The construction of Watts Bar Dam was started on July 1, 1939 and was completed in less than 3 years by the TVA. The filling of Watts Bar Lake began three weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The total cost of construction of the reservoir as of 1946 was $35,231,729 taking more than 11,000,000 man hours to complete. The dam itself contains 480,200 cubic yards of concrete.
Watts Bar Dam and Reservoir was constructed for the purpose of electric power, flood control, navigation, recreation, an adequate supply of water and other related benefits. Watts Bar Dam contains five 30,000 kilowatt capacity generating units. The lake itself contains a total of four electric power plants, two fossil plants, Kingston and Watts Bar. Watts Bar Fossil plant is currently not being used. There is also Watts Bar Nuclear Plant and Watts Bar Hydro Plant located at the dam.
Watts Bar Lake is on the Tennessee River and is surrounded by Loudon, Roane, Rhea, and Meigs Counties in Tennessee. Watts Bar Lake covers 39,000 acres at full pool, and has 771 miles of shoreline. The lake extends 72.4 miles from the Watts Bar Dam up to Ft. Loudon dam, with the maximum depth being approximately 70 feet near the dam. The principal tributaries of Watts Bar are the Clinch River and the Tennessee River. Watts Bar Lake is one of south's largest lakes. The watershed (the land the water drains from) for the lake is 17,310 square miles.
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