page_title: Allegheny River
section_title: Course
hierarchical_section_title: Allegheny River / Course
caption_attribution_description: English: Lock and Dam Number 2 on the Allegheny River at O'Hara Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA (part of the Pittsburgh metropolitian area). The lock and dam were built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a part of an extensive system of locks and dams to improve navigation along the Allegheny River. The Highland Park bridge crosses the river just above the dam.
context_page_description: The Allegheny River is a 325-mile long headwater stream of the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania and New York, United States. The Allegheny River runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border northwesterly into New York then in a zigzag southwesterly across the border and through Western Pennsylvania to join the Monongahela River at the Forks of the Ohio on the "Point" of Point State Park in Downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Allegheny River is, by volume, the main headstream of both the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Historically, the Allegheny was considered to be the upper Ohio River by both Native Americans and European settlers.
  The shallow river has been made navigable upstream from Pittsburgh to East Brady by a series of locks and dams constructed in the early 20th century. A 24-mile long portion of the upper river in Warren and McKean counties of Pennsylvania and Cattaraugus County in New York is the Allegheny Reservoir also known as Lake Kinzua, created by the erection of the Kinzua Dam in 1965 for flood control.
context_section_description: The Allegheny River rises in north central Pennsylvania, on Cobb Hill in Alleghany Township in north central Potter County, 8 miles (16 km) south of the New York border and a few miles northwest of the eastern triple divide. The stream flows south and passes under Pennsylvania Route 49 11 miles northeast of Coudersport where a historical marker that declares the start of the river is located. Cobb Hill  is about a mile north. The stream flows southwest paralleling Route 49 to Coudersport. It continues west to Port Allegany then turns north into western New York, looping westward across southern Cattaraugus County for approximately 30 miles (48 km), past Portville, Olean, Allegany and Salamanca and flowing through Seneca Indian Nation lands close to the northern boundary of Allegany State Park before re-entering northwestern Pennsylvania within the Allegheny Reservoir just east of the Warren-McKean county line, approx. 10 miles (32 km) northeast of Warren.
  It flows in a broad zigzag course generally southwest across Western Pennsylvania; first flowing southwest past Warren, Tidioute, Tionesta, Oil City, and Franklin, forming much of the northwestern boundary of Allegheny National Forest. South of Franklin it turns southeast across Clarion County in a meandering course, then turns again southwest across Armstrong County, flowing past Kittanning, Ford City, Clinton, and Freeport.
  The river enters both Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, the Pittsburgh suburbs, and the City of Pittsburgh from the northeast. It passes the North Side, downtown Pittsburgh, and Point State Park. The Allegheny joins with the Monongahela River at the "Point" in downtown Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River.
caption: The Highland Park Bridge crosses the Allegheny River at Aspinwall, Pennsylvania, just above Allegheny River Lock and Dam No. 2.
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