Chapter 1 Summary

The Mississippi River is massive, draining a staggeringly large basin. It is the longest river in the world, and by any measurement among the largest. It reaches from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, from New York and North Carolina to Idaho and New Mexico. It drains 41 percent of the continental United States, including all or portions of thirty-one states.

During the nineteenth century, the prevailing attitude is that the Mississippi River can be controlled if the laws of nature governing the river can be understood. Two engineers in particular are tied with the early development of the Mississippi River, James Buchanan Eads and Andrew Atkinson Humphreys. They are the two most influential men to work on the river.

James Eads arrives in St. Louis in 1833, at thirteen years of age. The boat he arrives on explodes just off the wharf, and Eads...