Fort Loudoun Dam - Location

Location

Fort Loudoun Dam is located at just over 602 miles (969 km) upstream from the mouth of the Tennessee River and nearly 50 miles (80 km) downstream from the river's source at the confluence of the Holston and French Broad at Knoxville. The river's natural confluence with the Little Tennessee River is located approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) downstream, although the Tellico Reservoir, which covers most of the lower Little Tennessee, is connected to Fort Loudoun Lake via canal which empties into the lake upstream from the dam. Lenoir City is located immediately north of Fort Loudoun Dam. The reservoir includes parts of Loudon, Blount, and Knox counties.

Fort Loudoun Dam was built across three small islands (known as the "Belle Canton Islands"), although the construction of the dam and the later construction of Tellico Dam required a drastic modification of the landscape. The northern and eastern parts of these islands are now submerged, whereas the southern and western parts were combined with part of the original mainland and part of Bussell Island (at the mouth of the Little Tennessee) to form one large island. This new island is separated from the mainland by the Tellico canal to the south and the main Tennessee River channel to the north.

Lamar Alexander Parkway (part of U.S. Route 321) crosses the J. Carmichael Greer Bridge atop Fort Loudoun Dam and connects the area to Interstate 75 and Interstate 40 to the north and to Maryville and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the south. US-321 intersects U.S. Route 11 just over a mile north of the dam in Lenoir City. Interstate 140 and several federal and state highways cross Fort Loudoun Lake further upstream.