Ruby Falls

More than 1,100 feet (340 m) beneath the surface of Lookout Mountain, a waterfall drops into a pool in total darkness, and since 1930 visitors have ridden an elevator down to see it. Ruby Falls lies inside the mountain above Chattanooga, Tennessee. Leo Lambert, a Chattanooga cave enthusiast, had hoped to reopen the nearby Lookout Mountain Cave, whose natural entrance was sealed by railroad tunnel construction in 1905. While drilling an elevator shaft in 1928, his crew broke into an unknown passage, and Lambert crawled through it to find the falls.

He named the waterfall for his wife, Ruby. The operators give its height as 145 feet (44 m), though some published sources list a lower figure. The water comes from rain and springs seeping through the mountain's limestone, gathering into a stream that drops through the cave. Visitors walk a narrow passage past formations such as the Leaning Tower to reach the falls. The site also includes Cavern Castle, the 1929 stone entrance building listed with the caves on the National Register of Historic Places.

• Tennessee
  The Volunteer State, a long ribbon across the South located in
• Tennessee River
  The Ohio’s largest tributary, harnessed by the Tennessee Valley Authority near
• The Appalachian Mountains
  The ancient, worn mountains of the eastern U.S. part of
• Luray Caverns
  Shenandoah Valley show cave and home of the Great Stalacpipe Organ related