Apalachicola River

The Apalachicola River is a river about 160 miles (260 km) long in the state of Florida. It is an important waterway that flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The river has a large area of land, called a watershed, that feeds into it. This watershed is known as the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint (ACF) River Basin and covers around 19,500 square miles (50,500 km²).

The river begins very far away in northeast Georgia, where it is called the Chattahoochee River. If you measure from the farthest point where the river starts, it is about 500 miles (800 km) to where it ends in the Gulf of Mexico. The name "Apalachicola" comes from an old group of Native American towns that lived near what is now the Chattahoochee River. Long ago, Spanish explorers thought of the Chattahoochee River and the Apalachicola River as one big river all the way from the southern Appalachian foothills to the Gulf of Mexico.

Description

The Apalachicola River starts where the Flint and Chattahoochee rivers meet near Chattahoochee, Florida, close to Panama City. It flows south through the forests of the Florida Panhandle, passing Bristol, and joins the Gulf of Mexico at Apalachicola, Florida. The lower part of the river is surrounded by swamps and wetlands.

This river has some of the richest forests in the United States, with many different kinds of plants and animals. It is home to special trees like the Florida torreya, found only in this area. The river also produces tasty Tupelo honey, made by bees from the flowers of tupelo trees. The land around the river includes important natural areas such as Apalachicola National Forest and Torreya State Park.

List of crossings

Crossing	Carries	Location
Jim Woodruff Dam		Chattahoochee
Victory Bridge	U.S. 90	Chattahoochee
Rail bridge	CSX Transportation	Chattahoochee
Dewey M. Johnson Bridge	Interstate Highway 10	Marianna to Quincy
Trammell Bridge	SR 20	Bristol
Rail bridge	Apalachicola Northern Railway	Apalachicola
John Gorrie Memorial Bridge	U.S. 98 U.S. 319	Apalachicola