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The Old River Control Structure is an artifice built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the divergence of the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers in order to maintain the water distribution between the two, at 70% and 30%, respectively. This was done in response to the increasing amounts of water flowing from the Mississippi to the Atchafalaya, due to the latter's steeper and shorter course to the Gulf of Mexico. The floodgate system was completed in 1963.
The details of the Old River Control system are explored in the "Atchafalaya" section of the book "The Control of Nature" by John McPhee.
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