Mount Hope Bay facts for kids
Mount Hope Bay is a special kind of water body called an estuary. It's where the Taunton River meets the ocean, right on the border of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It's also connected to a bigger bay called Narragansett Bay.
The bay gets its name from Mount Hope, a small hill located on its western shore in what is now Bristol, Rhode Island. The bay's waters flow into the East Passage of Narragansett Bay and also the Sakonnet River. Mount Hope Bay has been important for a long time, from before European settlers arrived until today. While it faced pollution for many years, big efforts are now underway to clean it up and make it healthy again.
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Geography of Mount Hope Bay
Mount Hope Bay is part of the Narragansett Basin, an area formed by ancient movements of the Earth's crust. Beneath the bay are very thick layers of sedimentary rocks, which are like layers of hardened mud and sand.
The bay covers an area of about 13 square miles (36 square km). Its average depth is about 18.7 feet, but some parts in the southern end can be as deep as 74 feet, especially near the Mount Hope Bridge.
Towns and Cities Around the Bay
Many towns and cities are located around Mount Hope Bay:
- At the north end, you'll find Warren, Rhode Island, Swansea, Massachusetts, and Somerset, Massachusetts.
- The eastern shore includes the city of Fall River, Massachusetts and the town of Tiverton, Rhode Island.
- Portsmouth, Rhode Island is located at the southern end of the bay, at the northern tip of Aquidneck Island.
- Bristol, Rhode Island forms the western shore of the bay.
Water Flow and Features
About 70 percent of Mount Hope Bay is located within Rhode Island. However, almost 90 percent of the land area that drains water into the bay is located within Massachusetts.
The main river flowing into the bay is the Taunton River. Several smaller rivers also drain directly into the bay, including the Quequechan River, Lee's River, Cole River, and Kickamuit River. A small sand bar called Spar Island can be found in the middle of the bay, just south of the Rhode Island border.
Bridges and Shipping Channels
Three major bridges cross the perimeter of Mount Hope Bay:
- The Sakonnet River Bridge to the southeast.
- The Charles M. Braga Jr. Memorial Bridge to the north.
- The Mount Hope Bridge to the southwest.
Mount Hope Bay also has a shipping channel that is 35 feet deep. This channel is maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers as part of their Fall River Harbor project, allowing large ships to pass through. Another channel, 34 feet deep, extends from the main channel to the Brayton Point Power Station.
History of Mount Hope Bay
Mount Hope Bay was once part of the land of the Wampanoag people. It was also the site of early events during King Philip's War in 1675, a conflict between Native Americans and English colonists.
For nearly 200 years, the area around the bay was part of a disagreement over the border between Rhode Island and Massachusetts. This dispute was finally settled by the United States Supreme Court in 1862.
Industrial Importance
Mount Hope Bay played a big role in the industrial history of Fall River, Massachusetts. The bay provided access for ocean-going ships, which was important for trade and transportation. For many years, passenger ships of the Fall River Line used the bay.
Brayton Point Power Station
In the 1960s, the Brayton Point Power Station was built in Somerset, Massachusetts, at the north end of the bay. It was a very large power plant for New England. For many years, the plant used the bay's waters to cool its systems. This process caused a type of pollution called thermal pollution, which made the water too warm and sometimes led to many fish dying.
After years of legal action and environmental efforts, the power plant's owner, Dominion Resources, spent a lot of money to build two tall cooling towers and improve the cooling system. These towers helped prevent pollution of the bay. The Brayton Point Cooling Towers were taken down in April of 2019.
Cleaning Up the Bay
In 2009, the City of Fall River started a large project to reduce sewage overflows. These overflows happened during heavy rains when too much water entered the sewer system, causing raw sewage to flow into the bay. This project was designed to greatly reduce the amount of pollution entering the bay and was expected to be completed by 2018.
