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River

Monongahela River

209 km from source to mouth · United States.

United StatesUnited StatesFlows into Ohio River

Follow the riverMonth by month

SourceMouth
The river and every tributary in its basin, drawn from RiverATLAS (CC BY 4.0).

In numbers

Length

209km

Average flow

360m³/s

Basin

19,011km²

Drop

51m

from 267 m to 216 m

Country

1

The journey

From source to mouth

209 km of river and 68 stops on the way: 31 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.

267 m216 m
Tygart Valley Riverat 267 m0 km
Morgantown30,347 people44 km
Cheat Rivertributary62 km
Masontown3,399 people76 km
Maple Glen7,635 people106 km
California6,608 people123 km
Monessen6,876 people143 km
Monongahela4,159 people155 km
McKeesport17,727 people184 km
Ohio Riverat 216 m209 km
050100150209 km
  1. 0 kmTygart Valley Riverat 267 m
  2. 0 kmTygart Valley Rivertributary
  3. 0 kmWest Fork Rivertributary
  4. 0 kmPleasant Valley3,196 people
  5. 0 kmFairmont Railroad Bridge
  6. 2 kmFairmont18,416 people
  7. 2 kmRobert H. Mollohan-Jefferson Street Bridge
  8. 44 kmMorgantown30,347 people
  9. 45 kmWestover4,223 people
  10. 62 kmPoint Marion1,156 people
  11. 62 kmAlbert Gallatin Memorial Bridge
  12. 62 kmCheat Rivertributary
  13. 76 kmMasontown3,399 people
  14. 79 kmMasontown Bridge
  15. 106 kmMaple Glen7,635 people
  16. 116 kmBrownsville Bridge
  17. 117 kmLane Bane Bridge
  18. 118 kmWest Brownsville Junction Bridge
  19. 123 kmCalifornia6,608 people
  20. 137 kmBelle Vernon Bridge
  21. 139 kmCharleroi4,015 people
  22. 140 kmCharleroi-Monessen Bridge
  23. 143 kmMonessen6,876 people
  24. 146 kmDonora4,569 people
  25. 154 kmMonongahela City Bridge
  26. 155 kmMonongahela4,159 people
  27. 158 kmNew Eagle2,049 people
  28. 170 kmRegis R. Malady Bridge
  29. 172 kmClairton6,681 people
  30. 173 kmUnion Railroad Clairton Bridge
  31. 176 kmWilson7,564 people
  32. 178 kmGlassport4,420 people
  33. 180 kmPort Vue3,744 people
  34. 180 kmW.D. Mansfield Memorial Bridge
  35. 182 kmYoughiogheny Rivertributary
  36. 182 kmWest Mifflin20,075 people
  37. 184 kmMcKeesport Connecting Railroad Bridge
  38. 184 kmMcKeesport17,727 people
  39. 184 kmMcKeesport-Duquesne Bridge
  40. 186 kmNorth Versailles10,571 people
  41. 187 kmDuquesne5,254 people
  42. 188 kmPRR Port Perry Bridge
  43. 188 kmUnion Railroad Port Perry Bridge
  44. 189 kmTurtle Creek5,272 people
  45. 189 kmNorth Braddock4,787 people
  46. 192 kmForest Hills6,443 people
  47. 192 kmRankin Bridge
  48. 192 kmRankin1,896 people
  49. 192 kmMunhall10,774 people
  50. 193 kmCarrie Furnace Hot Metal Bridge
  51. 193 kmSwissvale8,855 people
  52. 194 kmPinkerton's Landing Bridge
  53. 194 kmEdgewood3,069 people
  54. 196 kmHomestead Grays Bridge
  55. 196 kmHomestead2,884 people
  56. 197 kmGlenwood B&O Railroad Bridge
  57. 198 kmGlenwood Bridge
  58. 202 kmHot Metal Bridge
  59. 204 kmBrady Street Bridge
  60. 204 kmBirmingham Bridge
  61. 205 kmMount Oliver3,354 people
  62. 205 kmSouth Tenth Street Bridge
  63. 206 kmLiberty Bridge
  64. 206 kmPanhandle Bridge
  65. 207 kmSmithfield Street Bridge
  66. 207 kmPittsburgh302,971 people
  67. 207 kmWabash Bridge
  68. 208 kmFort Pitt Bridge
  69. 208 kmPoint Bridge II
  70. 209 kmOhio Riverat 216 m

Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.

River in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, United States

At the mouth it carries 358 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 7.0 seconds. It drops from 267 m to 216 m, 0.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 19,011 km², about the size of FJ. 1.3 million people live in it. Highest water: from April to May; lowest: February. Dams and reservoirs hold back a large share of its water (11% of a year's flow).

Read more on Wikipedia

Where to start

  • PittsburghLargest city on its banks · 302,971 people
  • Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 20 km from the cityCar hire at PIT airport (Pittsburgh)Discover Cars · Affiliate link
  • On the water39 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
  • Kayak and canoe12 put-ins and rapids mapped (OpenStreetMap)
  • From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit

Monongahela River, month by month

Highest water: from April to May

Lowest water: February. Best months to visit: from May to September.

420
-2°68 mmJan
170
-1°63 mmFeb
970
5°91 mmMar
1,100
10°90 mmApr
1,200
16°102 mmMay
660
20°99 mmJun
620
22°106 mmJul
570
22°96 mmAug
550
18°83 mmSep
510
12°67 mmOct
580
6°79 mmNov
650
1°74 mmDec
Water (estimated flow)Air (average) Rain (mm)Best months

From about 170 m³/s in the lowest month to 1,200 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.

