How does the Neuse River get started?

The Neuse river is a river, like many others. There are a variety of ways the rivers begin. Some flow from large lakes, like the Nile River. The Nile River is fed from the mighty Lake Victoria, the second-largest freshwater lake in the world. It covers almost 68,000 square miles, about the same size as the country of Ireland! But the Neuse river doesn't begin like the Nile River...

Most rivers, though are formed from the water that flows to them through their watershed and through its tributaries . A watershed is the land surrounding a river that allows water to flow down into the river (like when it rains)and a tributary is another river or stream that flows into a bigger river or stream. Here is a picture of the Neuse River's watershed with its tributaries:

The shaded area is the watershed area for the Neuse, while the small blue streams that go into it are its tributaries. In the southeastern (the bottom right) corner of the map, it runs into the Pamlico Sound, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean.

Here is a close up map of the headwaters of the Neuse. Do you see all of the smaller streams running into Falls Lake? The Neuse did not always start from that lake. You see, Falls Lake isn't a natural lake. It was built in 1983 by the US Army Corps of Engineers, in order to create a source for drinking water. Raleigh's drinking water comes from this man-made lake, and Durham dumps their waste water into it, after it is cleaned. The water that spills over the dam forms the Neuse River.

Let's see more about the Neuse river...