Kentucky Dam

Kentucky Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River on the county line between Livingston and Marshall counties in the U. S. state of Kentucky. The dam is the lowermost of nine dams on the river owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the late 1930s and early 1940s to improve navigation on the lower part of the river and reduce flooding on the lower Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It was a major project initiated during the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, to invest in infrastructure to benefit the country. The dam impounds the Kentucky Lake of , which is the largest of TVA's reservoirs and the largest artificial lake by area in the Eastern United States. It was designated as an National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1996 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. A canal connects Kentucky Lake to nearby Lake Barkley, created by Barkley Dam on the Cumberland River. The lakes run parallel for more than 50 miles (80 km), with the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area located between them.

Kentucky Dam is located slightly more than 22 mile (35 km) above the mouth of the Tennessee River, which empties into the Ohio River at Paducah, Kentucky. After absorbing the Tennessee, the Ohio flows for another 46 mile (74 km) before emptying into the Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois. The dam is approximately 20 mile (32 km) north of the Kentucky Tennessee border and 10 mile (16 km) southeast of the Kentucky Illinois border. The city of Grand Rivers is located southeast of the dam, and Gilbertsville and Calvert City are immediately downstream. Kentucky Lake stretches southward for 184 mile (296 km) across Kentucky and most of the length of Tennessee to the base of Pickwick Landing Dam, near the Tennessee Alabama line. It is within parts of Livingston, Marshall, Lyon, Calloway, and Trigg counties in Kentucky and parts of Humphreys, Benton, Decatur, Stewart, Carroll, Wayne, Henderson, Henry, Perry, Houston, and Hardin counties in Tennessee. Barkley Dam, which is operated by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, is located along the Cumberland River just opposite Lake City a few miles east of Kentucky Dam. The canal connecting Kentucky and Barkley lakes joins Kentucky Lake approximately 3 mile (5 km) upstream from Kentucky Dam.

Kentucky Dam is 206 feet (63 m) high; more than half the dam is submerged by water. At 8422 feet (2567 m) long, Kentucky Dam is the longest dam on the Tennessee River and the longest in the TVA system. The dam has a generating capacity of 223,100 kilowatts, and its 24 bay spillway has a total discharge of Kentucky Lake's 2064 mile (3322 km) of shoreline, of water surface, and of flood storage are the most of any lake in the TVA system and one of the largest artificial lakes in the U. S.

Kentucky Dam is served by a navigation lock, soon to be supplemented by a larger lock which will be better able to accommodate the long barge tows that navigate the river in the 21st century. A large industrial complex of chemical plants has developed below the dam near Calvert City due to the convenient barge transportation and inexpensive TVA electricity. The locks' lift raises and lowers vessels up to 75 feet (23 m) between Kentucky Lake and the lower part of the river. The dam also carried a railroad line and two lanes of US 62/641 at its crest. However, due to the planned lock expansion, two new crossings were built just downstream of the dam—a two lane road bridge and a separate rail bridge. The new bridges were opened in late 2009. The road atop the dam is still in use for local traffic accessing the dam's powerhouse and visitor center, but is no longer a complete crossing, as the bridges that crossed the locks are now closed.