Great Falls HP-Spencer 46-kv Transmission Line

The towers outlived three owners and a changing idea of who should sell electricity. The Tennessee Power Company built the line in 1913, the Tennessee Electric Power Company bought it in 1922, and the Tennessee Valley Authority acquired it in 1939, after a U.S. Supreme Court decision led to the private company's absorption into TVA. Hydroelectric stations at Ocoee and Great Falls fed the system. The 44-foot galvanized-steel towers, designed for severe weather, stayed in service for 103 years before a steel-pole line replaced them.

What the plaque says

Great Falls HP-Spencer 46-kv Transmission Line Tennessee Power Co. built the 12.1-mile long Great Falls-Spencer 46-kv Transmission Line in 1913 as part of a 151-mile line connecting the Ocoee No. 1 Hydroelectric Plant to Nashville. H.M. Byllesby & Co. designed the towers and the Nashville Bridge Co. assembled them. The 44-foot tall, 2,215 lb galvanized steel towers were designed to withstand severe weather conditions. Vanderbilt University football players helped clear trees and brush from the right-of-way. This line was tied into Great Falls Hydroelectric Station after completion of the powerhouse. The Tennessee Electric Power Co. bought the Great Falls-Spencer transmission line in 1922. The Tennessee Valley Authority acquired it in 1939. The line remained in continuous service for 103 years. When Caney Fork Electrical Cooperation upgraded their Spencer, Tennessee substation, TVA replaced the old line with a 161 kV line supported on steel poles.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Rock Island State Park — 0.5 mi
  A park where the Collins, Rocky and Caney Fork rivers meet at the head of Center Hill Lake, with a gorge of waterfalls below a 1917 dam and the remains of a cotton-mill town.
• Burgess Falls State Park — 17 mi
  A day-use park on the Falling Water River, where a short trail passes three smaller falls on its way to a drop of more than 130 feet into a limestone gorge.
• Fall Creek Falls State Park — 19 mi
  A New Deal park on the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau, where Cane Creek has cut a gorge and a 256-foot waterfall drops into it.
• Savage Gulf State Park — 25 mi
  Roughly 19,000 acres of gorge and sandstone bluff on the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau, a state park of its own since 2022, with the Stone Door and a National Natural Landmark.

More markers nearby

• Webb Hotel ca.1910 — 1.2 mi
• Joseph Terry — 1.5 mi
• Forrest's Bivouac July 11, 1862 — 5.4 mi
• Clay Faulkner April 11, 1845-August 26, 1916 — 9.4 mi