The National Waterway Network is comprised of a link database and a node database. Links are line strings, which consist of beginning and end points (nodes) with intermediate vertices (shape points). Links represent either actual shipping lanes (i.e., channels, Intracoastal Waterways, sealanes, rivers) or serve as representative paths in open water (where no defined shipping paths exist). This point shapefile depicts nodes that may represent physical entities such as river confluence's, ports/facilities, and intermodal terminals, USACE nodes, or may be inserted for analytical purposes (i.e., to facilitate routing). The National Waterway Network is a comprehensive network database of the nation's navigable waterways. This polyline shapefile covers the 48 contiguous states plus the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and water links between. The nominal scale of the dataset varies with the source material. The majority of the information is at 1:100,000 with larger scales used in harbor/bay/port areas and smaller scales used in open waters. The National Transportation Atlas Databases 2014 (NTAD2014) is a set of nationwide geographic datasets of transportation facilities, transportation networks, associated infrastructure and other political and administrative entities. These datasets include spatial information for transportation modal networks and intermodal terminals, as well as the re¬lated attribute information for these features. This data supports research, analysis, and decision-making across all transportation modes. It is most useful at the national level, but has major applications at regional, state and local scales throughout the transportation community. The data used to compile NTAD2014 was provided by our partners within the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) and by other agencies throughout the United States Federal Government. These contributors are the actual data stewards and are ultimately responsible for the maintenance and accuracy of their data. This data is used for national and network analysis applications. The National Waterway Network is a geographic database of navigable waterways in and around the United States, for analytical studies of waterway performance, for compiling commodity flow statistics and for mapping purposes.
