Hales Bar Dam stood on the Tennessee River just over 431 miles above the river’s mouth near the southwest end of the Tennessee River Gorge. Its reservoir extended upstream through the gorge to Chattanooga and had 162 miles of shoreline. Before its construction, this stretch of river was especially unpredictable and dangerous, with many navigation obstacles, while downstream from the site the river began to steady as it entered the hills and flatlands near Guntersville. The dam was 113 feet high and 2,315 feet long, and its spillway had a combined discharge capacity of 224,000 cubic feet per second. After improvements by TVA in 1949, it had a generating capacity of 99,700 kilowatts. Its lock, which began operation on November 1, 1913, measured 60 feet by 260 feet, and its 41-foot lift was the highest in the world at that time.

Photo: Edward Troxel

Photo: Tennessee Valley Authority/Public domain

Photo: Duane and Tracy Marsteller