Tennessee... In its Big Dam Era

The Big Dam Era is characterized by large-scale government funding and design of hydroelectric power projects in the United States. In Tennessee, the beginning of this era coincides with the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1933 and involved projects by both the TVA and the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Although this era lasted at least into the 1970s, this article will focus on the beginning of the era until the end of World War II.

Following World War I, many Americans were experiencing a time of prosperity. This led to a more individualistic attitude and less desire for interference from the federal government. The administrations over the next ten years made changes accordingly by rolling back pre-war social reforms and regulations. By the time the Great Depression hit in 1929, there were few government safety nets for those who had lost their jobs and savings. In response, Americans largely changed their opinion on government intervention over the next few years and were eager for assistance. When he was elected president, Franklin D. Roosevelt developed the New Deal program that was designed to provide jobs and relief to those in need.

President Roosevelt signed the TVA Act of 1933 on May 18 of that year, creating the Tennessee Valley Authority. a federal corporation. In the early 20th Century, even before the Great Depression, the Tennessee Valley region was one of the poorest areas in America. It faced severe economic, ecological, and social challenges, in large part due to the flooding of the Tennessee River, which destroyed topsoil –– a devastating effect in an agricultural society. In 1933, during the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Tennessee Valley Authority. It would, he said, benefit “the general social and economic welfare of the Nation.”

Its first aim was to improve living and economic conditions in the seven Southeastern states the Authority served, by providing affordable electricity, controlling the Tennessee River, and promoting soil conservation.

Unemployment rates were particularly high in the region and crops had significantly dropped in value. Decades of poor farming practices further damaged the land making it harder for crops to grow. To make matters worse, many farms were suffering from significant erosion due to frequent flooding that washed rich topsoil away. Roughly once every decade, a catastrophic flood would impact farming areas, towns and cities. Teams at TVA set out to address these issues.

TVA began work on Norris Hydroelectric Project in Anderson County, TN in October 1933. The plan for this facility also included a planned town nearby where TVA employees would live and a freeway that connected Norris and the dam site to Knoxville. Norris is perhaps the best example of regional and town planning goals of the TVA architects and engineers.

The hydroelectric facility was initially designed by USACE but modified by Roland G. Wank who replaced the original design with a modernist, Streamline Moderne style. According to Avigail Sachs’ The Garden in the Machine, “First, he rearranged the structural elements of the dam to produce a harmonious composition without undermining functionality. By locating the spillway in the center of the dam rather than on its eastern slope, he gave the dramatic waterway a central position in the view of visitors, while breaking the mass of the dam into a more complex, but still weighty, structure.” Modern architectural styles were not popular at the time but would become characteristic of many hydroelectric facilities built by TVA.

His colleagues, TVA Chairman Arthur Morgan and Earle Draper, along with their team, designed the town of Norris with just as much thought. The town was meant as a model for regional planning including modern houses, utilities, and community facilities. They employed ideas from the Garden City Movement to create a walkable town surrounded by a protective greenbelt with central community spaces. In many ways, Norris embodied the future that TVA was striving to create for the Tennessee Valley although future projects were not carried out this scale. 

The projects that followed were begun and constructed in quick succession with multiple projects under construction at once. Pickwick Landing Hydroelectric Project (Hardin County) was started in 1934 and completed in 1936, followed by Chickamauga Hydroelectric Project (Hamilton County) started in 1936 and completed in 1940, and Watts Bar Hydroelectric Project (Rhea and Meigs County) started in 1939 and completed in 1941. Watts Bar was the last of these projects begun before the start of World War II and was completed three weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Once the war began, the focus on power production in the valley was related to production to support the war effort. Watts Bar was one of several hydroelectric projects that supported the work underway at the labs in Oak Ridge. Although many resources were diverted to support the war effort, dam construction was deemed necessary to further support these efforts. However, some planned recreational facilities at these sites were delayed until the end of the war. Another four TVA dams were started and completed in TN during WWII. These facilities maintained the modern style shown in dams, powerhouses, and visitor centers built in the previous years. Notably, the focus on landscape design was lessened during this time although many of the same design principles were employed in the layout of buildings and design of visitor spaces.

It should also be noted that the USACE was also constructing dams before and during war time, completing part of Dale Hollow Dam in 1943, but all other work on Dale Hollow, Center Hill, and Wolf Creek Dams was suspended until after the war.

The Tennessee River Valley was drastically changed by the installation of dams along the Tennessee River. While many dams had already been built by 1933, most of these dams were designed for small-scale energy production or flood control. Through the New Deal program, the entire Tennessee River Valley was altered to improve safety and livability. These modern facilities harkened change for the valley as a whole that would have been unlikely without the massive scale of planning sponsored by the federal government.

Thank you to TVA staff for their time and expertise in helping me put this article together.

Sources:

Conover, Robin. “Engineering a New Landscape.” The Tennessee Magazine, June 2, 2018. https://www.tnmagazine.org/engineering-a-new-landscape/.

Culvahouse, Tim, ed. The Tennessee Valley Authority: Design and Persuasion. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007.

Ezzell, Patricia Bernard. TVA Photography: Thirty Years of Life in the Tennessee Valley. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2003.
Gelernter, Mark. A History of American Architecture: Buildings in their Cultural and Technological Context. Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 1999.

Office for Emergency Management: War Production Board. Out of Water Power… Comes Air Power. Poster. January 1942- November 3, 1945, National Archives at College Park, College Park, Maryland.
Sachs, Avigail. The Garden in the Machine: Planning and Democracy in the Tennessee Valley Authority. Charlotteville: University of Virginia Press, 2023.
TVA.com. “Norris,” 2019. https://www.tva.com/energy/our-power system/hydroelectric/norris.
TVA.com. “Norris: An American Ideal,” 2020. https://www.tva.com/about-tva/our-history/tva-heritage/norris-an-american-ideal.
West, Carroll Van. Tennessee’s New Deal Landscape: A Guidebook. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press, 2001.