it's crazy how busy the mississippi is, and then you drive over one of the missouri river bridges and it's empty as far as the eye can see. I guess they just don't load much in the Kansas City and Omaha ports, they are big rail hubs. Part of me wishes that they would let the channel partially revert and increase the recreational value and ecological health of the river. It was once a very, shallow wide river.
That's a vaguely New Orleans-y perspective of St. Louis. I always get a sense of that when in certain areas of the American Bottoms.