Kentucky Dam
| Kentucky Dam | |
|---|---|
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| Official name | Kentucky Dam |
| Location | Livingston County and Marshall County, Kentucky, United States |
| Coordinates | 37°00′47″N 88°16′09″W / 37.01306°N 88.26917°WCoordinates: 37°00′47″N 88°16′09″W / 37.01306°N 88.26917°W |
| Construction began | May 1, 1938 |
| Opening date | August 30, 1944 |
| Operator(s) | Tennessee Valley Authority |
| Dam and spillways | |
| Impounds | Tennessee River |
| Height | 206 ft (63 m) |
| Length | 8,422 ft (2,567 m) |
| Reservoir | |
| Creates | Kentucky Lake |
Kentucky Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River on the county line between Livingston and Marshall counties in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The dam is the lowermost of nine dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the late 1930s and early 1940s to improve navigation on the lower part of the river and reduce flooding on the lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It was a major project initiated during the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, to invest in infrastructure to benefit the country. The dam impounds the Kentucky Lake of 160,000 acres (65,000 ha), which is the largest of TVA's reservoirs and the largest artificial lake by area in the Eastern United States.
A canal connects Kentucky Lake to nearby Lake Barkley, created by Barkley Dam on the Cumberland River. The lakes run parallel for more than 50 miles (80 km), with the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area located between them.
Kentucky Dam is located slightly more than 22 miles (35 km) above the mouth of the Tennessee River, which empties into the Ohio River at Paducah, Kentucky. After absorbing the Tennessee, the Ohio flows for another 46 miles (74 km) before emptying into the Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois. The dam is approximately 20 miles (32 km) north of the Kentucky-Tennessee border and 10 miles (16 km) southeast of the Kentucky-Illinois border. The city of Grand Rivers is located southeast of the dam, and Gilbertsville and Calvert City are immediately downstream. Kentucky Lake stretches southward for 184 miles (296 km) across Kentucky and most of the length of Tennessee to the base of Pickwick Landing Dam, near the Tennessee-Alabama line. It is within parts of Livingston, Marshall, Lyon, Calloway, and Trigg counties in Kentucky and parts of Humphreys, Benton, Decatur, Stewart, Carroll, Wayne, Henderson, Henry, Perry, Houston, and Hardin counties in Tennessee.
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