Portal:Brazil/Selected article/8
The Amazon River 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. The first bridge in the Amazon river system (over the Rio Negro) opened on 10 October 2010 near Manaus, Brazil.
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 cities and even fewer roads. While the Amazon is clearly the largest river in the world by most measures, the current consensus within the geographic community holds that the Amazon is the second longest river, just slightly shorter than the Nile. However, some scientists, particularly from Brazil and Peru, dispute this.