How Long Is the Savannah River From Start to End?

The Savannah River is a rich water vein that provides city drinking water and habitats for numerous wildlife species. It borders three states and historically enabled communities to flourish, providing water, food, transportation, and irrigation. It’s an important river, but just how long is the Savannah River from start to end? Where does it finish, and how does it compare to other rivers?

Let’s dive in.

How Long Is the Savannah River?

The Savannah River splits Georgia and South Carolina. Estimates vary, but experts say it’s between 301 and 312 miles long from its Blue Ridge Mountain Appalachian headwaters to an estuary on the Atlantic Ocean approximately 15 miles downstream from Savannah City. Its watershed covers 10,577 square miles, and tributaries including the Tugaloo and Chattooga Rivers flow into it, alongside mountain snowmelt.

Is the Savannah River Important?

Yes, it’s an important waterway. The river provides 1.4 million Augusta and Savannah residents with drinking water and wastewater treatment. As the Atlantic Ocean pushes more saltwater into the estuary, coastal towns such as Hilton Head and Beaufort rely on it more heavily on it for their drinking water, too.

Historically, the Savannah River estuary area was critical for the colonial period, providing food, water, and transport. Over the years, dams, locks, and dredging works have made this waterway navigable, moving people and goods through mountains, forests, swamps, farmland, creeks, and marshes over 200 miles.  

Where Is the Savannah River Located on a Map?

The very northmost spring rises in the Appalachian Mountains and finishes near Tybee Island in Georgia.

How Deep Is It?

The Savannah River is 105 feet deep at its deepest point, but most of the river is between 10 and 40 feet deep as it winds its way southward to the Atlantic.

Is the Savannah River the Longest River in Georgia?

At 300-plus miles long, the Savannah River sounds pretty epically long, but it’s not Georgia’s longest river by a long shot. However, the title for longest river belongs to the 430-mile-long Chattahoochee River. This river flows from the southern Appalachian Mountains into Lake Seminole. The second longest—at 344 miles—is the Flint River, making the Savannah River the third longest. In fourth place is the 294-mile-long Ogeechee River, the Coosa River comes in fifth at 280 miles.

By national standards, the Savannah River is quite short. The longest U.S. river, traversing several states, is the Missouri River at 2,341 miles long, which ends at the confluence of the second longest river in the United States: the Mighty Mississippi River, which is 2,340 miles.

Those two rivers are dwarfed by the African Nile River, which measures 4,160 miles long.

What Lives in the Savannah River?

Just over 300 miles means there’s a lot of water and various ecosystems for wildlife. Animals have made it their home from the mountains to the estuary. Much wildlife is preserved at the 28,168-acre Savannah National Wildlife Refuge near Savannah City.

Here are a few of the animals living in or near the Savannah River:

• American alligators
• Bald eagles
• Osprey
• Wood storks
• Great horned owls
• Manatee
• Armadillo
• River otters
• Eastern diamondback rattlesnake
• Opossum

Providing much food for these species (and sport for anglers) is an incredible array of fish. The 300-plus-mile-long Savannah River contains American eel, striped bass, trout, and catfish, too!