ABSTRACT
The concrete structures comprising Hales Bar Dam, Tennessee, were built by the Chattanooga and Tennessee River Power Company between 1905 and 1913 on the Tennessee River about 33 miles downstream of Chattanooga (Rogers 2011). This was the rst occasion a private power company had constructed a major dam across a navigable channel in the United States, and this undertaking required congressional approval. When completed it contained the world’s highest single-lock lift (41 feet) although at 265 feet in length, it would soon become the shortest on the Tennessee River. On the other-left-abutment, the powerhouse required a 98-footby-240-foot excavation extending 75 feet below the original river bed.
