Photo: Ken Lund, Bridge Crossing (Some rights reserved)
“The name ‘Platte’ is French for flat and was given by Canadian hunters because the stream for much of its length is broad, shallow, and flat but still below the wide level valley. It is pre-eminently the flat river” (US-T121).
Wikipedia: The Platte River is a major river in the state of Nebraska and is about 310 mi (500 km) long. Measured to its farthest source via its tributary the North Platte River, it flows for over 1,050 miles (1,690 km). The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, which itself is a tributary of the Mississippi River which flows to the Gulf of Mexico. The Platte over most of its length is a muddy, broad, shallow, meandering stream with a swampy bottom and many islands—a braided stream. These characteristics made it too difficult for canoe travel, and it was never used as a major navigation route by European-American trappers or explorers.
Flyway
The Platte is in the middle of the Central Flyway, a primary north–south corridor for migratory birds from their summer nesting grounds in the north (Alaska and Canada), south for the winter, and the return in the spring. The Central Flyway bird species include trumpeter swans, tundra swans, over one million Canada geese, greater white-fronted geese, sandhill cranes, canvasback ducks and others.
Elsewhere on the Web
https://geonames.usgs.gov/apex/f?p=gnispq:3:0::NO::P3_FID:835915
Wikipedia
Platte River
Cities
North Platte, Kearney, Grand Island, Fremont, Omaha
Planeta.com