Russell Bourne

The wondrous roll of American rivers' names! Because of the rivers' significance, because of their power to shape human endeavor and to stimulate creativity, U.S. history can quite properly be told through them. On the Ohio River in 1817, a literate traveler named Morris Birkbech saw that connection; he sensed the end of one historical age and the beginning of another when he noted the heavy pulsing of the waterborne traffic. He exclaimed, "Old America...