The Raccoon Mountain Pumped Storage Project is a few miles west of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is the largest hydroelectric plant built by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which is saying a lot, as the TVA has 30 of them, and was a pioneer in large-scale dam construction. It was built between 1970 and 1979, and has a generating capacity of 1,650 megawatts, making it the third largest pumped storage project in the nation. The TVA is part of the federal government, and the grounds of the operation are welcoming and more open to the public than most. Visitors can circle the upper reservoir by car, driving along the top of the 280 feet high, mile and a half long dam, the largest earthen dam built by the TVA. A visitor center next to the upper reservoir has informative displays inside and out, and a balcony that overlooks the Tennessee River Gorge and Nickajack Lake, the dammed segment of the river that serves as the lower reservoir for the project. An elevator in the visitor center was built to take the public 1,000 feet down, into the underground powerhouse.
