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| Tennessee River |
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The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is
approximately 650 mi (1,046 km) long, and located in the southeastern United
States, in the Tennessee Valley. Course The Tennessee River is formed at the confluence of the Holston and French Broad Rivers on the east side of Knoxville, Tennessee, and is the only river on earth that flows in all cardinal directions. From Knoxville, it flows southwest through East Tennessee toward Chattanooga before crossing into Alabama. It loops through north Alabama, creating some of the most beautiful scenery in the country. Eventually the Tennessee forms a small part of the state's border with Mississippi, before returning to Tennessee. At this point, it defines the boundary between Tennessee's other two traditional regions, Middle and West Tennessee. The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project providing navigation on the Tombigbee River and a link to the Port of Mobile, enters the Tennessee near the Tennessee-Alabama-Mississippi boundary corner. This waterway reduces the navigation distance from Tennessee, north Alabama, and northern Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico by hundreds of miles. The final part of the Tennessee's run is in Kentucky, where it separates the Jackson Purchase from the rest of the state. It then flows into the Ohio River at Paducah, Kentucky. Dams The river has been dammed numerous times, primarily by Tennessee Valley Authority projects. The placement of the TVA's Kentucky Dam on the Tennessee and the Corps' Barkley Dam on the Cumberland River directly led to the creation of Land Between the Lakes. A navigation canal located at Grand Rivers, Kentucky links Kentucky Lake (the reservoir behind Kentucky Dam) and Lake Barkley (the reservoir behind Barkley Dam). The canal allows for a shorter trip for river traffic going from the Tennessee to most of the Ohio River, and for traffic going down the Cumberland River toward the Mississippi. Popular culture Cormac McCarthy's 1979 novel Suttree concerns a man who forsakes his life of privilege to become a fisherman along the Tennessee River in Knoxville in the early 1950s. The song "Tennessee River" was recorded by the country music band Alabama in 1980 Cities and towns along the Tennessee River Bridgeport, Alabama Chattanooga, Tennessee Clifton, Tennessee Crump, Tennessee Decatur, Alabama Florence, Alabama Grand Rivers, Kentucky Guntersville, Alabama Harrison, Tennessee Killen, Alabama Knoxville, Tennessee Lakesite, Tennessee Langston, Alabama Lenoir City, Tennessee Loudon, Tennessee New Johnsonville, Tennessee Paducah, Kentucky Redstone Arsenal, Alabama Saltillo, Tennessee Savannah, Tennessee Sheffield, Alabama Signal Mountain, Tennessee South Pittsburg, Tennessee Triana, Alabama Waterloo, Alabama |