River traffic. The Piscataqua River is 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.

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Piscataqua River Currents
Thu 01:59am    1.21 knots Max Flood
Thu 04:45am    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Thu 05:25am    Sunrise
Thu 08:27am    -1.94 knots Max Ebb
Thu 12:10pm    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Thu 12:12pm    Moonset
Thu 02:27pm    1.39 knots Max Flood
Thu 05:45pm    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Thu 08:12pm    Sunset
Thu 08:58pm    -1.81 knots Max Ebb
Thu 10:59pm    Moonrise
Fri 12:46am    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Fri 02:50am    1.15 knots Max Flood
Fri 05:26am    Sunrise
Fri 05:34am    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Fri 09:18am    -1.87 knots Max Ebb
Fri 01:00pm    0.00 knots Slack, Flood Begins
Fri 01:27pm    Moonset
Fri 02:43pm    Last Quarter
Fri 03:18pm    1.39 knots Max Flood
Fri 06:39pm    -0.00 knots Slack, Ebb Begins
Fri 08:11pm    Sunset
Fri 09:51pm    -1.82 knots Max Ebb
Fri 11:27pm    Moonrise

Current Conditions

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.