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The Quequechan River is a river in Fall River, Massachusetts, that flows in a northwesterly direction from the northwest corner of the South Watuppa Pond〔(Citizens Information Service )〕 through the heart of the city of Fall River and into to the end of the Taunton River at Mount Hope Bay at Heritage State Park/ Battleship Cove. The word Quequechan means "Falling River" or "Leaping/Falling Waters" in Wampanoag, hence the city's name.〔(Centennial History of Fall River, Mass. )〕 The river is 〔U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. (The National Map ), accessed April 1, 2011〕 and is mostly placid and stagnant in certain places, until it nears downtown Fall River near City Hall, where a quickly declining grade causes it to turn rapid down the hill into Mount Hope Bay/Taunton River. From 1813, with the establishment of the Fall River Manufactory, the river enabled Fall River to establish itself as a leading textile center during the early 19th century. It originally contained a series of eight small waterfalls in a narrow stream between what is now South Main Street and the tidal Taunton River. During the first half of the 19th century, the "Fall River" was nearly completely covered by textile mills. he upper portion of the river, east of Pleasant Street, was dammed to provide additional water power and storage for the mills.〔''History of Fall River'', Henry H. Earl, 1877.〕 Between 1913 and 1914, the city of Fall River put together the Quequechan River Report published in 1915, to look into the problems the river was presented with. During the hot summer months, the water flowed very low and slowly and the water quality was becoming questionable.〔http://books.google.com/books?id=kYUsAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false〕 Chemical reactions were occurring occasionally on the river's edge from industrial mill wastes combined with hot water discharge, human wastes and other wastes (a dump was located on the river), causing further sanitary health concerns, and interest in the river in general.〔http://books.google.com/books/about/Report_of_the_Watuppa_Ponds_and_Quequech.html?id=kYUsAAAAYAAJ〕 During the 1960s, Interstate 195 was constructed through the city along the length of the Quequechan River. The portion west of Plymouth Avenue was routed underground through a series of box culverts, while much of the eastern section "mill pond" was filled in for the highway embankment including the start of the Quequechan River being filled in for Exit 2 on Route 24, and portions of Route 24 and 195 built directly on the Quequechan River resulting in a change in the water flow, fish and wildlife over the years. There are plans to construct a bike path on the abandoned railroad that parallels Interstate 195 directly over the Quequechan, expose the falls where they were downtown and improve the quality of the river. ==Geography== The river consists of two distinct parts - a flat upper portion that flows between South Watuppa Pond and Troy Street and a steep, rapid section between Troy Street and the Taunton River near Battleship Cove. The upper, eastern portion of the river was originally a relatively narrow and shallow stream flowing through a flat, wide valley of glacial deposits overlaying a deep granite ridge. Portions of the granite are exposed at the surface near what is today Brayton Avenue and also near Quequechan Street which was home to a Native American encampment on a small peninsula on the sand bar of the northwest corner on the South Watuppa where the Quequechan River begins and along the first mile of the Quequechan River. The steep, western portion of the river between downtown and the waterfront originally consisted of a series of eight small waterfalls confined within a narrow, rocky bed. In the last half-mile (800 m) the total drop is about . and the average flow is 122 cubic feet per second (3.5 m³/s). The last of the 2.5 mile length of the Quequechan River empties out into the end of the Taunton River at the head of Mount Hope Bay at Heritage Park making the total length of the Quequechan River at 2.7 miles. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Quequechan River」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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