The Chickamauga Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States. The dam is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the late 1930s as part of a New Deal era initiative to improve navigation and bring flood control and economic development to the Tennessee Valley. The dam impounds the Chickamauga Lake and feeds into Nickajack Lake. The dam and associated infrastructure were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. Chickamauga Dam is named for the Chickamaugas, a politically detached branch of the Cherokee whose chief village was located just north of the dam site during the 18th century. The tribe's name has also been applied to several streams in the Chattanooga area, as well as an important American Civil War battle and a sandbar that existed at the dam site prior to its construction. Location Chickamauga Dam is located upstream from the mouth of the Tennessee River, just east of downtown Chattanooga at the river's confluence with North Chickamauga Creek. The reservoir stretches for from Chickamauga Dam to the base of Watts Bar Dam, and includes parts of Hamilton, Bradley, McMinn, Rhea, and Meigs counties. The reservoir's notable embayments include Harrison Bay at its confluence with Wolftever Creek approximately upstream from the dam and the Soddy Creek embayment at upstream. Along with its main Tennessee River channel, the reservoir is navigable across the lower of the Hiwassee River, which joins the Tennessee River above the dam. The Wilkes T. Thrasher Bridge carries Tennessee State Route 153 across the top of Chickamauga Dam. The road connects the dam to Interstate 75 to the south and U.S. Route 27 to the north. The Tennessee Riverwalk, a walkway along the Tennessee River, begins at the dam. Capacity Chickamauga Dam is a concrete gravity-type dam long and high. Its hydroelectric generating capacity is 119 megawatts. The dam has 18 spillway bays with a combined discharge of . A navigation lock allows barges and other boats to travel past the dam, raising or lowering vessels between Chickamauga and Nickajack reservoirs. Background and construction The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers surveyed the Chickamauga Island site in the 1920s as a possible site for a dam to protect Chattanooga, which had suffered serious flood damage in 1867, 1875, 1886, and 1917, and to enhance navigation along the river. When the Tennessee Valley