This means the spring floods that cleared the river of vegetation no longer happen, making it difficult for the cranes to use the length of the river to roost out of range of most predators.

BBC: Nebraska��s awe-inspiring crane migration

The precise length of a river is not easy to calculate and depends on correctly identifying the source and the mouth.

BBC: NEWS | Americas | Amazon river 'longer than Nile'

But the trust said the old canal route through Melksham had since been lost "under housing" and a new route using a short length of the River Avon would have to be built.

BBC: Plans for Wiltshire town's canal submitted

Levees along the length of the river appeared to be holding, and water diverted through spillways seemed to be rising more slowly than expected, but Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal warned residents that plenty could go wrong.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Strel plans to swim across the Grand Canyon , along 1, 000 miles of the freezing Mackenzie River in Canada, and the length of the 2, 000-mile Volga .

BBC: What adventures are actually left?

The city of Shanghai has been utterly transformed, and development at an astonishing pace has spread far down the length of the Yangzi river, a region encompassing perhaps 300m people.

ECONOMIST: Doing business in China: The perils of Pat | The

At a meeting chaired by Russian President Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and high-level railroad officials in early April, the construction of a railroad stretching from the banks of Russia's Lena River to the Bering Strait was discussed at length, adding further evidence that Moscow sees the BST project as not only feasible, but inevitable.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: The Bering Strait Tunnel Project

Located next to the convention center, the stadium would have doubled the mass and length of the huge bunker against the river already established by that "lump of black coal" -- as essayist Phillip Lopate described its dark bulk in his literary trip around the edges of Manhattan -- cutting off views and access with nearly a mile of hulking wall.

WSJ: New York Stadium Deals: Good and Bad