1) The Amazon River is the second-longest river in the world, after the Nile. 2) The Amazon River was named after the Amazons, warrior women of Greek mythology. 3) The Amazon River is a freshwater river.

Two defining features of the Amazon River are its unparalleled discharge volume and its vast, bridge-free span. First, the Amazon is the world's largest river by water flow, discharging an average of 209,000 cubic meters of water per second into the Atlantic Ocean—more than the next seven largest rivers combined. This massive volume accounts for roughly 20% of all the freshwater that enters the world's oceans from land. Second, a unique and surprising feature is that the Amazon is not crossed by a single bridge along its entire 6,400-kilometer length. While modern engineering could certainly build a bridge across the river, the lack of infrastructure is due to the geography: much of the river flows through dense, sparsely populated rainforest with few roads. In areas where people do live, such as the city of Manaus, the river is so wide and its depth and banks so variable between the wet and dry seasons (fluctuating by up to 15 meters) that traditional ferry transport remains the most practical and cost-effective solution for crossing the water.