Piscataqua River

For the small river of the same name in Falmouth, Maine, see Piscataqua River (Presumpscot River).

Piscataqua River
300px Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, with the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge and the Piscataqua River Bridge (background)
Country	United States
States	New Hampshire, Maine
Tributaries
- left	Salmon Falls River
- right	Cochecho River, Great Bay
Source	Cochecho and Salmon Falls Rivers
- elevation	0 ft (0 m)
- coordinates
Mouth	Atlantic Ocean
- location	Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire/Maine border, USA
- elevation	0 ft (0 m)
- coordinates
Length	12 mi (19 km)

The Piscataqua River (pronounced /pɪs'kæt.ə.kwə/), in the northeastern United States, is a 12-mile (19 km) long tidal estuary formed by the confluence of the Salmon Falls and Cocheco rivers. The drainage basin of the river is approximately 1,495 square miles (3,870 km²), encompassing the additional watersheds of the Great Works River and five rivers flowing into Great Bay: the Bellamy, Oyster, Lamprey, Squamscott, and Winnicut.

The river runs southeastward, determining part of the boundary between the states of New Hampshire and Maine, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean east of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The last six miles before the sea form Portsmouth Harbor, one of the finest harbors in the northeastern United States, despite a tidal current of around 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph). The cities/towns of Portsmouth, New Castle, Newington, Kittery and Eliot have developed around the harbor.

History

Named by the area's original Abenaki inhabitants, Piscataqua is believed to be a combination of peske (branch) with tegwe (a river with a strong current, possibly tidal). The first known European to explore the river was Martin Pring in 1603. Captain John Smith placed a spelling similar to "Piscataqua" for the region on his map of 1614. The river was the site of the first sawmill in the colonies in 1623, the same year the contemporary spelling "Piscataqua" was first recorded.

After the Allies' European victory in the Second World War, a German submarine flying a white flag sailed up the river, where New Hampshire state police received its captain and crew as POWs.

The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard is located on Seavey's Island in Kittery, Maine, near the Piscataqua's mouth. The dispute between New Hampshire and Maine over ownership of Seavey’s Island was settled by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001, locating the state border at the center of the river's navigable channel.

See also

Copy of English map of Maine and New Hampshire, c. 1670

• Badger's Island
• Great Bay (New Hampshire)
• List of rivers of Maine
• List of rivers of New Hampshire
• Memorial Bridge (Portsmouth, New Hampshire)
• Piscataqua River Bridge
• Prescott Park (New Hampshire)
• Sarah Mildred Long Bridge

External links

• MaineRivers.org Piscataqua River
• History as Border of New Hampshire
• Seacoast Forts of Portsmouth Harbor from American Forts Network

References

• Ralph May, Piscataqua, The Correctness of Use and the Meaning of the Word (1966), Randall Press, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
• New Hampshire v. Maine (2001) U.S. Supreme Court Case regarding border dispute

• Ports of Piscataqua, William Gurdon Saltonstall, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1941