For centuries, inland rivers were the lifelines of nations and empires. Cutting from the top of Minnesota to the Gulf Coast of Louisiana, the Mississippi River is (literally) central to the United States and its enduring influence in the world. Along with its rich historical and cultural significance, the Mississippi River Basin offers the United States a wide swath of fertile land and navigable rivers, allowing the country an inexpensive means to transport goods within and beyond its borders. Inland waterways also underpinned the success of Northern European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, though, unlike in the United States, the rivers and the economic competition they inspired divided the Continent rather than uniting it.
Regardless of their differences, the waterways in Northern Europe and the United States share an important feature: their average depth. To efficiently carry goods, particularly in the era of large freighters and barges, rivers must be deep — at least 2.75 meters (9 feet) deep for craft of more than 500 metric tons. The United States and Europe each benefit from rivers deep enough to accommodate large ships, giving them a natural advantage over other countries. For example, because many of Russia's rivers are too shallow to be of use in transporting goods (and since many of them run to the Arctic — hardly a trade hub) the country has had to rely on railways and pipelines for economic growth. Similarly, Brazil's navigable rivers are either inaccessible — situated in the seemingly impenetrable Amazon rainforest — or inconvenient, flowing to other countries rather than to the coast. Consequently, the country has had to depend on inefficient and capital-intensive highways to transport the agricultural goods it exports.
Nevertheless, rivers do not make or break a country's economic success. With time and the advent of new technology, even the mighty Mississippi River ceded its central role in U.S. infrastructure to some of the nation's other geographic and technical features. The rise of rail and road infrastructure redirected the flow of trade in the United States, linking its east and west coast by land and transforming North America's land-based supply chain. The container ship took the revolution to a global scale and ushered in a new era of international trade over the past 30 years. And as the global economy continues its evolution from the current era of globalization to one of increased automation and digitization, new developments will supplement existing infrastructure, hindering or facilitating countries in their efforts at economic growth.
