TVA Continues Celebration with Chickamauga Dam

The four generators inside of the Chickamauga Dam’s powerhouse.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- A small group got to go inside one of Chattanooga’s most iconic landmarks today.

A few weeks ago, we got to see the inside of the power storage plant inside of TVA’s Raccoon Mountain facility.

Today, the agency continued its celebration of its 90th anniversary with a tour inside the Chickamauga Dam.

The Senior Manager for TVA’s Central Hydro Reigon, Robby Floyd, said, “It means the world to me, I love what we do here.”

Breaking ground in 1936, and being opened in 1940 with a ceremony headed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Chickamauga Dam has been a centerpiece of the TVA system since the beginning.

The Dam’s centerpiece is the powerhouse.

The powerhouse contains four generators, each of which when operating, can produce 36 megawatts of electricity.

TVA says they are also the most efficient way to produce electricity.

The maintenance operator for the Dam said, “The dams are so crucial to the system… it would take five minutes to get a unit on and off while nuclear units to a lot longer than that, coal units.”

The powerhouse has six floors from the lobby at the top, to the pipes underneath the generators.

This facility separates Lake Chickamauaga on average 43 feet above the Tennessee River on the other side.

TVA says that the benefits of the dam go beyond the electricity produced for Chattanooga.

Scott Fiedler, a TVA spokesperson, said, “It was not a great place back before this dam. If you remember the big 1917 flood that destroyed Chattanooga, if you were at the TVA building at that time, it would be about the third floor, so that’s how deep the water was.”

What you may not know about the complex is this is actually operated by two different agencies.

The powerhouse is ran by TVA. 

The Chickamauga Lock is ran by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

A group of 20 got to see the power firsthand.

Floyd said, “This plant was built between 36 and 1940 and it’s still operating today, efficiently, reliably, it’s really history in motion.”

You still have an opportunity to see the dam for yourself.

But you will have to act fast and be lucky.

There’s one more scheduled tour of the dam on August 25th, and applications close Sunday night at midnight.

They’ll only 40 people to tour out of thousands of applicants.

Tour leaders said today they have nearly three thousands for this one.