Tombigbee Waterway

By Jordan Turcotte and Nathan St-Laurent

 

 

The Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway, mostly known as the Tenn.-Tom is a 377 kilometers long, 53 meters deep and 90 meters wide man-made river. This waterway runs from the state of Mississippi up to the state of Alabama. The Tombigbee waterway encompasses 17 public ports and terminals widespread on 450 square kilometers of land. This waterway serves as an alternate route to the Gulf of Mexico and enhances wildlife habitat. In fact, the construction of the Tenn.-Tom project led to the loss of about 150 square kilometers of wildlife habitat but the Water Resources Development act of 1986 was allowing the management of approximately 350 square kilometers of wildlife habitat in strategic locations within the states of Mississippi and Alabama. The wildlife mitigation activities include enforcement, population surveys, and habitat management for game and non-game species. The Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway is a marvel for modern engineering. The Tenn.-Tom has three majors’ functions: Navigation, Wildlife mitigation and recreation. Recreation is a place called campgrounds where you can live memorable camping experiences. All campgrounds provide water and electric hookups, sanitary dump stations, handicap accessible sites and facilities, playgrounds and multi-use courts.

The recommendation of digging a waterway going from the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River is an idea of the Marquis de Montcalm in 1760. The idea was not seriously received at the beginning and has also been forgotten until it emerged back in 1874-1875. Finally, the project has been accepted in 1971 and the construction started on December 1972. The waterway took 12 years to build and cost $2 billion.  

 

Pierre, Jennifer and Jasmine spent quite a bit of time on the tombigbee. Visit the following site to see their fabulous pictures: 

 

http://www.wildravenadventure.com/#!Tombigbee-Waterway/zoom/c1ise/image194o