Tennessee River

Few American rivers have been remade as thoroughly by a single public agency. The Tennessee River begins at Knoxville, where the Holston and French Broad rivers meet, and runs 652 miles (1,049 km) to the Ohio River at Paducah, Kentucky. Along the way it traces a giant U, flowing southwest into Alabama, west across the top of the state, then north through Tennessee again into Kentucky. Its average flow of about 70,600 cubic feet per second (2,000 m³/s) makes it the largest tributary of the Ohio.

Created in 1933, the Tennessee Valley Authority turned the river into a chain of lakes, with nine main-stem dams that provide flood control, electricity and a navigation channel at least 11 feet (3.4 m) deep from Knoxville to Paducah. The Muscle Shoals rapids in Alabama, once a barrier to boats, now lie under reservoirs. The name comes from Tanasi, a Cherokee town in the valley, and a 1755 British map labeled it the River of the Cherakees. Chattanooga, Huntsville, Florence and Knoxville grew on its banks, and in 1862 the Battle of Shiloh was fought beside it at Pittsburg Landing.

• The Appalachian Mountains
  The ancient, worn mountains of the eastern U.S. flows from
• The Ohio River
  The Mississippi's largest tributary by volume flows into
• Alabama
  A Deep South state from the Appalachians to the Gulf located in
• Kentucky
  The Bluegrass State, between the Appalachians and the Mississippi located in
• Mississippi
  The Magnolia State, defined by its great river located in
• Tennessee
  The Volunteer State, a long ribbon across the South located in
• Ruby Falls
  An underground waterfall deep inside Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga near