Apalachicola River

Apalachicola River
Map of the Apalachicola River watershed showing the two main tributaries, the Chattahoochee River and the Flint River.
Origin	Confluence of Chattahoochee River and Flint River at Chattahoochee, Florida
Mouth	Gulf of Mexico at Apalachicola, Florida
Basin countries	United States
Length	112 miles (180 km)
Source elevation	77 feet (23 m)
Avg. discharge	16,600 cu ft/s (470 m3/s)
Basin area	19,500 sq mi (50,505 km2)

The Apalachicola River (pronounced /æpəlætʃɨˈkoʊlə/) is a river, approximately 112 mi (180 km) long in the State of Florida. This river's large watershed, known as the ACF River Basin for short, drains an area of approximately 19,500 square miles (50,505 km²) into the Gulf of Mexico. The distance to its farthest headstream in northeast Georgia is approximately 500 miles (800 km). Its name comes from the Apalachicola tribe, which used to live along the river.

It is formed on the state line between Florida and Georgia, near the town of Chattahoochee, Florida, approximately 60 miles northeast of Panama City, by the confluence of the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers. The actual confluence is submerged in the Lake Seminole reservoir formed by the Jim Woodruff Dam. It flows generally south through the forests of the Florida Panhandle, past Bristol. In northern Gulf County, it receives the Chipola River from the west. It flows into Apalachicola Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, at Apalachicola. The lower 30 mi (48 km) of the river is surrounded by extensive swamps and wetlands except at the coast. The channel of the river is being dredged by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide navigation due to a lawsuit with Florida.^{[citation needed]} Except for the area around its mouth, the river serves as the boundary between the Eastern and Central time zones in the United States.

View of the Apalachicola River near Fort Gadsden, Florida.

The basin of the Apalachicola River is noted for its tupelo honey, a high-quality monofloral honey, which is produced wherever the tupelo trees bloom in the southeastern United States. The purest and most expensive version (which is certified by pollen analysis) is produced mainly in this basin and, to a lesser extent, in other panhandle river basins. In a good harvest year, the value of the tupelo honey crop produced by a group of specialized Florida beekeepers approaches $900,000 each spring.

During Florida's British colonial period the river formed the boundary between East Florida and West Florida.

List of crossings

Crossing	Carries	Location	Coordinates
Jim Woodruff Dam		Chattahoochee
Victory Bridge	U.S. 90	Chattahoochee
Rail bridge	CSX	Chattahoochee
	Interstate Highway 10	Marianna to Quincy
Trammell Bridge	FL 20	Bristol
Rail bridge	Apalachicola Northern Railway	Apalachicola
John Gorrie Memorial Bridge	U.S. 98	Apalachicola

See also

• List of Florida rivers
• Voices of the Apalachicola

External links

• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Flint-Chatahoochee-Apalachicola basin
• Florida State Univ: Apalachicola River Ecological Management Plan
• Blountstown Bridge
• The Nature Conservancy on the Apalachicola River The river basin is home to a multitude of biological diversity.
• Apalachicola River: an American Treasure
• Apalachicola Riverkeeper
• Apalachicola River Watershed - Florida DEP
• U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Apalachicola River

Further reading

• Light, H.M., M.R. Darst, and J.W. Grubbs. (1998). Aquatic habitats in relation to river flow in the Apalachicola River floodplain, Florida [U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1594]. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.