Experts explained how a river somehow left behind its own bridge, and the story is wilder than you’d think. Over time, powerful water currents slowly shifted, carving a new path and leaving the old riverbed—and its bridge—high and dry. What was once a vital crossing over rushing water is now stranded over empty land. Scientists say this can happen when erosion, sediment buildup, and natural shifts in the landscape force a river to change course. In some cases, human activity, like construction or deforestation, speeds up the process. So now, this abandoned bridge stands as a strange reminder that even rivers don’t always stick to the plan! Animation is created by Bright Side.
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FunTranscript
00:00Imagine you're driving across a bridge to visit a friend.
00:04The next day, you get in your car to go back, but there is no longer a river under the bridge
00:09you drove across yesterday.
00:11Believe it or not, this is exactly what happened to people in the south of Honduras when Category
00:175 Hurricane Mitch hit in October 1998.
00:21Choloteca Bridge, which the local authorities reconstructed earlier that year, was left
00:26in the dry as the river now flowed around it, not under it.
00:30The structure soon became famous online as the Bridge to Nowhere.
00:35This waterway shifted its course overnight, but it normally happens over longer spans
00:40of time.
00:42A river will stop flowing straight when there is even the tiniest change in the landscape
00:46around it.
00:47Even something as tiny as a mouse can weaken a riverbank.
00:51Imagine a family of mice decides to start a home somewhere by the river and digs a
00:56cozy hole.
00:58Over time, water gets inside this hole and starts washing away any loose soil.
01:03Give it a couple of centuries, and the river will now have a bend in this place.
01:08And if you're worried about the mice family, don't be, because they moved out a long
01:12time before the water flooded their home.
01:16Things happen even faster for small streams because, well, their beds are also smaller.
01:22The current breaks down stones, the ground takes them in, and voila, a riverbed or bottom
01:28is formed.
01:29The current is the strongest in the middle of the waterway, and its power directly shapes
01:34the riverbed.
01:35The water flowing through rivers is full of soil and other particles.
01:39All this stuff goes from the spring into the mouth of a river and into Earth's oceans.
01:45In some cases, these particles build up at some point.
01:48And that's how new beaches, probably including your favorite, are born from fine-grained
01:54sand.
01:55On the other side of the river, the flow of water is much faster, so this fast-moving
01:59current literally slams against the next bank.
02:03Then the process of erosion starts all over again.
02:08River erosion is what happens when the flowing water takes away soil.
02:12And I have to tell you, things go super fast there.
02:15That water is so energetic, it can even carve into rocks, creating a canyon.
02:20If the riverbanks consist of loose material, such as hummus, that's the soil you plant
02:25a flower in, then it is easier for the flowing water to erode it.
02:30Rivers in the plains are often wide and slow because there's little resistance from the
02:34ground around them.
02:36So you don't have to worry about waves tipping over your boat on a flatland river.
02:40In the mountains, streams quickly wash away all the surface soil and gravel, revealing
02:45the bedrock beneath them.
02:47It's tightly bound, so mountain streams are literally set in stone, as they cannot
02:52wash away this bedrock.
02:54So we have erosion to blame for waterways changing their course, and also mountains
02:59and hills.
03:00When a stream reaches a mountain or simply a rock, it has two choices – to flow around
03:05it or carve its way through it.
03:08On flatlands, rivers don't have any natural competition, so they choose a more winding
03:12path.
03:14All this twisting and turning increases the river's total length from the source to
03:18the mouth.
03:20One such example is the mighty Mississippi River in the U.S.
03:24It has a lot of curves and bends, which are called meanders.
03:28In the last century and a half alone, the Mississippi changed its course several times.
03:34The last major case was in 1876 when it left the historic city of Vicksburg in the dry.
03:40Two years later, a team of American engineers came to the area to construct the Yazoo Diversion
03:46Canal, which took 25 years to complete.
03:49Thanks to it, ships could once again sail to Vicksburg, reviving the town's economy.
