When the TVA was created, it inherited both Wilson Dam and the site drawings for Cove Creek Dam as Norris was then called , along with instructions from Congress to begin construction as soon as possible to relieve the appalling unemployment in the region. Wank tried to make the dam look as functional as the engineers had designed it to be, even though the engineers were not pleased with his result.
Wank was concerned with more than external appearance, however. The legislation creating the agency allowed it to improve flood control and navigation; generate electric power; establish or improve recreation areas, roads, and communities; and initiate other projects that would better the social and economic well-being of the region. Located on the Clinch River in East Tennessee, the Norris hydroelectric project included the dam, powerhouse, and switchyard. There was little in the way of housing in the area and a TVA headquarters was in Knoxville, nearly forty miles away, so the project included the planned community of Norris and the Norris Freeway.
The project brought employment, schools, housing, and electricity to an economically devastated part of Appalachia but it was not without controversy, since approximately 3, people were displaced from , acres. The dam itself was designed as a straight gravity concrete structure, feet tall the equivalent of a story building and 1, feet long.
The powerhouse located on the east side of the river was equipped with two 50, kilowatt generators. Both the powerhouse and dam itself are powerful expressions of reinforced concrete, which the TVA architects left unfinished to reveal the alternating pattern of vertical and horizontal boards used for the formwork. Inside the powerhouse are glazed tiles and curved aluminum railings that add to the streamlined effect of the complex.
Norris Dam has changed little since construction. TVA built Norris for flood control and navigation of the Tennessee River and to provide hydroelectric power for the region. Construction started Oct. TVA itself was only months old when it began building Norris Dam; the dam's construction was part of the legislation that created the agency. The project, first called Cove Creek, was renamed for Sen.
How to tame the Tennessee River had been discussed for more than a century. As far back as , U. As early as , the location was identified as a good place for a sizable dam. Four shifts worked around the clock; 2, people worked at the peak of construction.
Norris changed the landscape of what was primarily rural farmland in Anderson, Union, Campbell, Grainger and Claiborne counties. The federal government bought , acres in those counties, relocating 2, families and moving more than 5, graves.
Highway widened in the s to aide in dam construction, crosses the top of Norris Dam and connects the area to Interstate 75 at Caryville to the west and Knoxville to the south. Along with the reservation maintained by TVA for the operation of Norris Dam, most of the lower Norris Reservoir is surrounded by conservation lands, including Norris Dam State Park adjacent to the reservation, the Cove Creek Wildlife Management Area across the lake to the north, and the Chuck Swan State Forest, which protects a large undeveloped area a few miles upstream.
Background and Construction. Several government and private entities believed that a dam in the upper Tennessee Valley, working in conjunction with dams at Muscle Shoals, Alabama, could provide badly needed flood control to East Tennessee and help keep the Tennessee River consistently navigable year-round. Part of the opposition was from Senator Norris, who advocated a government-sponsored dam at the site, arguing that a private entity would be almost wholly concerned with power generation rather than flood control and coordination with projects elsewhere in the valley.
Norris proposed constructing a network of dams throughout the valley to help regulate its outflow into the lower Mississippi River. Throughout the late s, the U.
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