I'm not sure where this photo originated--a friend of a friend posted it on Face Book this past week. But it's an interesting look at how the Memphis riverfront has changed over the last few decades. (The Hernando DeSoto Bridge opened in 1973; I think the photo was taken a few years before construction began.)
In this photo we're looking north (upstream). That's the main Mississippi River on the left, with the Wolf River flowing in on the right. The Wolf would later be redirected to enter the Mississippi farther to the north. The former Wolf riverbed we see in this photo was transformed into our present-day slackwater harbor.
Those sandbars in the Mississippi are now long-gone as a result of the Corps of Engineers' dredging and channelization efforts. I'm pretty sure the river was quite low when this picture was taken, but today even at low levels the main channel is plenty deep for barge traffic.
This is about the best photo I could find on Google Images of what the same landscape looks like today:
In this photo, the river is at a medium-low level.
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