Which river have you crossed most often in your life?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzS-Jis7kfA

would be the east river (nyc) for me, but it is #actually a [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_River]tidal estuary[url], not a river, and therefore doesn't count

so: probably potomac, possibly allegheny

ew

As a Portlander all my life, the Willamette River by a long shot.

the river Clyde. Lived my whole life along it until i was 27. didn't actually cross it that often for most of those years, was generally on the north side of the river almost all of the time, but went across it and back going to work for 3 years.

The Saint Lawrence, and it's not even close.

that's a fleuve, sorry

(j/k)

I will answer this as I did on Twitter:

https://historicbridges.org/truss/lasalle/little_dscf3501.jpg

(Chicago River. I worked in the brick building on the left for 13 years. Marina Towers, of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot fame, in the background.)

I was going to joke about that but thought better of it for fear of being vmic, so thank you. :)

xp

the Willamette, easy

Grew up in Oxford, south of the Thames, on the other side from the centre of town. Lived in London for 12 years, south of the Thames, on the other side from the centre of town.

Phlegethon

the isar, twice a day every school day for 4 years

https://media.hnd.bayern.de/karten/isar.png

Presumably the Styx, Lethe, Cocytus and Acheron as well?

xp

I'm guessing:

1. Rideau Canal
2. Rideau River
3. Ottawa River
4. Gatineau River
5. Charles River

Hm possibly the Des Plaines, which I grew up near. Though commuting in Chicago to various other places for a decade means it could be the Chicago. I also used to cross the Savannah somewhat often and currently live pretty close to the St Lawrence, though, especially this year, I don't cross it very often.

Rivers are good

Gatineau might actually be highest if I factor in swimming or kayaking across.

Mississippi probably

The Mississippi, easily thousands of times.

Rivers are good

otm

The Trinity, pretty much daily for most of my adult life.

The (White) Cart.

The Tombigbee River (and the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway), several times a week.

The River Severn, easily.

as a commuter to london in my youth, i crossed under the thames via the waterloo & city line twice daily for several years.

if we decided that the hudson and east rivers don't count the answer is probably the bronx river for me. might be even if they do count!

hudson counts

Brazos

Oconee

Probably the Chena river in Fairbanks; six years of driving over it, biking over it, skiing on it and floating down it.

Second would prob be the Seine bc of living in Paris and Rouen.

almost certainly the river Hull which runs down the middle of the city and divides it in two

Must be the Mersey, rarely by the ferry

https://i2-prod.nottinghampost.com/incoming/article3791078.ece/ALTERNATES/s810/0_JS150336570.jpg

The Keweenaw Waterway—it isn't really a river, but close enough.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Portage_Lake_on_the_Keweenaw_Waterway%2C_Michigan.jpg/2880px-Portage_Lake_on_the_Keweenaw_Waterway%2C_Michigan.jpg

The DuPage in Illinois. Eventually that'll likely be overtaken by the Verde in Arizona.

emil.y what bridge is that?

Look, if the Hudson, which is also an estuary, counts, then the East River has to count!

the east river, commuting from brooklyn to manhattan. i THINK. i've also ventured across the hudson and the delaware many times, as someone who grew up in new jersey, attended college and grad school in pennsylvania, and have worked and lived in new york city.

these days i live in fort lee and can see the hudson from my window.

Considering my residential history I've crossed the Hudson shockingly few times. My actual answer might be the St. Lucie River (technically an estuary that was once a river) or the Miami River, both in Florida.

Corrib for last 20 years
Worked on the Liffey at one point or actually a couple of different ones. I know how much vibration you get if you stand in teh middle of teh hapenny bridge from one thing and how badly the wind blows through teh O'Connell brdge's decorative pillars from another.

The Mississippi between Minneapolis and St Paul

That would have been the San Diego Creek, which despite the name is in Orange County. I crossed over it and back every weekday between home in Costa Mesa and work at UC Irvine for 18 years, 1997 to 2015, vacations etc aside. Ever since I've moved to SF I've just walked to work and while I might be crossing over some long covered wetlands I'm not positive about that.

The Credit River probably, followed by the Humber and the Moira.

if the east river doesn't count as a river, it's the truckee river in reno

In order of long-term residences: the Cuyahoga, Potomac, Mersey, and Wisła.

Runners-up for me would be Dâmbovița and the Ill.

emil.y what bridge is that?

