North Carolina's Cheoah Dam: Once The Tallest Of Its Kind In The World

One of the world’s most notable engineering feats of the early 1900s was created in 1919 to dam the Little Tennessee River near Robbinsville. North Carolina’s Cheoah Dam sits wedged into a deep river gorge with one of its remarkable engineering features among its’ most visible elements.

When it was completed in 1919, the Cheoah Dam was the highest overflow dam in the world.

Other dams built across the country were modeled after this inverted arch gravity type dam that spilled water over the top of the structure.

It also featured four of the largest turbines in use in the world.

Cheoah Dam was built to provide hydroelectricity for the surrounding areas. Those four turbines were at the very heart of the energy generation.

At the time, this narrow dam was the tallest of its kind in the world. At 225 high and spanning 750 feet across the Little Tennessee River, it still is very impressive a hundred years later.

You'll find awesome views of the dam from the notoriously curvy scenic highway known as the Tail of the Dragon.

Did you realize the historic significance of North Carolina’s Cheoah Dam? Or that you can see it and the beautiful Cheoah Reservoir from NC-129 (a.k.a. The Tail of the Dragon)?

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Cheoah Dam, Robbinsville, NC 28771, USA

Once The Tallest Overflow Dam In The World, North Carolina's Cheoah Dam Was A True Feat Of Engineering

Robin Jarvis

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