Norris Dam Construction Photographs

The nine photographs depict the early construction of Norris Dam, the first of TVA's twenty dams built in the Tennessee River basin.

In July 1933 the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority named Cove Creek Dam "Norris Dam" in honor of Senator George Norris from Nebraska. Even before the construction of the dam began, a town of Norris was being planned and built. On October 1, 1933 work at the dam site began on the east bank of the Clinch River. Norris Dam was virtually finished after almost three years of construction. In May of 1936, the gates of the dam were closed, and impoundment of the Clinch River began. By the end of July, the first generator had begun spinning, thus bringing near to completion the first of twenty dams that TVA was to build in the next twenty years.