Fort Loudon Dam – Lenoir City TN

Description

Fort Loudon Dam is one of many New Deal dams built by the Tennessee Valley Authority:

“In the mid-1930s, TVA drafted its “unified plan,” a series of long-term goals that called for the construction of a series of dams along the Tennessee River to provide a minimum 9-foot (2.7 m) navigation channel along the entire length of the river, control flooding in the Tennessee Valley, and bring electricity to the area. The Fort Loudoun project was initially known as a the Coulter Shoals project, named for a site identified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 6 miles (9.7 km) upstream from the present dam site in the early 1930s. After surveying the area, TVA moved the project to the Belle Canton Islands. TVA proposed the project in 1939 and it was authorized on April 18, 1940. Construction began on July 8, 1940, using much of the construction organization that had been used in previous months on TVA’s Hiwassee River projects. TVA originally planned to complete the dam in 1944, but the outbreak of World War II brought increased funding and urgency, and the dam was completed and the gates closed August 2, 1943. The first generator went online November 9, 1943 and the second went online January 15, 1944.”   (wikipedia)