Tennessee River

This article is about the river. For the song, see Tennessee River (song).

Tennessee River
The Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga
Map of the Tennessee River watershed
Location
CountryUnited States
StateTennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky
Largest CityHuntsville
Physical characteristics
SourceConfluence of French Broad and Holston rivers at Knoxville
 • coordinates35°57′33″N 83°51′01″W / 35.95917°N 83.85028°W / 35.95917; -83.85028[1]
 • elevation813 ft (248 m)[2]
MouthOhio River at Livingston / McCracken counties, near Paducah, Kentucky
 • coordinates
37°04′02″N 88°33′53″W / 37.06722°N 88.56472°W / 37.06722; -88.56472[1]
 • elevation
302 ft (92 m)[3]
Length652 mi (1,049 km)[1]
Basin size40,876 sq mi (105,870 km2)[4]
Discharge 
 • average70,575 cu ft/s (1,998.5 m3/s)[4]
 • maximum500,000 cu ft/s (14,000 m3/s)
Map
The Tennessee River flowing through the Tennessee River Gorge.
The "Steamboat Bill" Hudson Memorial Bridge in Decatur, Alabama.
Natchez Trace Parkway, crossing the Tennessee River in Cherokee, Alabama

The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River.[5] It is approximately 652 miles (1,049 km) long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, as the Cherokee people had their homelands along its banks, especially in what are now East Tennessee and northern Alabama. Additionally, its tributary, the Little Tennessee River, flows into it from Western North Carolina and northeastern Georgia, where the river also was bordered by numerous Cherokee towns.[1] Its current name is derived from the Cherokee town, Tanasi, which was located on the Tennessee side of the Appalachian Mountains.[6]

  1. ^ a b c d "Tennessee River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  2. ^ U.S. Geological Survey. Shooks Gap quadrangle, Tennessee. 1:24,000. 7.5 Minute Series. Washington D.C.: USGS, 1987.
  3. ^ U.S. Geological Survey. Paducah East quadrangle, Kentucky. 1:24,000. 7.5 Minute Series. Washington D.C.: USGS, 1982.
  4. ^ a b "Arthur Benke & Colbert Cushing, "Rivers of North America". Elsevier Academic Press, 2005 ISBN 0-12-088253-1
  5. ^ "TVA - Navigation on the Tennessee River". Archived from the original on July 12, 2018. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
  6. ^ Bright, William (2004). Native American placenames of the United States. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 488. ISBN 978-0-8061-3598-4. Archived from the original on January 5, 2016. Retrieved April 11, 2011.