― rob

Trent Bridge, Nottingham.

by now it has to be the don river

my runners up are probably the Kelvin in Glasgow and the Fraser (which separates Vancouver and its southern suburbs)

Probably the Thames, possibly the Kennet

https://www.kirkleesimages.org.uk/imagefiles/jpgh_kirklees/k023143.jpg

this me yesterday hiring a rowing boat for 6d for my trip of a lifetime. But tbh if you were to stand at the same vantage point now the view would be identical apart from the rowing boats and the heavy industry/coal burning soot has been sandblasted off the stonework and now has layers of graffiti. Many urbane travellers who have taken the trans Pennine express between Manchester to Leeds have likened the impressive vista at this stage of the journey to crossing the Hudson after they've had one too many cans of overpriced lager or perhaps I repeatedly misheard them and what they actually said was What a fucking shithole!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b1/Billy_Joel_-_River_of_Dreams.jpg

to my knowledge only one river mentioned thus far has ever caught on fire

j/k Probably a tie between the Chicago and the White River (in IN)

probably the mississippi but maybe maybe the st croix

The Mississippi. I live one block away.

If the east river doesnt count (???) santa ynez, probably

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." - Heraclitus

Having said that, I live almost next to the New River where it goes under Green Lanes just north of Manor House, so it's that probably. Although it's neither new nor a river, being an artificial waterway built to supply drinking water to London in the 17th century, but I'll have it anyway.

Either the Chattahoochee or the Seine

Seeing as im in Dublin this long now it must be the liffey

thames is the obvious answer but it might actually be the wandle

ugh Los Angeles River I guess. pretty lame

Another vote for the East River even if it is not really a river.

Uhhhhhhhh idk if I have crossed a single river more than a dozen times in my life? ... I probably have "crossed" the LA river a few times? I have crossed the Russian River a handful of times. For me, it's either the ocean or a creek. ... Wait, I guess when I was a kid and went on narrowboat trips with my parents we did go on rivers and we did cross them regularly to open/close locks and go to villages and do touristy stuff. ... So, uh, the Avon or the Severn probably -- but we're talking over 30 years ago.

The Potomac, hundreds and hundreds of times

wait! wait! i take that back -- probably somewhere between a dozen and a hundred times -- the answer is : the Salinas River!!

The Saint-Laurent, sometimes I can't believe how lucky I am to have both this river and the Mont-Royal so close to where I grew up and live.

Long-time London ILXors with SW/SE postcodes will probably say the Thames... those north of the river may well have other answers :)

If we can count culverted/underground rivers, it might even be the Effra for me. But all my 21 years of commuting in the capital (even the six months I went from Brixton to Crawley) have involved crossing the Thames. That beats 23 years of living next to the Mersey.

okay, looking at a map of the Salinas River in relation to Hwy 101 -- I have crossed that river a lot actually.

I think this is accurate order: the Hiz, Frome, Avon, La Garonne, Thames, Severn

Three-way tie between the Chicago River, Hudson River, and Connecticut River.

Either the tiny Pequabuck River in Connecticut
or the mighty Mississippi in Louisiana.
One's a crick the other's thicc.

My used to always talk about how back in the day in Dublin, the Liffey didn't have barriers/walls against a sheer drop and cars and drunk people were often going into it.

Styx

xp corrib in galway that way still, several a year go in and don't come out

Quite possible I've crossed the East River 100x more than I have any legit river, but I knew before opening the thread that it really shouldn't count. The Hudson, on the other hand, feels like a real river even though it is partially an estuary.

sometimes i hate living in a place where no rivers flow to the ocean.

my answer is the jordan river (no, not that jordan river) which is halfway between a river and a creek really.

Oh come on the East River has to count. If not then I guess prob the Charles.

For me would be the White river which snakes across Indiana in two forks. The river pretty much circles Muncie at one point and runs through downtown Indianapolis.

I'm sure the Kentucky river is catching up though crossing it twice a day for work. Kentucky river is pretty geologically wild, it is really old and it is very striking how snakes through the mountains at Frankfort to down south of Lexington. From the river the sides are just very steep rises. Hard to fathom what it might have been like in earlier times, it had to be just huge and very deep at one point.

