Work started Thursday on a key link from West M.L. King Boulevard to Chattanooga’s riverfront that officials said fulfills a century-old dream by city planners.
“The idea came about in 1911,” said Mayor Andy Berke, citing old maps showing what was then known as Ninth Street going to the Tennessee River. “We’re fulfilling a 100-year-old vision.”
M.L. King, on the back center-right, West 9th Avenue, on the right, and the Blue Goose Hollow Trailhead are seen near the Cameron Harbor area on Monday, Feb. 12, 2018 in Chattanooga, Tenn. The M.L. King extension would form a straight shot to the Blue Goose Hollow trailhead, and the old West Ninth Avenue would disappear.
FAST FACT
Legendary blues singer Bessie Smith grew up in a section of the city near the West M.L. King Boulevard extension called Blue Goose Hollow.
It’s also an area where acclaimed blues singer Bessie Smith lived, growing up in a section of the city called Blue Goose Hollow, according to local officials and the Tennessee Encyclopedia. The vastly improved connection to the riverfront will tie into the Tennessee Riverwalk at the Blue Goose Hollow trailhead.
This rendering shows the area where M.L. King Boulevard is proposed to be extended across Riverfront Parkway to a Tennessee Riverwalk trailhead.Chattanooga businessman Grant Law, who for many years owned much of the property in and around what’s now called Cameron Harbor, said “this one is for Bessie … honoring her memory.”