Historical Marker
Norris Freeway
Knoxville, Knox County · Tennessee
TVA built the road in 1934 to haul material from the railroad at Coal Creek to the Norris Dam site, 21 miles ending at Halls Crossroads. Two ten-foot lanes with narrow shoulders sat inside a 250-foot right-of-way, with billboards barred and buildings set back 75 feet. TVA's architects under Roland Wank gave the structures an Art Moderne look: a cattle underpass, a concrete arch bridge, smooth rails and curved wingwalls. The state historic preservation office found 18.9 of the 21 miles eligible for the National Register, though development threatens it.
What the plaque says
Norris Freeway Built in 1934 by TVA as an important part of TVA's first hydroelectric dam project, Norris Freeway provided a connection from the railroad in Coal Creek in Anderson County to Halls Crossroads in North Knox County. Built to transfer materials to the dam and provide access to administrative offices in Knoxville, and "considered the world's first limited access road...built for utilitarian or construction project-purposes," it runs 21 miles and cost 41.4 million to build. TVA limited billboards and commercial uses along the freeway to provide a scenic drive to Norris Dam and Norris.
Where it stands
36.08349, -83.93508 · Directions
Worth the stop nearby
- Beck Cultural Exchange Center — 7.9 miKnoxville's Black history museum and archive, opened in 1975 in the 1912 Dandridge Avenue house the community bought for $22,500.
- Blount Mansion — 8.5 miThe 1792 frame house of William Blount, governor of the Southwest Territory, Knoxville's only National Historic Landmark, where the people he enslaved are named.
- Museum of Appalachia — 10 miJohn Rice Irwin's 65-acre collection of moved log cabins and mountain objects north of Knoxville, opened in 1969, with a cabin believed to be Mark Twain's father's.
- Green McAdoo Cultural Center — 12 miThe 1935 school in Clinton that sent twelve Black students down Foley Hill to desegregate Clinton High School in August 1956, now a museum with bronze statues of the Clinton 12.