Plan the trip

Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car

Car hire at PIT airport (Pittsburgh)Discover CarsSee 

Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.

The basin

Monongahela River: the basin in numbers

18,992 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.

Heavily regulatedReservoirs can hold 11% of a year's flow: dams shape its seasons.
  • 1.3millionpeople live in the basin
  • 72/km²people per km²
  • 563maverage altitude of the basin
  • 1,174mmof rain a year (basin average)
  • 9.5°Caverage air temperature
  • 5%protected areas
  • 0.3%covered by lakes
  • 1.3km³held in reservoirs

What covers the basin

  • 90% Forest
  • 14% Cropland
  • 5% Pasture
  • 4% Towns and cities

RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.

Along the river

Monongahela River: what you find on the way

  • 13DamsEverettville Refuse Embankment Dam, Cobun Creek Dam, Crooked Run (Fort Martin) #3 Dam and 10 more
  • 11WeirsOpekiska Lock and Dam, Hilderbrand Dam, Morgantown Dam and 8 more
  • 42LocksOpekiska Lock, Hildebrand Lock, Morgantown Lock and 39 more
  • 4WaterfallsLittle Falls, Thompson Run Falls and 2 more
  • 1Rapids
  • 11Canoe put-insElizabeth Launch, Port Vue Launch, Braddock Launch at 11th Street and 8 more
  • 33Boat rampsBirdie's Landing (private), Public Boat Launch (Pa. Fish and Boat Commission), Braddock Public Ramp and 30 more
  • 6MarinasSunset Marina, Greene Cove Marina, Engle's Holiday Harbor and 3 more
  • 3River beachesAquatorium Beach Right Side, Aquatorium Beach Left Side

From OpenStreetMap, within 2.0 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.

Cross-checked with our atlases

Monongahela River in our other atlases

What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.

  • 2mountains at the sourcePeakyas

Mountains at the source (2)

Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas

  1. Browns Knob12 km away
  2. Kincaid Knob12 km away

Open Peakyas ↗

From space

The source and the mouth, seen from orbit

Monongahela River: satellite view of the source
The source14 km across
Monongahela River: satellite view of the mouth
The mouth19 km across

Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.

Photos

Monongahela River in pictures

Monongahela River - Southsidefromwash
The original uploader was Ronjamin at English Wikipedia . · CC BY-SA 2.5
Monongahela River Fairmont
Tim Kiser ( w:User:Malepheasant ) · CC BY-SA 2.5
Pittsburgh Light Rail on the Panhandle Bridge over the Monongahela River
Dllu · CC BY-SA 4.0
Monongahela River Pittsburgh
The original uploader was Malepheasant at English Wikipedia . · CC BY-SA 2.0

Tributaries

Where it flows, and what flows into it

It flows into

Ohio RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,579 km8,000 m³/s

Tributaries (14)

Also: Youghiogheny River, Cheat River, West Fork River, Tygart Valley River, Turtle Creek, Peters Creek, Buffalo Creek, Crooked Run, Deckers Creek, Dunkard Creek, Redstone Creek, Streets Run, Cobun Creek, Tenmile Creek

In the same basin

Mississippi RiverUnited StatesUnited States3,766 km12,700 m³/sMissouri RiverUnited StatesUnited States3,726 km2,500 m³/sArkansas RiverUnited StatesUnited States2,364 km240 m³/sTennessee RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,049 km2,000 m³/sRed RiverUnited StatesUnited States2,189 km1,900 m³/sYellowstone RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,114 km390 m³/sPlatte RiverUnited StatesUnited States500 km200 m³/sCanadian RiverUnited StatesUnited States1,458 km200 m³/sIllinois RiverUnited StatesUnited States432 km660 m³/sAllegheny RiverUnited StatesUnited States523 km560 m³/s

Nearby

Rivers nearby

Allegheny RiverUnited StatesUnited States523 km560 m³/s0 km awayCuyahoga RiverUnited StatesUnited States137 km29 m³/s185 km awayShenandoah RiverUnited StatesUnited States241 km85 m³/s232 km awayKanawha RiverUnited StatesUnited States156 km430 m³/s255 km awayNiagara RiverCanadaCanada53 km5.8 m³/s325 km awayDetroit RiverUnited StatesUnited States45 km5.3 m³/s316 km awaySusquehanna RiverUnited StatesUnited States715 km1,100 m³/s348 km awaySt. Clair RiverUnited StatesUnited States65 km5,200 m³/s320 km away

Where these numbers come from

Name, length, placesWikidata (Q643780) · CC0
Course, profile, basinRiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata
FlowWaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Climate along the riverWorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0
Towns, bridges, damsWikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0
Along the river© OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL
ImagesEOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons
Our other atlasesPeakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST

Every source and licence is on the data sources page.

The family

Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?

Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.

beachesCoastyaFind your beach: sea temperature, sun and swimming month by month.Visit
lakesLakeyasEvery lake on Earth: water temperature, ice, depth and the shore.Coming soonVisit
mountainsPeakyasEvery summit in 3D: summit weather, the 0 °C line, huts and trails.Visit
waterfallsCascadyasEvery waterfall: height, flow month by month and when it roars.Coming soonVisit
islandsIslandyasEvery island from the sea up: size, sea temperature, ferries and 3D.Coming soonVisit
riversRiveryasEvery river from source to sea: the journey, the flow and the basin in numbers.You are here
canyonsCanyonyasEvery canyon cut to scale: depth to the floor, rim and floor temperatures, trails and viewpoints.Coming soonVisit