"The Kentucky River…flows between two walls of limestone rock from 300 to 450 feet high-almost perfectly vertical, and varying from 1,000 to 1,300 feet apart. This canyon is extremely tortuous, and the stream flowing through it is about 300 feet in width at ordinary stages. The maximum rise above low water is 57 feet, and the extreme flood speed observed was eight miles per hour."

The S bridge on highway 62 that crosses the KY river is really unique, it's very strange taking a curve on a bridge. Wild Turkey's distillery is near by and when you come out of the curve there is a huge sign for the bourbon.

I like how French has rivières and fleuves, and as a result I think if your river is called [X] River you're fine, fuck an estuary

Here in California we just let our rivers empty into the sea like idiots, very wasteful imho

East River (i refuse to accept this "tidal estuary" nonsense)
or
Providence River.

my answer is the jordan river (no, not that jordan river) which is halfway between a river and a creek really.

― satanist of size (map), Tuesday, January 26, 2021 4:54 PM (one hour ago)

guessing Bro. Brigham and co. were excited there was a river and so they called it the Jordan River and begat South Jordan (et al) where a dude I crushed on in high school moved w/his family

I think it is pretty easily the Charles River for me

same tbh

Quite possible I've crossed the East River 100x more than I have any legit river, but I knew before opening the thread that it really shouldn't count. The Hudson, on the other hand, feels like a real river even though it is partially an estuary.

the hudson is a legit river upstate, at least, and has a certain cachet

anyway if you wanna say east river that's cool as long as you offer a runner-up

Des Plaines!

In my nearly 25 years on the west coast, I've crossed lakes, bays, and creeks but rarely rivers. However I
spent a childhood a half mile a way from this muddy mosquito spawning ground.

Rocky (between Cleveland and near west suburbs). Cuyahoga, Black (Lorain County, OH)

Mississippi between Minneapolis and St. Paul

The one that's a TV and film trope

https://i2.wp.com/www.martinturnbull.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Drag-racing-in-the-Los-Angeles-River-1950s.jpg

Probably the Huron River in Ann Arbor.

The Danube, crossing it almost every day for 10 years for work.

Likewise with the Seine. For years I crossed it twice every day for work.

Probably the Thames, possibly the Kennet

― Mark G, Tuesday, 26 January 2021 22:06 bookmarkflaglink

I was going to say Thames, followed by Severn, but you know what the Kennet is a good shout - how many times did I actually cross the Thames when I lived in Reading, not that many, OK probably crossed it a lot of times in London, but apart from the 6 months I lived up Oxford Road I would've crossed the Kennet every time I went into town, and I worked in the town centre for a few years, that's a lot of crossings.

oh but I worked in Battersea for 2 years. that is also a lot of Thames crossings

xpost yeah I crossed the Thames lots when I was commuting, but I'd have crossed the Kennet each time when I was train comm..

river leam

Weirdly enough, it could be the Liffey even though I only lived in Dublin four years? Almost seven in London, though I crossed the river a lot less in that time (and why would I tbh 🙃)

The Waterford... followed by the Sakai

I grew up near the Thames so that. Since I moved sarf, it'd be the Itchen which I walk and cross most days.

When it hurts we return to the banks of certain rivers.
Czeslaw Milosz.

My number two is the Basingstoke Canal

In the first twenty years of my life, it would've been the Ward in Swords, County Dublin (known locally as the Jacko), or the Broadmeadow. Then I moved to the city, and it would've been the Liffey. Now it's the Boyne. For number of crossings, though, the Liffey probably takes it, because you'd easily cross it several times in the course of a single trip into town.

This is it, the river I commute across in normal times is two times a day, but even that seems less than the dozens of times you’d go back and forth over the Liffey?!

Youd cross the liffey four times for a good sandwich sher

Earlier in life, the Little Patuxent River, which ran near my home.

https://md.water.usgs.gov/gage_images/01594000.ctrl.jpg

More recently, the South River, which I crossed at least 4 times a day for the last ten years on my commute.

https://img.marinas.com/v2/594244dff6063b63e6386e5c24cc6e26e94edd72794a335c4a3d29138013ef91.jpg

Both in Maryland. Both have seen their share of swimming, wading, etc. in addition to simply crossing. The Little Patuxent would probably still win overall, but it's pretty close.

good thread

close contender between Tennessee River and the East River in NY for me

The Trent, probably between 8000 and 10000 times.

