The Americas Explained: The Slow-Moving Florida Everglades, the Widest River in America
Explore a slow-moving river 50 miles wide, and one of the largest wetlands in the world.
From Chile’s southern tip to the arctic winter landscapes of Canada and Alaska, The Americas, narrated by Tom Hanks, takes viewers to the wildest places on the American supercontinent.
Tonight, we visited “The Gulf Coast,” a landscape defined by the relationship between land and sea. It stretches for roughly 1,200 miles from Texas to Florida where it ends at the Everglades, 2 million acres of wetlands across central and south Florida.
RELATED: The Americas Takes Viewers to the Graveyard of the Atlantic, One of Earth's Coolest Places
"The Gulf Coast" episode of The Americas takes you inside the Everglades
The entire state of Florida is, on average, just 100 feet above sea level, and it gets lower the farther south you go. As you reach southern Florida, the boundary between land and water blurs as solid ground gives way to the Everglades.
During the wet season, nearby Lake Okeechobee spills over and flows into the Everglades. Water flows southward through cypress swamps, wet prairies, and mangrove forests, before spilling out into the Florida Bay.
RELATED: The Americas Explained: Snowshoe Hares, Masters of the Frozen Forest in the Yukon
The water moves so slowly, about 2 feet per hour, that sawgrass grows up through it. From above, parts of the Everglades look like the map of a planet as seen from space, continents of sawgrass polkadotting an endless ocean. In fact, it’s a slow-moving shallow river, nicknamed the River of Grass. And, while the Mississippi is often credited as the widest river in the United States, the Everglades can be 50 miles wide or more, while the great Mississippi stretches just 11 miles at its widest point.
As the river approaches the coast, freshwater mixes with seawater, creating favorable conditions for mangroves. The southern boundary of the Everglades is dominated by a mangrove forest larger than New York City.
The Americas shows off the truly wild animals of the Florida Everglades
From forested swamps to the River of Grass and mangrove forests, the Everglades are home to a wide variety of plants and animals.
In the Everglades, you’ll find more than 360 species of bird including pink-tinted spoonbills and apple snail kites, predatory birds who specialize on golf ball-sized apple snails. The Everglades are home to alligators and crocodiles, swimming alongside bottlenose dolphins.
There are a couple of truly iconic species who call the Everglades home. It’s the last stand for the Florida panther, an endangered big cat, a subspecies of the mountain lion. They stretch 6 or 7 feet long from snout to tail and they hunt white-tailed deer, hogs, racoons, and other medium-sized animals. Florida panthers used to range from Florida to Louisiana, but today there are only about 100 individuals left and they’re all in south Florida. If you happened to encounter one, it would be a rare and dangerous rendezvous.
RELATED: The Americas Explores Zombie Fish at the Prince William Sound Salmon Migration
A meet cute with a manatee would be much more welcome. The Everglades are home to one of the cuddliest creatures not just on the continent, but on the planet (although it's technically illegal to touch the endangered species). With a doughy physique and gentle demeanor, the West Indian Manatee is a peaceful and adorable addition to the environment.
Their eating habits, like their lifestyle, is relaxed and flexible. Mostly herbivores, manatees spend eight hours a day grazing on seagrasses and other aquatic plants, though they’ll snack on a stray fish given the opportunity.
Where can you watch The Americas?
New episodes of The Americas air weekly Sundays at 8:00 p.m. ET on NBC, and stream on Peacock the following day!
