The New International Encyclopædia/Tennessee River

TENNESSEE RIVER. The largest tributary of the Ohio. It is formed by the union of the Holston and the North Fork, which rise in the Alleghany Mountains of southwestern Virginia, and unite near Kingsport in the northeastern part of Tennessee (Map: Kentucky, C 4). According to some authorities the Holston extends to the junction with the French Broad River at Knoxville, and according to others even to the Clinch River at Kingston. The river flows first southwest between the Alleghany ridges, and then makes a great waving curve through northern Alabama from its northeastern to its northwestern corner. Reëntering Tennessee, it flows northward across the State, then northwest across Kentucky to its confluence with the Ohio at Paducah. Its length, including the Holston, is 1200 miles. Its chief affluents are the French Broad, the Clinch, Hiawassee, Sequatchie, Elk, and Duck. Except at the Muscle Shoals in Alabama, navigation is unobstructed from the mouth of the river to Chattanooga, a distance of 450 miles. The Muscle Shoals are a series of rapids, where the river flows over limestone rocks from Florence to Decatur, a distance of 23 miles, but navigation around them has been effected by means of a canal and locks, completed by the United States Government in 1889. Above the Shoals small steamers may ascend the river to Knoxville. Besides Knoxville, the chief cities along its banks are Florence and Decatur in Alabama, and Chattanooga in Tennessee.