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The Rappahannock River is a river in eastern Virginia, in the United States, approximately in length.〔U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. (The National Map ), accessed April 1, 2011〕 It traverses the entire northern part of the state, from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the west, across the Piedmont, to the Chesapeake Bay, south of the Potomac River. An important river in American history, the Rappahannock was the site of early settlements in the Virginia Colony, and, later, was at the center of a major theatre of battle in the American Civil War. Due to its significance as an obstacle to north-south movements, it in effect functioned as the war's eastern-theatre boundary, between the "North" (the Union) and the "South" (the Confederate States of America). The river drains an area of , approximately 6% of Virginia. Much of the watershed is rural and forested, but it has experienced increased development in recent decades because of the southward expansion of the Washington, D.C. suburbs. ==Description of the watercourse== The Rappahannock River rises at Chester Gap, a wind gap in the Blue Ridge Mountains a few miles southeast of Front Royal, Virginia, near the single point where Warren, Fauquier, and Rappahannock counties come together. It flows southeastward, past Remington, Kelly's Ford, and Richardsville, before it is joined by the Rapidan River, its largest tributary, from the right. Then the Rappahannock passes through the city of Fredericksburg. Southeast of Fredericksburg, it begins to slow and widen into a brackish tidal estuary approximately long. It passes two small, but historic, river towns, Port Royal and Port Conway, which sit opposite each other, the former on the south bank, the latter on the north. Then it flows past Tappahannock on its southern bank, a point where the river is well over a mile wide. The last settlements of any size before reaching the Chesapeake Bay are Irvington, Urbanna, Stingray Point, and White Stone Beach. The broad river enters the Chesapeake Bay approximately south of the mouth of the Potomac River and approximately east of the state capital, Richmond. At the point where the river enters the bay, between Windmill Point, on the north, and Stingray Point, on the south, it is more than wide. This area, the estuary south of the Northern Neck peninsula, is a productive oyster and crab fishery. Above Fredericksburg, the Rappahannock provides fine opportunities for recreational canoeing and kayaking. Most of the rapids are Class I and Class II in difficulty, but, near Remington, there are some rapids that are considered to be Class III. The rivers watershed is protected in various places by parcels of the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge. 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「Rappahannock River」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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