A man sitting at what is now Point Park in Lookout Mountain, Tenn., looks out at the flood below in Chattanooga in 1867.
Photo: Chattanooga Public Library
Two men row a boat down Market Street at the corner of Eighth Street toward the Fischer Evans clock during the flood of 1886.
Photo: Chattanooga Public LibraryEarlier Coverage
Underground city beneath Chattanooga is more than a curiosity
WTCI, Chattanooga’s PBS station, has released a short film that explores the city’s underground history.
Titled “Underground Revealed” and part of Greater Chattanooga, WTCI’s online film series, the documentary can be seen here.
With near-constant flooding in Chattanooga from the Tennessee River – 70 times between 1867 and the early 1900s – city officials decided something had to be done to keep parts of the city from being buried in mud and water and ruining many businesses.
A massive project began to raise four city streets – Market and Broad and portions of Cherry and Chestnut – from the river to Ninth Street, what is now M.L. King Boulevard anywhere from 3 to 15 feet. Eventually, about 40 blocks in Chattanooga were lifted by about one story.
Left behind were first floors that now were basements and basements that were essentially caves. Windows that towered from the first floor were now partially below ground, turning into light vents for the newly created basements. And many of those subterranean rooms and buildings are still there.
For the Greater Chattanooga film series, WTCI partnered with EPB and UBS Financial Services as well as the Chattanooga History Center and the Chattanooga Public Library and groups such as Cornerstones, which protects local historic properties, and Picnooga, a crowd-sourced media archive focusing on Chattanooga’s history.