Great Falls Dam (Tennessee)
Great Falls Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Caney Fork, straddling the county line between White County and Warren County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the only dam outside the Tennessee River watershed owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority. The dam impounds the 1,830-acre (740 ha) Great Falls Lake, and its tailwaters feed into Center Hill Lake. The completion of Great Falls Dam in 1917 was an engineering triumph, marking the first successful attempt to impound the volatile and flood-prone Caney Fork. The dam is also notable for its design, utilizing a mostly underground conduit to carry water from the reservoir via a tributary to the Power House 0.75 miles (1.21 km) downstream from the dam.
Great Falls Dam is named for the rapids and waterfalls on the Caney Fork downstream from the dam. The section of river below the Power House is world-renowned for whitewater kayaking. The dam and its tailwaters are surrounded by Rock Island State Park.
Read more about Great Falls Dam (Tennessee): Location, Capacity, History
Famous quotes containing the words falls and/or dam:
“Fate forces its way to the powerful and violent. With subservient obedience it will assume for years dependency on one individual: Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, because it loves the elemental human being who grows to resemble it, the intangible element. Sometimes, and these are the most astonishing moments in world history, the thread of fate falls into the hands of a complete nobody but only for a twitching minute.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“The devil take one party and his dam the other!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)