Kentucky Dam

Kentucky Dam, completed in nineteen forty-four, is the longest dam in the Tennessee Valley Authority system. It spans the Tennessee River just above where it meets the Ohio, creating Kentucky Lake, the largest man-made lake by surface area in the eastern United States. The TVA built it as part of its New Deal mandate to bring flood control, navigation, and electricity to the Tennessee Valley.

Construction employed thousands of workers during the Depression and World War Two era. The dam also created the famous Land Between the Lakes peninsula, a narrow strip of land separating Kentucky Lake from Lake Barkley to the east, which today is a federal recreation area stretching nearly fifty miles. Kentucky Dam transformed western Kentucky from a flood-prone backwater into one of the region's premier outdoor recreation destinations.