Likely a tie between the Severn & Avon for me

Although up to a few years ago the Nene would have been in the running

Oh and Frome

it's either the Leie/Lys or Schelde/Scheldt for me

The Trent, probably between 8000 and 10000 times.

― mike t-diva

High five, comrade.

Also Nick, so you grew up at least for a few years in Germany??

Do rivers under lakes count?

Eh, even still, it's probably the Arkansas. Just crossed it again an hour ago.

Goes from this:
https://i.imgur.com/NOhgYqo.jpg

To this:
https://i.imgur.com/HfSmU2G.jpg

And is why whenever I do a search for state news on the AP wire, I get a bunch of weather advisories from Colorado.

i'd be interested to know what plateaus ilxors have spent the most time on

or should that be plateaux

unglaciated allegheny plateau for me iirc

Also Nick, so you grew up at least for a few years in Germany??

Yeah I was in Munich from the age of 12 to until I was 16 (air force dad)

It's interesting to think about whether, in the US at least, there are a lot of places where you wouldn't cross a river every day or even most days or even some days? Idk, I think port cities are strongly represented here because obviously, but surely most of the US has no water access at all?

i'd be interested to know what plateaus ilxors have spent the most time on

― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, January 27, 2021 3:17 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the colorado plateau, if the great basin doesn't count as one.

guessing Bro. Brigham and co. were excited there was a river and so they called it the Jordan River and begat South Jordan (et al) where a dude I crushed on in high school moved w/his family

― sarahell, Wednesday, January 27, 2021 2:14 AM (thirteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

lots of begetting, lots of biblical renaming, although they kept a surprising amount of the paiute names and did a surprising amount of renaming that wasn't biblical, just dull as dishwater (think "deer creek"). don't mean to presume too much, but you seem to have crushed on more than one mormon boy once upon a time, and from experience i can say that mormon boys/men and 95% of ex-mormon boys/men are total trash.

It's interesting to think about whether, in the US at least, there are a lot of places where you wouldn't cross a river every day or even most days or even some days? Idk, I think port cities are strongly represented here because obviously, but surely most of the US has no water access at all?

― Ima Gardener (in orbit), Wednesday, January 27, 2021 3:46 PM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i think nearly everywhere has a stream, creek, or ditch that people often cross. one city i can think of that might not is las vegas, though it does have a "river" in the form of a concrete canal, similar to los angeles.

surely most of the US has no water access at all?

usa has 250,000 rivers stretching about 3.5 million miles -- there aren't too many places you can go very far without crossing a lil one

https://mymodernmet.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/us-river-maps-artful-data-5.jpg

Keep thinking about
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAX0OT2UNIU

idg las vegas -- why is it there instead of closer to the colorado?

no idea, ask the mormons

some springs or drainage from mount charleston i think

i think nearly everywhere has a stream, creek, or ditch that people often cross.

When I lived in Durham NC I crossed creeks each day. But no rivers. Same thing in the Bay Area.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40jUD84S7Nk

the Chattahoochee, if we're only counting major rivers. (h/t Alan Jackson)

This, if counting smaller tributaries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_River_(Georgia)

As a Portlander all my life, the Willamette River by a long shot.

St Clair River, at the southernmost point of Lake Huron, hopping the border between Ontario and Michigan

I like this question!

Potomac by a long shot (former DC resident of 20ish years), followed by Monongahela (former Pittsburgh resident/frequent visitor for some years).

I need to look at a map and see what river is now closest to me in coastal SoCal. Nowhere close, is my guess.

https://www.google.com/maps/@28.5423186,-80.9443514,3a,39.3y,106.02h,89.56t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sHcP-xWZEzolaSQRwPnxMsQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

(St. John's River in Florida)

Has to be the Etobicoke River when I lived in Toronto (although I probably wasn't even aware of it most of the time). Not a very glamorous answer.

Here I am a few months ago crossing the Thames River where I live now. I have a fear of heights, so it took me almost a year to walk across this bridge; about a dozen times I tried to and turned back. I finally managed only when a visiting friend walked me over.

https://phildellio.tripod.com/bridge.jpg

aww good work lol!

Idk, I think port cities are strongly represented here because obviously, but surely most of the US has no water access at all?

