Kentucky Dam: The New Deal's Largest Lock

Kentucky Dam stands at the southern end of the Tennessee Valley Authority's chain of nine dams on the Tennessee River, and by several measures it is the system's most consequential structure. Built between the late nineteen thirties and completed in nineteen forty-four as a New Deal public works project, it impounds Kentucky Lake, which covers one hundred sixty thousand acres and is the largest artificial lake by surface area in the eastern United States. The dam's original purpose was to tame the Tennessee's lower reach, improving river navigation for commercial traffic and reducing flooding downstream on the Ohio and Mississippi.

It also generates hydroelectric power. The American Society of Civil Engineers named it a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in nineteen ninety-six, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in two thousand seventeen. The reservoir it created defines the landscape of far-western Kentucky and has made the Land Between the Lakes region one of the most visited recreation areas in the mid-South.