New River (Kanawha River)
New River at Hawks Nest State Park
Kanawha River highlighted with the catchment area of the New River.
New River Gorge Bridge in Fayetteville with the
Template: Infobox River / BILD_fehlt
The New River is 515 km long left main source river of the Kanawha River in the U.S. states of North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. In the largest part of its course through West Virginia, he has been designated as the New River Gorge National River. About the Kanawha River and the Ohio River to the New River belongs to the catchment area of the Mississippi River.
Run
The New River is formed from the confluence of the South Fork New River and North Fork New River near Boone in Ashe County, North Carolina. It then flows northeastward past in the Southwest Virginia at Galax and through a gorge in the Iron Mountains. Further north it reaches the Pulaski County, where it is dammed to Claytor Lake. Below the dam opens out of the Little River and the river flows past Radford, before it happens in a transverse valley Walker Mountain. Meanwhile, he changed his direction to the northwest and by the Giles County and Narrows, the river passes to West Virginia.
There, the New River is dammed in Summers County for Bluestone Lake. In these flows from the left of the Bluestone River. Directly below the dam connecting from the right the waters of the Greenbrier River to the New River, which continues its course through the New River Gorge. At the end of this gorge the city Fayetteville is located. A few miles northwest of Fayetteville flows the New River Gauley River with and thus forms the Kanawha River.
A river section of the South Fork New River and its sequel in the true New River (a total of 42 km flow distance ) are ( " scenic " ) in the category " Scenic" awarded as a National Wild and Scenic River.
History
The first exploration by Europeans goes back to 1671, when Abraham Wood sent out an expedition to explore the river. An earlier name of the river is therefore " Wood's River."
In Fayetteville, the flow of the 1977-built New River Gorge Bridge is spanned, the highest road bridge in the United States.
Today the river for rafting is especially popular, as the river is class II -IV and VI to reach on the whitewater difficulty scale during the snow melt.
Towns on New River
- Boone, North Carolina ( the South Fork New River )
- Jefferson, North Carolina
- Fairlawn, Virginia
- Frieze
- Gauley Bridge, West Virginia
- Glen Lyn, Virginia
- Hinton, West Virginia
- Ivanhoe, Virginia
- Narrows, Virginia, Virginia
- Pearisburg, Virginia
- Parrott, Virginia
- Pembroke, Virginia
- Radford, Virginia
- Rich Creek, Virginia
- Thurmond, Virginia
Geology
Despite its name applies (new new means in German ) of the New River among geologists as one of the oldest rivers in the world. His old is estimated at 10-360 million years. However, there is no information to make an accurate chronology. However, the New River follows in contrast to the orientation of the Appalachians, and most other major rivers of Virginia and North Carolina is not the east-west direction, but flows from south to north. This suggests that the river before the folding of the Appalachians arose. However, this hypothesis could not yet be unequivocally confirmed.
Hydrology
The United States Geological Survey operates on the New River at Glen Lyn, Virginia a level. The long-term average annual runoff there is 188 m³ / s The highest measured flow there was in 1987 measured with 631 m³ / s, the lowest value was 1976 s observed with 40 m³ /
Name Variants
According to the Geographic Names Information System for the New River the following name variants are known:
- Conhaway River
- Great Konhaway River
- Kanawha River
- Kunhaway River
- Mon -don -ga -cha- te
- Wood River
- Wood's River
- Woods River
Protected areas on the New River
At New River, the following state protection areas are designated:
- Pisgah National Forest ( on the South Fork New River ), North Carolina
- New River State Park ( on the South Fork New River ), North Carolina
- New River Trail State Park, Virginia
- Shot Tower Historical State Park, Virginia
- Claytor Lake State Park, Virginia
- Jefferson National Forest
- Appalachian National Scenic Trail
- Bluestone State Park, West Virginia
- New River Gorge National River
- Babcock State Park, West Virginia
- Hawks Nest State Park, West Virginia
- Grandview State Park, West Virginia
- Little Beaver State Park, West Virginia