Content deleted Content added
Lstanley1979 (talk | contribs) reconsidering essay tag |
Citation bot (talk | contribs) Add: date. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by Abductive | #UCB_webform 1296/3850 |
||
| (33 intermediate revisions by 18 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
'''Underground Chattanooga''' is a below-ground area of [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]] that resulted from citizen efforts to prevent floods in the aftermath of the [[The 1867 Flood of Chattanooga|flood of 1867]]. It was rediscovered by Jeff Brown in the 1970s.<ref name=sohn>{{cite news|last1=Sohn|first1=Pam|last2=Belz|first2=Kate|title=Underground city beneath Chattanooga is more than a curiosity|url=http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/news/story/2012/feb/19/city-below-chattanooga-is-more-than-a-curiosity/71104/|access-date=23 September 2015|work=Times Free Press|publisher=Chattanooga Publishing Company|date=19 February 2012}}</ref>
== Flooding ==
{{main|The 1867 Flood of Chattanooga}}
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Chattanooga experienced bouts of systematic flooding roughly every decade.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Watch now: Greater Chattanooga {{!}} Underground Revealed {{!}} WTCI Video|url = http://video.wtcitv.org/video/2365460597/|website = PBS Video|access-date = 2016-02-22|language = en-US}}</ref> The impact of flooding was severe; it affected many of Chattanooga's manufacturers as well as the merchants in the area. Building damage was frequent as well as the interruption of daily life. Chattanooga's commerce was constantly affected by the flooding,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://picnooga.org/underground-chattanooga-uncovered/|title=Lost Chattanooga: Underground Chattanooga Uncovered — Chattanooga History in Photos|website=Chattanooga History in Photos|language=en-US|access-date=2016-03-04}}</ref> After years of suffering through flooding, in March 1867 Chattanooga experienced a record flood following four days of heavy rainfall. The river had risen {{Convert|53|ft}}, which was 15.5 feet higher than a flood twenty years earlier.<ref name=nooa>{{cite web|title=The East Tennessee Flood of 1867|url=http://www.srh.noaa.gov/rtimages/mrx/presentations/ChattFloodof1867.pdf|publisher=[[National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration]]|access-date=23 September 2015|quote=At Chattanooga the rise began on March 4, overflowed the banks on March 8, and attained height on March 11, being 53 feet above low water and 15.5 feet above the high water of 1847, the highest on record. The river fell with equal rapidity to the usual level. Rains were incessant for four days before the highest water.}}</ref> The rain lasted for four days, bringing the water level in the Tennessee River 28 feet above flood range. The bridge across the river was destroyed, as were many buildings. There was a considerable loss of life and looting took place. Upwards of 4,000 homeless in Chattanooga were ferried out of the flooding city to areas of higher ground.<ref name="sohn" /> During a 64-year span ranging from 1875 to 1938, the Tennessee River had risen above its flood range more than 70 times.<ref name="sohn" />
== Construction ==
The concept of adding levees were briefly discussed among the residents of Chattanooga. However, the waterfront areas were deemed too valuable as a commercial resource to use for the construction of a levee.<ref name=":0" /> After the bouts of flooding, a local newspaper article was released that stated the city's leaders planned on raised the grade of the streets of Chattanooga so that they would no longer flood.<ref name="sohn" /> The people of Chattanooga began to raise the level of a few of the city's streets by 3 to 15 feet. Around 40 blocks of downtown Chattanooga was raised. Market and Broad Streets were completely filled, as well as portions of Cherry and Chestnut Streets.<ref>{{Cite web
| url = http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/news/story/2012/feb/19/city-below-chattanooga-is-more-than-a-curiosity/71104/
| title = Underground city beneath Chattanooga is more than a curiosity
| website = timesfreepress.com
| date = 19 February 2012
| access-date = 2016-02-29
}}</ref> The method in which the city was raised is disputed, because there is no historical documentation.<ref>{{Cite web
| url = http://nooga.com/165725/lovemans-building-sheds-new-light-on-underground-chattanooga/
| title = Loveman's Building sheds new light on Underground Chattanooga
| website = Nooga.com
| access-date = 2016-02-29
}}</ref> It was speculated that what was used in the raising was dirt from higher level areas of the town. Later, available records and soil boring showed that a variety of different materials such as foundry waste and sawmill scraps had been used in raising the city's streets.<ref name="sohn" /> In 1933 the [[Tennessee Valley Authority]] in conjunction with [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]] helped pass the Tennessee Valley Authority Act (1933)<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Boyce|first=Ronald|date=January 2004|title=Geographers and The Tennessee Valley Authority|journal=Geographical Review|volume=94|pages=23–42|doi=10.1111/j.1931-0846.2004.tb00156.x|s2cid=130542108}}</ref> which prompted the construction of the [[Chickamauga Dam]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2015/dec/29/without-dams-and-reservoirs-tennessee-river-w/342306/|title=Dams prevent Tennessee River from flooding Chattanooga|website=timesfreepress.com|date=29 December 2015 |access-date=2016-03-04}}</ref> After the dam was built in 1933, it helped to regulate the water levels of the [[Tennessee River]] near Chattanooga, preventing downtown from flooding.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hibdon|first=James|date=1958|title=Flood Control Benefits and The Tennessee Valley Authority|journal=Southern Economic Journal|volume=25|issue=1|pages=48–63|doi=10.2307/1055583|jstor=1055583}}</ref>
== Discovery ==
[[Archaeologist]] and [[University of Tennessee-Chattanooga]] professor Jeff Brown started noticing small clues to the underground world while walking around downtown Chattanooga. He learned from utility workers of doorways leading to tunnels and rooms or nowhere altogether. Entire basements of buildings were once first floors, including some obvious storefronts complete with windows. None were marked on maps and no one could tell him why these features were there. He discovered that much of the city had been backfilled, by six feet at 9th Street and up to 20 feet at other places, but very little documentation of this process existed.<ref name=cc>{{cite book|last1=Maxwell|first1=Cody|title=Chattanooga Chronicles|date=2013|publisher=The History Press|isbn=9781625846327|pages=48–50|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TosVBAAAQBAJ&dq=Chattanooga+Chronicles%2C+46&pg=PA46|access-date=23 September 2015}}</ref>
== Controversy ==
Because of lack of historical documentation backing up the raising of the city's streets, some suggest that it is just a legend. Some suggest that it was a common practice for the basements in buildings downtown to have stairs leading down from the street. These walk-downs, some complete with handrails leading down towards a basement entrance, existed in downtown Chattanooga at the time.<ref name=":0" /> The basements had windows to provide light as well as ventilation. There has been some photo documentation of structures over a span of thirty years that show little or no change. An explanation for the archways in some buildings could be explained by being used as support for the building. Some suggest that the only evidence is that of a normal growing city infrastructure and, no monumental effort to raise the city's streets. After 1925, the use of commercial basements began to fade. Over time parts of the city began to be filled in that fell below grade.<ref name=":0" />
==External links==
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8iVm_-qYdk A Visit to Underground Chattanooga, WTVC NewsChannel 9]
* [http://video.wtcitv.org/video/2365460597/ Greater Chattanooga Underground Revealed, PBS Video]
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{coord|35.05|-85.31|type:city_region:US|display=title}}
[[Category:Chattanooga, Tennessee]]
| |||