03:55What happened in this southern U.S. town in the 19th century is an ordinary natural consequence
04:00of river erosion.
04:02The bends in a waterway grow sharper over time, making the water flow faster.
04:07This speeds up erosion, and individual bends slowly start approaching each other to the
04:12point they merge.
04:14When this happens, the river straightens up overnight, leaving a lake in the form of a
04:18horseshoe in the place where the bend was.
04:21This newly formed body of water is called an oxbow lake.
04:26These still-water lakes either dry up, since they're no longer fed by a spring, or they
04:31turn into swamps.
04:32In some cases, humans use them as water meadows used for agriculture.
04:37Lake Chicot in Arkansas is the largest oxbow lake in North America, formed by the Mississippi
04:43several centuries ago.
04:46The source of the Mississippi is a lake in Minnesota, but a river can also start when
04:51two other watercourses become one, or when the water simply bubbles up from under the
04:56ground.
04:57Even melting snow can feed a river, like the Amazon gets its water from the Andes.
05:02Determining the source of a waterway can be tricky, so the debate about whether Amazon
05:07or the Nile is longer is still ongoing.
05:10What scientists know for certain is that the Amazon carries more water than any other river.
05:16One-fifth of all the fresh water that enters Earth's oceans comes from the South American
05:22River.
05:23When you look at the Amazon River on a map, you'll notice how it flows from Peru to
05:27Brazil, that is, from the west to the east.
05:31This direction might seem odd when you compare it to the Mississippi, which flows to the
05:35south on the map.
05:36It's so confusing because you probably know rivers flow down, affected by gravity, but
05:42down doesn't automatically mean south.
05:46Running water will try to find the easiest route down, so there are no rules in terms
05:50of cardinal directions.
05:53The Nile River is the best example of this, as it actually flows north into the Mediterranean
05:58Sea.
05:59Northern Egypt, where all those pyramids are located, is on lower ground than Sudan, where
06:05the Nile is formed when the Blue Nile and the White Nile merge.
06:10Ab in Northern Asia and the Mackenzie River in Canada both flow northwest, while the Yellow
06:16River in East Asia flows in the same direction as Amazon, to the east, into the Pacific Ocean.
06:23These major rivers are some of the best examples that a stream doesn't have to flow from
06:27the north to the south.
06:30Gravity is the only important factor that determines which way a stream will flow, as
06:34running water is all the time pulled downwards.
06:38The flow of water is faster on steeper slopes.
06:41When there's a sudden drop in the flow, waterfalls form.
06:46Angel Falls in Venezuela is the highest waterfall on the planet, with water dropping from a
06:51height of 2,600 feet.
06:53Watch your step.
06:55In a waterfall, the falling water can easily reach the speed of a Thompson's Gazelle.
07:00But as a river approaches the end of its journey, it slows down significantly.
07:05The stream doesn't have enough energy to cut into the nearby land.
07:09All the sediment it has picked up along the way, such as sandstone, slows it down.
07:14At the place where a river meets the ocean or a lake, it gets rid of the sediment along
07:19its banks, creating a delta, an area rich in fertile soil.
07:24The Ganges in India has the biggest delta in the world, several hundred miles wide and
07:29visible from space.
07:31The Amazon, on the other side, doesn't have a true delta, because the strong currents
07:36of the Atlantic Ocean wash away everything the torrent brings.
07:40The deepest section of the riverbed that runs along its middle is called a channel.
07:45This is where the current is the strongest, so ships travel on top of these channels.
07:50When engineers want to expand a waterway, they simply dig a deeper channel, and voila,
07:56larger ships can now pass.
07:58This is just one way humans alter watercourses.
08:01We often strengthen the banks of a river to prevent erosion or build dams that stop or
08:06divert the flow of water.
08:08The oldest operational dam on the planet dates back to the time of Egyptian pharaohs.
08:14It was, of course, the first damn thing.
08:18That's it for today!
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08:24friends!
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