Tennessee Valley Authority Town of Norris, Tennessee

This town was established in 1934 to house some of the office workers of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a government agency that employs around 12,000 people, and is the largest energy producer in the United States. The TVA is a total topographical modification program, mostly completed, to stabilize and modernize the landscape and communities of the Tennessee River Valley, a region that reaches portions of seven southern states. The TVA was established by Roosevelt in 1933, as part of the New Deal, and since then has built 39 dams for flood control and electrical generation, 12 coal-fired power plants, recreational areas, drainage systems, navigable riverways, and roadways. One of the objectives that has been met by the TVA was to encourage the development of productive industrial areas, including the government's Oak Ridge Laboratory, to bolster the economic foundation of the region.