Youghiogheny River

Ohiopyle Falls of the Youghiogheny River

Map of the catchment area of the Monongahela River, the river is highlighted.

Parts of the river are used extensively for white water sports

The Youghiogheny River ( pronunciation: [ ˌ jɑ.kəgeɪ.ni ] ) is a 196 km long right tributary of the Monongahela River in the U.S. states of West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

It drains the west side of the Allegheny Mountains and performs as its receiving water of rivulets and streams in the far west of Maryland in the catchment area of the Mississippi River to, to which it belongs on the Monongahela River and the Ohio River. The area of its catchment area is 4440 km ².

Geography

The Youghiogheny River rises in northern West Virginia in Preston County, southeast of County Seats Kingwood and near Backbone Mountain. The headwaters of the river is located in 16 km distance to the headwaters of the North Branch of the Potomac River. The river first flows in a north - northeasterly direction into Garrett County, Maryland, where he runs about 5 km parallel to the state line into West Virginia. In this section, it flows past Oakland.

Between Fayette and Somerset County, he passes over the state line into Pennsylvania. He sat by route continues northeast through a breakthrough in Chestnut Ridge and then passes Connellsville. It flows from the southeast coming in McKeesport, southeast of Pittsburgh in the Monongahela River.

Upstream from Confluence, about 10 km north of the border between Maryland and Pennsylvania, is the reservoir Youghiogheny River Lake. It is dammed in Pennsylvania by the 56 m high dam Youghiogheny Dam. The lake was built in 1944 primarily for flood control.

The building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Fallingwater is located in the valley of the river southeast of Connellsville.

History

During the colonial period and in the early days of the United States the river valley for the settlers and soldiers was an important access route over the mountains away from Virginia into Ohiogebiet of Western Pennsylvania. In 1754, a militia officer in the British colony of Virginia followed by the name of George Washington to the river to explore a waterway to the city was still in French possession of Fort Duquesne.

A former Fort in Somerset was flooded after the Youghiogheny Dam was built. Perryopolis in northern Fayette County is the place where the George Washington Grist Mill is located. The Youghiogheny River Trail follows the river in southwestern Pennsylvania southeast of Connellsville.

Runoff

The United States Geological Survey operates in Sutersville a level and the average annual runoff of the river there is 99 m³ / s Since Sutersville few miles above the mouth is, the actual amount of water that the Monongahela River feeds the river, a little higher.