Translations:The principle of least time/5/en

Southern Louisiana exists in its present form because periodically the Mississippi River has radically changed course by jumping here and there within an arc about 200 miles wide. Major shifts of that nature have tended to occur about once a millennium. About 1000 years ago, the Mississippi’s channel shifted to the river’s present course. Today, the Mississippi River has advanced far past New Orleans and out into the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippi River wants to change its course again to follow a shorter and steeper route, but engineers have built a levee system to keep the river from jumping its banks and changing course.