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There are very few cities that lie on both sides of a major river. Minneapolis and St. Paul both do, as well as Kansas City and New Orleans and Pittsburgh. A few other Minnesota towns straddle the Mississippi, including Brainerd, Little Falls and St. Cloud. Any others?
Arguably, the Hudson River flows into a bay, which is between the boroughs. I exclude such rivers as the Chicago River, which is "major" only because it is associated with a city.
Here are some others I came up with:
~ Jacksonville, Florida lies on both sides of the St. Johns River.
~ New Orleans, while mostly on the eastern bank of the Mississippi (in reality the northern bank at this point in the flow) does have a portion of its city limits on the opposite side.
~ Tulsa, OK is similar to New Orleans in that most of the city lies east of the Arkansas River, but does extend to the opposite bank.
~ further upstream, Wichita, KS lies on both sides of the Arkansas. Don't know if you would consider it a major river at this point as barge traffic stops at Tulsa, but the Arkansas is still the sixth longest river in the country.
~ Nashville, TN lies on both sides of the Cumberland. The Cumberland is navigable to Nashville.
~ Chattanooga, TN and Knoxville TN lie on both sides of the Tennessee River. The River is navigable to Knoxville.
I would suggest one of the reasons many other major cities seem to lie on one side of a river is that most of the major rivers in the country are also the borders of the states where these cities lie. The urbanized area on the other side of the river is a different city because it is in a different state: St. Lous, MO and East St. Louis, IL; Cincinnati OH and Covington/Newport, KY; Louisville, KY and New Albany, IN; Philadelphia, PA and Camden, NJ; Memphis, TN and West Memphis, AR; Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA to name a few.
According to the Census Bureau, one can drive from a midwestern city like Bridgeport, OH, cross the river to the southern city of Wheeling, WV, and be in a northeastern state (PA) in less than 15 minutes. Also Weirton, WV, a southern city, actually shares borders with the midwest and northeast.
I would suggest one of the reasons many other major cities seem to lie on one side of a river is that most of the major rivers in the country are also the borders of the states where these cities lie. The urbanized area on the other side of the river is a different city because it is in a different state: St. Lous, MO and East St. Louis, IL; Cincinnati OH and Covington/Newport, KY; Louisville, KY and New Albany, IN; Philadelphia, PA and Camden, NJ; Memphis, TN and West Memphis, AR; Portland, OR and Vancouver, WA to name a few.
Towns located on rivers often had a competing town on the opposite bank, under a separate municipal identiy, even if in the same state, in an era when there were no bridges. So the two evolved as separate entities. Like Little Rock/North Little Rock, or Columbia/West Columbia, or Pasco/Kennewick/Richland, or Baton Rouge/Port Allen. Many of those that you mentioned were established as towns before statehood, but still the river was an obstruction to municipal expansion. Hence, the oddity of geography is that there in fact ARE a few such cities.
According to the Census Bureau, one can drive from a midwestern city like Bridgeport, OH, cross the river to the southern city of Wheeling, WV, and be in a northeastern state (PA) in less than 15 minutes. Also Weirton, WV, a southern city, actually shares borders with the midwest and northeast.
The Columbia River is on the outskirts of Portland, but the Willamette flows right thru the heart of the city. I believe it flows thru Salem and Eugene as well.
...the Hudson River flows into a bay, which is between the boroughs...
...or does the bay flow into the hudson?
Few people know that the Hudson is not really a river (in the truest sense of the word), but a tidal estuary - the tide in Albany can change up to /and over 7 feet.
There are no permanent rivers or lakes in the entire nation of Saudi Arabia, which covers 870,000 square miles.
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