Ohio

Ohio, a river of the United States, called by the French explorers, after its Indian name, la Belle Rivière, next to the Missouri the largest affluent of the Mississippi, is formed by the union of the Alleghany and Monongahela at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and flows west-south-west 975 miles, with a breadth of 400 to 1400 yards, draining, with its tributaries, an area of 214,000 sq. m. In its course it separates the northern states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois from the southern states of West Virginia and Kentucky. The principal towns upon its banks are Pittsburgh, Wheeling, Cincinnati, Louisville (where there are rapids of 22 feet in a mile, with a steamboat canal), Evansville, New Albany, Madison, Portsmouth, Covington, and Cairo. The river's principal affluents are the Tennessee, Cumberland, Wabash, Kentucky, Great Kanawha, Green, Muskingum, and Scioto. It is usually navigable from Pittsburgh.