The Birdfoot - the end of the Mississippi River
USGS satellite image

Contrary to popular belief, the Mississippi River does not stop at New Orleans. Downstream there is another hundred miles of river, flowing between parallel levee walls, until the levees stop and the river splays out into the Gulf, and ends.

This is the forgotten, ignoble end of the river that drains nearly two-thirds of the lower 48 states.

The end of the road at the end of the river.

 

The last road downstream on the Mississippi turns to dirt, and ends at a concrete pad where oil tanks once stood, before being damaged by Katrina.

The concrete pedestrian pathway is the main street through the mostly abandoned buildings of Pilottown,

In Pilottown

  Artificial islands constructed to counteract land loss in the Birdfoot.

  Looking upstream from the Head of Passes, where the Mississippi splits into the three main channels

  The battered marina at Port Eads

  The bar pilots station

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