Facts About The American Heartland

Not a terribly imaginative title, but …

For the benefit of readers from outside North America—and maybe for some closer to home—here are a few facts and links to explore that will deepen an understanding of what Big Serge had in mind when he retweeted this map:

Nando that Noticed Too Much @QuetzalPhoenix

Pictured: The true source of the United States' power. Will not explain.

Suggestive as this map is, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

The Mississipi River system actually connects to the Great Lakes system via the Illinois River and a canal—meaning, the Gulf of Mexico is connected to the Great Lakes and through the St. Lawrence Seaway to the North Atlantic and all the major cities and the industrial (“The Rustbelt”) and agricultural heartland along the way. The Great Lakes themselves are a wonder of the world—”the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total area and are second-largest by total volume, containing 21% of the world's surface fresh water by volume.”

Here’s a map that gives a better idea of the importance of the full scope of navigable inland waterways in the US, and how they connect the heartland to seaports and the world:

Finally, to give some idea of what all this means, here’s a link to the Soo Locks:

The Soo Locks, despite being closed during the winter months of January through March, are the busiest locks in the world by tonnage.

This only scratches the surface as far as America’s resources are concerned. But the natural logistics serve in a way as a multiplying factor for those resources.