When a species gets tooled up like that it is living in a tough neighbour. Wade and Booth said the same thing about fish in the Congo River in their iconic book Somewhere Down the Crazy River.
A superb map.
The Mississippi River boasts over 130 bridges, and the Nile has around nine. But the Amazon River, one of the mightiest on Earth, has zero. A unique combination of factors explains why engineering meets its match here.For its entire length of roughly 4,300 miles, no bridges span the Amazon’s mainstream. This is largely due to the river’s dramatic seasonal changes.During the rainy season, the Amazon can swell from an average width of about 3-6 miles to over 30 miles wide. This extreme flooding constantly reshapes the riverbanks, making them soft and unstable for large structures.The geological makeup of the Amazon basin also presents significant hurdles. Much of the terrain consists of soft sedimentary soils and marshlands, unsuitable for anchoring massive bridge pylons. Additionally, a vast underground water system, sometimes referred to as the Hamza River and identified around 2011 AD, flows deep beneath the Amazon, further complicating any deep foundation work.Beyond these formidable natural barriers, there are practical socioeconomic reasons. The Amazon rainforest is vast and sparsely populated, with few large cities or major roads located directly on the riverbanks that would necessitate a bridge crossing.For the communities that do exist along the river, boats and ferries have long been the established and effective means of transport and commerce. Thus, the immense cost and engineering difficulty of building and maintaining bridges across such a dynamic and challenging environment have not been justified by economic demand.
Another superlative of the Amazon.
Fascinating and interesting.