Merrimack River

River in Pembroke, NH

Catchment area of ​​the Merrimack River

Industrial buildings on Merrimack in Lowell, MA

Its catchment area is about 12,900 km ². Its average discharge is 215 m³ / s

Geography

The Merrimack has two source rivers: the Pemigewasset River, which rises Lake in the mountains of New Hampshire in the profiles, and the Winnipesaukee River, the outflow of Lake Winnipesaukee. These two rivers unite at the town of Franklin, NH to Merrimack River. The Merrimack initially flows southward and led before the Ice Age, still near the present-day Boston in the Atlantic. After the retreat of glaciers and glacial debris deposition on the middle reaches of the river changed its course and is now headed in Lowell, MA from east and finally ends in Newburyport, MA north of Boston in the Atlantic.

Inflows

The two source rivers and major tributaries of the Merrimack River in the downstream direction:

Hydropower plants

In the course of the River Merrimac River are several hydroelectric plants.

A selection of water turbines in downstream direction:

History

The river's name goes back to the word Merruasquamack ("place of the rapids " ), with the designated Native Americans originally only the current section on the middle reaches between the present cities of Manchester (New Hampshire) and Lowell. From the 1630s the valley was settled by English Puritans. Newburyport was founded in 1635, Rowley 1638th With the progressive industrialization of the Merrimack was an important transportation route in the region. On the river whipped logs were floated down to the shipyards of Newburyport in the woods of New Hampshire. With the completion of the Middlesex Canals from Chelmsford to Charlestown Merrimack in 1803 Charles River and thus to the the port of Boston; subsequently shifted and the ship from Newburyport to Boston. Ship traffic on the canal has already been set in 1851 in the face of competition from the railways.

In the 19th century, many water-powered textile mills were built along the lower reaches of the Merrimack in Lowell even an extensive inner city canal system was expanded. The valley became a center of the American textile industry, which still bear witness to many historic industrial buildings.

For the American literary history is important Henry David Thoreau's travelogue A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. Jack Kerouac's autobiographical novel Doctor Sax ( 1959), among others, the devastating flood of the Merrimac in March 1936 on the topic.

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