Coosa River

Coosa ranks 5th on the list of the longest rivers in Georgia. The Coosa River is a tributary of the Alabama River in Alabama and Georgia, United States. The river stretches for around 280 km. It starts in Rome, Georgia, at the junction of the Oostanaula and Etowah rivers, and finishes about northeast of Montgomery, Alabama, where it meets the Tallapoosa River to form the Alabama River just south of Wetumpka. The Coosa River runs through Alabama for almost 90% of its length.

One of Alabama's most developed rivers is the Coosa. The Coosa River has been dammed for the most part, with Alabama Power, a Southern Company subsidiary, holding seven dams and powerhouses on the river. The dams generate hydroelectric electricity, but they come at a cost to several Coosa River indigenous species. Until the early twentieth century, the Coosa River was an important transit route as a commercial waterway for riverboats along the upper stretch of the river for 200 miles south of Rome. Shoals and waterfalls, such as the Devil's Staircase along the river's lowest 65 miles, prevented riverboats from reaching the Alabama River and the Gulf of Mexico on the upper Coosa.

Length: 280 miles