27 Jul 2018

Nashville District digs historic role building new passageway

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (July 27, 2015) – If you dig history, you’ll love how engineers excavated nearly 100-million dump truck loads of soil to connect the Tennessee and Tombigbee Rivers, opening a new passageway to the Gulf of Mexico in 1985.

14 Feb 2018

Nashville District tames Cumberland River with the 'Old Locks'

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Feb. 14, 2018) – Using wood coffer dams, primitive hand tools, A-frames and even animals to haul in supplies and stone blocks on tracks from nearby rock quarries, Army engineers constructed 15 navigation locks in the late 1800s and early 1900s to tame the Cumberland River for steamboats moving people and commerce throughout the region a century ago.

20 Aug 2016

Barkley Dam brought hope to region 50 years ago

GRAND RIVERS, Ky. (Aug. 20, 2016) – Barkley Dam, a symbol of progress in western Kentucky, turned 50 today with fanfare, remembrances and special tributes during a commemoration ceremony at the Badgett Playhouse Theater and reception at the community center.

13 Jan 2014

Retired lock operator recalls rich history of navigation at Hales Bar

JASPER, Tenn. (Jan. 13, 2014) — The decommissioned Hales Bar Navigation Lock is crumbling and in an obvious state of disrepair, but remains a historical landmark here on the bank of the Tennessee River for all boat captains who pass by it. A retired lock operator who served there a half a century ago visited recently to recall the days of old when the project operated in pristine condition and it was his job to lock through vessels delivering commerce up and down the waterway.

11 Mar 2011

Jesse James stole Corps payroll 130 years ago today

If direct deposit had existed 130 years ago today, history could have been changed. That’s when famed outlaw Jesse James robbed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers payroll being delivered by horseback just two-miles shy of reaching employees at Blue Water Camp in Alabama.