Western River Clearance Project

 

This model of a river clearance project is designed to narrow the river channel and thereby to force the water speed to increase to get through the smaller opening, The bottom of the river channel is sand or mud and the more rapid flow of the water will scour out the bottom of the river to a deeper depth, allowing the Western River Steamboats to move up the river channel where before it was too shallow. These projects helped to open longer stretches of Western Rivers to commerce and travel.