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Special to The Observer
Chattanooga, Tennessee, November 15 - The Tennessee River between Chattanooga and Hale's Bar is a very different proposition from what it has always been prior to completion of the dam of the Chattanooga and Tennessee River Power Company at that point, and the lock built by Uncle Sam, for raising and lowering boats.
The river over the stretch described and for miles above Chattanooga too, is like a great lake, with the current materially reduced and the depth increased, meaning much better navigation. Landmarks—obstacles to navigation incidentally—such as the “suck”, “pot”, and “skillet,” are gone forever, and the river runs deep and smooth over the places where shallows and shoals and rapids made passage of boats difficult.
At the “suck” in the “olden days,” it was often necessary to work boats through by means of ropes, given purchase by strong devices anchored to massive boulders on shore. During this tedious process, passengers on deck could “sight” the boat by trees opposite and hardly detect motion upstream.
Now the boats go merrily over the old delaying point at full speed and no one could suspect the conditions which existed before water was impounded behind the 1,200 foot long dam a few miles below.
In recognition of the resumption of navigation on the Tennessee River, under these much better conditions, and the opening of the ten million dollar hydro-electric plant, into the construction of which the late Anthony N. Brady poured his millions, the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce held an elaborate celebration November 13.
The Secretary of War, under whose supervision to work has been carried forward; the Secretary of the Treasury, W. C. McAdoo, a former Chattanoogan; the Senate Committee on Commerce; House Committee on Rivers and Harbors; delegates to the annual meeting of the Tennessee River Improvement Association and many other notables from all over the country were present.
The principal feature of the day was the trip to the lock and dam for the purpose of inspecting the entire plant, including the power house, formal turning on of the power by Nicholas F. Brady, son of the principal promoter, Anthony N. Brady, who did not live to see the plant completed, and in fact never visited it. Returning to the city by train, the party was taken in trolley cars to Signal Mountain Inn, a pait of the fine development, on Old Waldren's Ridge, by C. E. James.
Chattanooga's foremost promoter, associated with Mr. Brady and the late J. C. Guild in the power project.
There a banquet was served with short addresses by distinguished men, including Governor Hooper. Fireworks from Signal Point, where signal fires were kept burning at night and messages sent in the daytime, during the Civil Was, concluded the celebration.
The hydro-electric plant at Hales's Bar, of the Chattanooga & Tennessee River Power Company ranks as one of the first four in the United States, comparing with Keokuk and Niagara. It is the largest in the south.
These will be generated 65,000 horsepower—enough to run more factories than exist today in Chattanooga; 20 large cement mills of 2,000 barrels a day; 25 large cotton mills; or every train on the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway.
The dam is of cyclopean concrete with from 75 to 80 cubic yards of concrete in each lineal foot. It is 1,200 feet long, at an average height of 52 feet; 11 feet 4 inches wide at the top; and varies in width at the bottom from 57 to 64 feet according to the depth of foundation. The upstream face is vertical; the downstream slopping. The lock also is of cyclopean concrete, with walls much higher than the dam. It is 60 feet wide and 300 feet long inside the gates, and remarkable for the great size and height of the downstream gates which are 59 feet high, the highest single lift in the world. Each leaf weigh 129 tons.
A period of seven years has been consumed in building the great plant. A peculiar formation of limestone was found under the river bed, fissures and other faults, which made progress slow and expensive.
Charlotte Observer - November 16. 1913
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