The United States of America is a federal union of 50 states and a capital district. The state of Tennessee is located east of the Mississippi River and south of Kentucky. The state of North Carolina ceded the region of Tennessee to the federal government in 1790, and after a period as the Southwest Territory Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state in 1796. The state takes its name from the Tennessee River. The state is divided officially into three regions called Grand Divisions: East Tennessee (including the cities of Knoxville and Chattanooga), Middle Tennessee (centered on the state capital, Nashville), and West Tennessee (including Memphis, on the Mississippi River, the state's largest city). Tennessee also has three navigable rivers. The Mississippi River flows southward along the western border of the state. The Tennessee River, made navigable to Knoxville by a series of major dams built by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), flows southwestward from Knoxille past Chattanooga into Alabama and then returns northward forming the border between Middle and West Tennessee. The Cumberland River flows past Nashville before turning north into Kentucky; it is navigable past Nashville to the town of Celina. The U.S. Coast Guard Sector Ohio Valley, based in Louisville, Kentucky, maintains navigation aids on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. To be listed here a lighthouse must actually serve as an aid to navigation. This means it must be located on a navigable lake or river and must be lit as a navigational aid at least during the local boating season. USCG numbers are from Volume 5 of the U.S. Coast Guard List of Lights. |
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Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Kentucky | South: Alabama
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Posted July 5, 2012. Checked and revised October 16, 2024. Lighthouses: 6. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.