150 years ago: Tennessee River rose 58 feet above normal, submerging Chattanooga [photos]

The only view of Chattanooga during the flood. Cameron Hill is at center left. All of South Chattanooga including Alton Park and East Lake is under water.

By Steve Johnson March 5, 2017 16 min read

Photo Gallery

150 years ago this week: Chattanooga’s great flood

A birds-eye view shows Chattanooga as it looked four years after the flood of 1867. Notice that what became Broad Street was still a rail line and there were no bridges across the river after the military bridge was destroyed in the flood. The Crutchfield House, at the intersection of Ninth Street and what would be Broad Street, where the Read House is today, survived the flood but burned in a fire. The Union Terminal train station was torn down in 1973.

This is the view from Missionary Ridge of downtown Chattanooga in the distance, from a spot just south of where Interstate 24 now cuts through the ridge. Montgomery Street, at center-left, is now Main Street. Note National Cemetery, in the middle, and the Ft. Wood neighborhood, at right, near today's Erlanger Hospital.

One reason the city was so muddy and dirty looking was that almost all of the trees had been cut down. When Union troops hurriedly retreated back to town after losing the battle of Chickamauga, they cut down trees at the edge of the city to form a defensive barrier. When Confederate troops dug in on Missionary Ridge, they prepared trenches for soldiers at the bottom of the ridge and cut down all of the trees within 700 yards to improve their view of the enemy.

Union Depot, across the street from what today is the Read House.

A group of Confederate prisoners of war gather at the Union Depot, across the street from the Crutchfield House (what today would be the Read House.) on the corner of Ninth Street and Broad Street.

Crutchfield House was the busiest place in town, with passengers and freight arriving regularly at the train station across the street. The water during the flood of 1867 was deep enough that a steamboat could paddle up the railroad tracks beside the hotel (what became Broad Street) and deposit passengers on the hotel's porch.

Another view of the side of the Crutchfield House, with the train depot visible at left.

Chattanooga in 1863. Most of the commercial buildings were on Market Street, in the nine blocks back from the river. Homes and military facilities were located on the lower slopes of Cameron Hill to the west, and on the higher ground to the east of downtown. The streets were unpaved, although a few of the stores had wooden boardwalks in front. Several saw mills and a shipbuiding yard were along the river, with most foundaries at the base of Cameron Hill and in Tannery Flats, to its south.

The long wooden structures were used as warehouses by the Union army. At least one of them was lifted from its foundations in the flood and floated down the river around Moccasin Bend.

Stores along the railroad track behind the Crutchfield House, on what would become Broad Street.

Steamboats were built along the river and the U.S. Navy had a facility there for a while. All of these structures were destroyed or damaged by the flood.

A number of foundry and machine shops were clustered around the base of Cameron Hill, in part to serve the city's rail lines.

The Lee and Gordon mill, on the river, which was severely damaged by the flood.

Large rafts of logs were floated down the river to the saw mills, to be cut into lumber. But during the flood, many floated free from upstream and jammed against the pillars supporting the military bridge, combining with driftwood to increase the river's pressure on the bridge to the point where it collapsed.

The view of Market Street looking east toward Cameron Hill, at about Seventh Street. During the flood, a steamboat captain started to drive his boat up Market Street to Crutchfield House but changed his mind when he realized the wake from his boat would further flood stores on the street. So he went up the railroad track that would later become Broad Street instead.

Imagine walking on an unpaved Market Street after several days of rain. This is the view from Ninth Street looking north toward the river. The Union depot and Crutchfield House would be farther left.

"Meigs Folly," the military bridge bridge that was destroyed by the flood. Note the 12 pillars, as opposed to the five pillars under the Walnut Street Bridge today. Debris snagged against the closely spaced pillars caused the bridge to collapse.

Another view of the bridge, from what today would be the site of the Hunter Museum. A drawbridge allowed one span of the bridge to be raised to allow steamboats, with their tall smokestacks, to go beneath.

Buildings on Poplar Street.

Saw mill on the Tennessee River. Logs were floated down the river in rafts of more than a hundred logs to be turned into lumber.

The only view of Chattanooga during the flood. Cameron Hill is at center left. All of South Chattanooga including Alton Park and East Lake is under water.

This is part one of a two-day series taking a look back at historic floods in Chattanooga.

Part II: Chattanooga still vulnerable to once-in-500-years flood

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At one point during the flood of 1867, the water pouring toward Lookout Mountain over the flatlands between Missionary Ridge and downtown was so deep and flowed so swiftly that some residents worried the Tennessee River would change its course and leave the city on its north shore.

COMING MONDAY

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