River traffic. The Piscataqua River is a swift tidal river. When the tide comes in (right to left <--- above), it reverses the river's normal flow. Travel by tankers and other large vessels is restricted to slack tide, when the current is more or less zero. See the chart below for slack tide times at the entrance to Portsmouth Harbor (map), which is roughly three miles downstream.

Piscataqua River Currents
Mon 03:14am    EST -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Mon 05:56am    EST -1.71 knots Max Ebb
Mon 06:51am    EST Sunrise
Mon 08:23am    EST Moonrise
Mon 09:50am    EST 0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Mon 11:44am    EST 1.09 knots Max Flood
Mon 03:11pm    EST -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Mon 05:02pm    EST Sunset
Mon 06:14pm    EST -1.82 knots Max Ebb
Mon 09:52pm    EST Moonset
Mon 10:09pm    EST 0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Tue 12:09am    EST 1.20 knots Max Flood
Tue 03:49am    EST -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Tue 06:40am    EST -1.68 knots Max Ebb
Tue 06:50am    EST Sunrise
Tue 08:47am    EST Moonrise
Tue 10:36am    EST 0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Tue 12:29pm    EST 1.03 knots Max Flood
Tue 03:39pm    EST -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Tue 05:04pm    EST Sunset
Tue 06:57pm    EST -1.72 knots Max Ebb
Tue 10:50pm    EST 0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Tue 10:53pm    EST Moonset

Current Conditions

39.6 ^oF
partly cloudy
Forecast

New Hampshire-Maine border. The N.H.-Maine border lies in the middle of the Piscataqua River. Its exact location was the subject of a long-running dispute settled by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Piscataqua River. This Piscataqua River is a 13-mile long tidal estuary formed by merging of the Salmon and Cocheco rivers. The river, which separates Maine and New Hampshire, also drains Great Bay, a National Estuarine Research Reserve site. The last 8.8 miles of the Piscataqua River constitute Portsmouth Harbor, which stretches across New Castle, Portsmouth, and Newington, and the Maine communities of Kittery and Eliot.

Currents. The swift currents of the Piscataqua River make Portsmouth Harbor one of the fastest flowing commercial port waterways in the northeastern United States. The ice-free deep-water channel has been used for shipping since the 1600s.

Points of Interest
1. Moran Towing tugboats
2. Public benches
3. Ferry Landing restaurant
4. Tug Alley Too tugboat
5. Memorial Bridge
6. Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
7. Badger's Island, Kittery, Maine

What kind of name is Piscataqua (Piss-cat-a-qua)? Easy for you to say, but not so easy to spell. See an extended examination of the origin of the word at SeacoastNH.com and 20 ways to spell Piscataqua.

More information. For more about the Piscataqua River, see the Army Corps of Engineers Water Resources web page.