We Are Tourists

Tuesday, April 25…

TVA built 2 dams on the river back in the 1940s

So, back in 1974 when Greg was working for Ederer, he made a couple trips to Chattanooga to help install a bridge crane in the Raccoon Mountain Pump Storage Facility that pumped water already "held" by 2 dams into a temporary reservoir to provide additional power as needed. This morning he did a little walk down memory lane when we visited that site. The website said tours were available, so he was disappointed to find out that those had been discontinued after 9/11 (16 years ago - maybe someone should update the website!). There’s a “virtual tour” video that we watched, and of course he had lots to tell me about the experience. 

This switchyard can transmit 16+ megawatts of electricity.

View from switchyard. The river winds around and through Chattanooga.

From Raccoon Mountain we drove to Lookout Mountain, which you can see to the right of the river in the photo above (it looks more like a plateau than a mountain). Lots of tourist sites up here, but we mostly stuck with historical ones. Chattanooga was a key city in the Civil War because it's located in a valley that provided railroad access N,S,E & W. The critical battles here followed Confederate losses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg and really set the stage for Sherman's March and Lee's surrender. First we viewed a video/electric map combo that detailed the combat on both Missionary Ridge & Lookout Mountain. The Confederates were seriously outnumbered and under-commanded (Gen Bragg seems to have made several serious blunders). After the history lesson, we walked through Point Park, once a battlefield, now filled with memorials and lookout spots.

Point Park (Lookout Mt looks
like a cruise ship; this park is
the bow - hence, point.)

View from PP: Tennessee River & Chattanooga

The Incline Railway was next. The uppermost section is at a 72.5° tilt (and yes, that is awfully close to 90), which makes it the steepest passenger railway in the world. Built in 1895 to carry guests to a luxury hotel at the top of Lookout Mt, it's mostly a tourist attraction today. However, when snow or ice make the mountain's streets unsafe, the railway is still occasionally used both to deliver goods to the top and to bring women in labor down to  to deliver their babies. We had lunch at the bottom before coming back up to our car.

Near the top (seats face down both ways)

Greg's shot as we ascended.

On the way home we happened to pass the International Towing & Recovery Museum and decided to stop. Really cool place. Greg has lots of great pics, but I'll just share two of my faves.

World's Fastest Wrecker - clocked at
109.33 at Talladega in 1979.

No stats, but in my opinion this must be
 the world's biggest tow winch!

RandomThoughts... 1. The fighting on Lookout Mt is often referred to as the Battle Above the Clouds. It's true that the Union forces made their way up the mountain through thick fog and mist. When they met the enemy, however, the Confederates found themselves greatly outnumbered and were easily driven back. Not really much of a battle. 2. There are several major tourist attractions on Lookout Mountain. Without consciously realizing it, I assumed that's all that was up there (the rest being natural landscape). What a surprise as we neared the top to find a large residential community that included almost every architectural style you can imagine: Tudor, classic colonial, chalet, Mediterranean, mid-century modern, cottages, cabins, and mansions. Probably pretty pricey overall, but delightful.