This is kinda convoluted in that you can have water access and no river ... and yeah, historically port cities have rivers, because that was how goods were transported, but with railroads and later industrialization (e.g. highways, airports), this isn't necessarily the case. Oakland is one the busiest West Coast ports and has no river, and I strongly doubt Long Beach (which I think is an even busier port than Oakland) has a river either.

long beach is where the la river meets the ocean! part of this is that california took all the river water so they're either dry or underground/diverted/extremely modified. santa barbara for instance has a lot of drainage but i believe most of it is diverted or tunneled under the city. or seasonal / dry.

the keweenaw waterway aka portage canal was already mentioned here - I've lived on both sides of it and have crossed it at least a dozen times in a single day

There's only one bridge between the rest of michigan and 'copper island' which is 550 square miles with maybe 10,000 people (and both hospitals, so good luck if the bridge gets stuck):

https://www.mtu.edu/tour/community/images/houghton-hancock-800banner.jpg

long beach is where the la river meets the ocean! part of this is that california took all the river water so they're either dry or underground/diverted/extremely modified. santa barbara for instance has a lot of drainage but i believe most of it is diverted or tunneled under the city. or seasonal / dry.

― satanist of size (map), Wednesday, January 27, 2021 7:03 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

and obviously much of california is borderline desert

i'd be interested to know what plateaus ilxors have spent the most time on

Hardly any. Sea level 4 lyf.

San Gabriel (twice a day in a 13+ year commute), then Arroyo Seco, and 3rd Los Angeles. None of these are "rivers" the way most of the others in this thread are.

i'd be interested to know what plateaus ilxors have spent the most time on

meat puppets ii

yeah the "Seco" kinda gives it away?

Like the East River problem upthread, the Bay Area is a bit of a technicality because the bodies of water that the famous 8 local bridges cross are technically not rivers despite being massive outflows (*most of the time, but often brackish) of glaciermelt from the Sierra Nevada & Coastal Range mountains into the Pacific Ocean.

Where the Sacramento River ends, the bay begins:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/04/Sacramento_River_basin_map.png/800px-Sacramento_River_basin_map.png

A rephrase of "Which body of water have you crossed most often?" or "Which bridge..." would help me because I have no idea the answer to the OP lol.

Up to the top of the Shasta Gulch
To the bottom of the Tahoe Lake
Manmade deltas and concrete rivers
The South takes what the North delivers

yeah the "Seco" kinda gives it away?

― sarahell

But when it rages, it rages.

I imagine it would be the river Garnock which ran past the end of the garden of the house where I grew up, I spent 26 years in London but mostly N, N/W or Central, so perhaps some obscure underground river in N Central London?

"i'd be interested to know what plateaus ilxors have spent the most time on"

The escarpment I can see out my back window is the edge of the Colorado plateau

In the Hawaiian language, wai means fresh water and luku means destruction, so Wailuku means essentially River of Destruction. The river can rise into the trees and drop back down very fast. The high flood marks can be seen dated in concrete, on the stairs going down to the river behind the Hilo Public Library.

(runner up: willamette)

Where the Sacramento River ends, the bay begins:

Northernist!

If creeks don't count, then the Lehigh River, followed by the East River, Schuykill, Hudson, Delaware and Big Muddy.

River: Susquehanna. Creek: Conodoguinet.

in texas they’ll call anything bigger than a trickle a river, it’s okay

Would have been the East River, unless that doesn’t count, in which case it’s the Bronx River. And I only see more Bronx River crossings in my future, with very few more over the East River.

oh no did you sell out

(j/k)

I didn’t sell out. I bought in.

Rubicon

Tbh I feel for Bay Area folks... a liftetime spent crossing bodies of water, often over iconic bridges, but all over either a bay or various creeks - no rivers. The answer to the suggestion that residents of major port cities will be accustomed to river crossings: not when they are fed by something other than what are technically ‘rivers’ (see Hudson and East River discussions for example).

if the East River isn't really a river then does that mean Long Island isn't an island?

That link tried to download something to my hard drive.

It's a pdf on the topic by the oceanographer quoted in this Newsday article

TL;DR it's an island! but not legally recognized as such for reasons that may be more political than scientific

today I realised that the Solent is also not a river, despite having spent four years of my life in Southampton

Has to be the Thames for me, even though I've never lived in London, but I've also never lived anywhere in the US with a river that I had to go over with any regularity that I recall. But when I am in London (which used to be at least once a year) I'd usually wind up crossing it twice a day.

Easily the Schuylkill, with the Sacramento a very very close second- much of my life has been spent in either Philadelphia or California, so that explains it.