Ol’ Man River – Mighty Mississippi – 3sat

Nature + travel, country + people

Ol’ Man River – Mighty Mississippi

At more than 3800 kilometers, the Mississippi is the third longest river on earth. The film undertakes a journey through time into the past of electricity. Computer animations and game scenes take you back to the times of Mark Twain, the Spanish conquistador de Soto or the early French explorers. It was a long way from the geological formation to the megacities that lie on its banks today. The Mississippi, also known as the “Ol’ Man River”, is a river of superlatives: Its catchment area is the size of the Indian subcontinent, its course measuring more than 3800 kilometers from the headwaters in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico. The wildlife that lives on the banks of the Mississippi is impressive: bison and giant alligators, in the water itself fish like gar and paddlefish, which have been around since prehistoric times.

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