The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, often referred to as the Tenn-Tom Waterway with the purpose to connect those two separate and individually navigable rivers, was first imagined in the early 19th century. By the early 1900s, the lower portion of the Tombigbee River had been made commercially navigable. During this same period, surveying was undertaken to determine the feasibility of joining the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers. It was later seriously discussed as part of FDR’s 1930s depression infrastructure projects.
The project was further considered in the early 1960s for potential construction by utilizing atomic blasting, but thankfully nothing was done in that regard. It finally found approval in Richard Nixon’s 1971 “Southern Strategy” budget. Construction of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway commenced in 1972 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). It was completed 12 years later and opened in 1984, two years ahead of schedule.
One of the prime reasons for its delay over the decades was cost versus the perceived benefits. The Tenn-Tom Waterway is, for a large part, man-made and travels overland and was therefore extraordinarily costly. It is a 234 mile (377 km) mostly artificial waterway joining the Tennessee River at Pickwick Lock in the northeast corner of the Mississippi to the Tombigbee River where it is joined by the Black Warrior River in central Alabama near Demopolis. This critical section of man-made waterway has allowed for massive inland commerce of the Tennessee and upper Ohio River valleys, in addition of course to pleasure boating. It also allows for a more directly connected route to the Gulf of Mexico.
From the south end of the Tenn-Tom Waterway, the Tombigbee River flows south and is joined by the Alabama River to form the Mobile River about 50 miles (80 km) north of the Gulf. It then flows into Mobile Bay and the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile, Alabama. In all, it is roughly 450 miles (725 km) from the start of the Tenn-Tom Waterway on the Tennessee River, to the Gulf of Mexico via primarily the Tombigbee River. Of course, if your final destination in the Gulf is Florida, you are much closer in Mobile, Alabama than you would be at the mouth of the Mississippi in New Orleans, Louisiana if you had instead chosen to utilize the Mississippi.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers divided the Tenn-Tom Waterway into three distinct sections. Starting at the Tennessee River, the first section named the Divide Section is about 40 miles (64 km) long and so-called as it was quite literally excavated through the mountainous divide at the height of land between the Tennessee and Tombigbee River valleys. Moving south, the man-made Canal Section, is roughly 45 miles (72 km) long and connects the Divide Section to the Tombigbee River. What is known as the River Section is almost 150 miles (240 km) long and it straightens out the river to assist in its navigability until the Tombigbee River adds the flow of the Black Warrior River to become navigable on its own.
The 40 mile (64 km) Divide Section is considered an engineering marvel as it joins Pickwick Lake in the Tennessee River Valley to Big Springs Lake in the Tombigbee River Valley. These two lakes are joined at the same water level by the massive 84-foot (25.6 m) high Jamie L. Whitten Lock at mile 412 near Dennis, Mississippi at the southern end of the Divide Section. There is no control dam at the Jamie L. Whitten Lock, and so water level control in the two lakes is supplied by the Pickwick Lock & Dam on the Tennessee River.
The excavation joining these two lakes across the height of land is arguably about 25 miles (40 km) long and follows a straight line. This excavation is up to 175 feet (53 m) deep. More than 50% more earth was removed to create the channel through this height of land than was removed in the entire building of the Panama Canal! Along the way, the entire small town of Holcut, Mississippi had to be physically removed. A stone obelisk and plaque beside the Waterway serves as a memorial to the town.
When digging the Canal Section of the Waterway, in order to accommodate the new National Environment Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, the US Army Corps of Engineers, instead of building one or two large dams and lakes which would be easier and cheaper but environmentally less friendly, created several small lakes through the building of five dams and locks. The Canal Section is man-made and roughly 45 miles (72 km) long and is separate and distinct from the Tombigbee River, which is not navigable at that point.
The 150-mile (240 km) long River Section joins the southern end of the Canal Section near Amory, Mississippi via the Tombigbee River itself. This is also where the river is joined by the Black Warrior River near Demopolis, Alabama. At this point, along with the addition of the water flow from the Black Warrior River, the Tombigbee River is essentially navigable on its own until it becomes the Mobile River when it is joined by the Alabama River north of Mobile, Alabama.
The River Section is not all natural, though, as the USACE cut channels in several places to straighten out the river, assist in its flow, and shorten the waterway. In total, through the entire Waterway’s 234-mile (377 km) length from the Tennessee River to Demopolis, Alabama are 10 locks. Each of these locks are 600 feet (183 m) long by 110 feet (34 m) wide and are built to that specification to handle eight river barges at a time in a single lockage. Total elevation change through these 10 locks is roughly 340 feet (104 m).
The Tenn-Tom Waterway is a boon to those boaters doing the Great Loop where the northern and western portions of the Intracoastal Waterway in the Gulf of Mexico are not part of their plans. The Mississippi River will always be part of the plan, but, if southbound on that river, by diverting onto the Ohio River for only about 50 miles (80 km), you can then access the Tennessee River, then the Tenn-Tom Waterway, and eventually exit Mobile Bay into the Gulf of Mexico being closer to Florida than if you had kept going south on the Mississippi to end up in New Orleans. In fact, you would have saved several hundred miles.
The Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway (“Tombigbee” being a word from the Choctaw Nation meaning “box maker”), although once being denigrated as an example of one of the worst of pork-barrel politics, has turned out to be part of one of the most revered of pleasure boating excursions in North America.
Make it a part of your future boating plans.
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