 1854 map of Rio Grande entrance (hosted by the Portal to Texas History).

★ Rio Grande Cam - in Mission Texas. Mexico is on the left and the US is on the right.