At one time the Mississippi River and other waterways in the United States were the nation’s super highways.

Boats and barges traveled their currents and major cities sprung up along their banks to serve as ports to receive and ship grain, cotton and other merchandise across the country.

Abraham Lincoln and the Union military realized the importance of the Mississippi to the South and blocked it, cutting off the shipment of goods to the Confederate states. But over the years, with the coming of the railroad, the automobile and the airplane, the role of America’s waterways as a prime route for shipping merchandise diminished, a victim primarily of the superhighway and the rails.

According to the Waterways Council Inc., 4 percent — about 604 tons — of the total cargo moved inland during 2014, the most recent year for statistics, was moved by barge along the nation’s inland waterways.

Our waterways are one of the most under-used resources we have when it comes to moving cargo, especially when one considers its available capacity and how much a tow of barges can accommodate — the equivalent of 1,050 tractor trailer trucks, 216 rail cars and six locomotives — and their value to Mississippi.

The value of America’s waterways is not lost on Mississippi, where, according to WCI, commodities such as oil, manufactured goods and chemicals, shipped to and from Mississippi ports totaled about $46.3 billion in 2014, providing a direct impact to the state of $2.4 billion. Mississippi ports and waterways companies employ 14,435 people.

But America’s waterways are more than a highway for goods. They’re a resource that provides opportunities for recreation and other industries, like fishing.

And that makes keeping them safe an investment in the future.

As Austin Golding, executive vice president of Golding Barge Line, put it, “When you invest in waterways, you’re not tearing down paradise to put up a parking lot. You’re helping make paradise something that’s sustainable and there’s more benefit to it than industry.”