Amazon River

The Amazon River (Portuguese: Rio Amazonas; Spanish: Río Amazonas) of South America is the largest river in the world by volume, with a total river flow greater than the next top ten largest rivers flowing into the ocean combined. The Amazon, which has the largest drainage basin in the world, accounts for approximately one fifth of the world's total river flow. Because of its vast dimensions, it is sometimes called The River Sea. At no point is the Amazon crossed by bridges. This is only partly because of its huge dimensions—for most of its length the Amazon is not so wide that a modern bridge could not span it—but also because, for most of its length, the river flows through tropical rainforest, where there are few roads and even fewer cities.

While the Amazon is clearly the largest river in the world by most measures, the majority of the geographic community today regards the Amazon as the second longest river, just slightly shorter than the Nile. However the discovery of a new tributary of the Amazon now leads some scientists to consider the Amazon as the longest river in the world.