Construction of Wilson Dam began in 1918 and was completed in 1924. The dam is 137 feet high and stretches 4,541 feet across the Tennessee River. Wilson Dam is a hydroelectric facility with 21 generating units and a net dependable capacity of 663 megawatts, the amount of power a dam can produce on an average day minus the electricity used by the dam itself. It is the largest conventional hydroelectric facility on the Tennessee River, and only Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage Plant near Chattanooga can generate more hydroelectric power. Wilson reservoir provides 166 miles of shoreline and 15,500 acres of water surface for recreation. The main lock at Wilson is 110 by 600 feet, and with a maximum lift of 100 feet, it is the largest single lift lock east of the Rockies. An auxiliary lock has two 60- by 300-feet chambers that operate in tandem. On average, 3700 vessels pass through Wilson’s locks each year. Wilson has a flood-storage capacity of 50,000 acre-feet.