Chattanooga
City
From top, left to right: Chattanooga Skyline in 2023, Hunter Museum of American Art, Creative Discovery Museum, Tennessee Aquarium, Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel and the TVA Offices
Flag Seal Logo
Nicknames:  Scenic City (official); Chatt, Chattown, Gig City, Nooga, and River City
Location of Chattanooga in Hamilton County, Tennessee
Chattanooga Location within Tennessee Show map of Tennessee Chattanooga Chattanooga (the United States) Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 35°2′44″N 85°16′2″W / 35.04556°N 85.26722°W / 35.04556; -85.26722[2]
Country	United States
State	Tennessee
County	Hamilton[1]
Incorporated	1839[3]
Government
• Type	Mayor-council
• Mayor	Tim Kelly (I)
Area [4]
• City	150.08 sq mi (388.70 km2)
• Land	142.35 sq mi (368.69 km2)
• Water	7.73 sq mi (20.01 km2)
Elevation [5]	676 ft (206 m)
Population  (2020)[6]
• City	181,099
• Rank	142nd in the United States 4th in Tennessee
• Density	1,272.19/sq mi (491.20/km2)
• Urban	398,569 (US: 105th)
• Urban density	1,366.4/sq mi (527.6/km2)
• Metro [7]	562,647 (US: 101st)
Demonym	Chattanoogan
Time zone	UTC−5 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
ZIP code(s)	37401-37412, 37414-37416, 37419, 37421-37422, 37424, 37450
Area code	423
FIPS code	47-14000[8]
GNIS feature ID	1307240[5]
Airport	Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport
Public transportation	CARTA
Waterways	Tennessee River
Website	www.chattanooga.gov

Chattanooga (/ˌtʃætəˈnuːɡə/ CHAT-ə-NOO-gə) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. It is located along the Tennessee River, and borders Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020,^[9] it is Tennessee's fourth-largest city and one of the two principal cities of East Tennessee, along with Knoxville. It anchors the Chattanooga metropolitan area, Tennessee's fourth-largest metropolitan statistical area,^[10] as well as a larger three-state area that includes Southeast Tennessee, Northwest Georgia, and Northeast Alabama.

Chattanooga was a crucial city during the American Civil War, due to the multiple railroads that converge there.^[11] After the war, the railroads allowed for the city to grow into one of the Southeastern United States' largest heavy industrial hubs. Today, major industry that drives the economy includes automotive, advanced manufacturing, food and beverage production, healthcare, insurance, tourism, and back office and corporate headquarters.^[10] Chattanooga remains a transit hub in the present day, served by multiple Interstate highways and railroad lines. It is 118 miles (190 km) northwest of Atlanta, Georgia, 112 miles (180 km) southwest of Knoxville, Tennessee, 134 miles (216 km) southeast of Nashville, Tennessee, 102 miles (164 km) east-northeast of Huntsville, Alabama, and 147 miles (237 km) northeast of Birmingham, Alabama.

Divided by the Tennessee River, Chattanooga is at the transition between the ridge-and-valley Appalachians and the Cumberland Plateau, both of which are part of the larger Appalachian Mountains. Its official nickname is the "Scenic City", alluding to the surrounding mountains, ridges, and valleys. Unofficial nicknames include "River City", "Chatt", "Nooga", "Chattown", and "Gig City", the latter a reference to its claims that it has the fastest internet service in the Western Hemisphere.^[12][13]

Chattanooga is internationally known from the 1941 hit song "Chattanooga Choo Choo" by Glenn Miller and his orchestra. It is home to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) and Chattanooga State Community College.

History

Early history

The first inhabitants of the Chattanooga area were Native Americans. Sites dating back to the Upper Paleolithic period (c. 10,000 BCE) show continuous human occupation through the Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian/Muskogean/Yuchi (900–1714 CE), and Cherokee (1776–1838) periods. The Chickamauga Mound near the mouth of the Chickamauga Creek is the oldest (c. 750 CE) remaining visible art in Chattanooga.^[14]

The Citico town and mound site was the most significant Mississippian/Muscogee landmark in Chattanooga up to 1915. The first part of the name "Chattanooga" derives from the Muskogean word cvto /chắtȯ/ – 'rock'.^[15] The latter may be derived from a regional suffix -nuga meaning dwelling or dwelling place. It is also believed to be derived from the Creek Indian word Chat-to-to-noog-gee, meaning ‘rock rising to a point’, which is speculated to be a reference to Lookout Mountain.^[16]

The earliest Cherokee occupation of the area dates from 1776, when Dragging Canoe separated himself from the main tribe to establish resistance to European settlement during the Cherokee–American wars. In 1816 John Ross, who later became Principal Chief, established Ross's Landing. Located along what is now Broad Street, it became one of the centers of Cherokee Nation settlement, which also extended into Georgia and Alabama.^[17]

In 1838, the U.S. government forced the Cherokees, along with other Native Americans, to relocate to the area designated as Indian Territory, in what is now the state of Oklahoma. Their journey west became known as the "Trail of Tears" for their exile and fatalities along the way. The U.S. Army used Ross's Landing as the site of one of three large internment camps, or "emigration depots", where Native Americans were held before the journey on the Trail of Tears.^[18]

In 1839, the community of Ross's Landing incorporated as the city of Chattanooga. The city grew quickly, initially benefiting from a location well-suited for river commerce. With the arrival of the railroad in 1850, Chattanooga became a boom town. The city was known as the site "where cotton meets corn," referring to its location along the cultural boundary between the mountain communities of southern Appalachia and the cotton-growing states to the south.^[17]

Civil War

During the American Civil War, Chattanooga was a center of battle. Chattanooga served as a hub connecting fifty percent of the Confederacy's arsenals, those being located in Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, and Macon. Chattanooga's railroads were vital to the Confederacy's transportation of raw material to processing plants for producing small arms munitions.^[19] During the Chickamauga Campaign, Union artillery bombarded Chattanooga as a diversion and occupied it on September 9, 1863. Following the Battle of Chickamauga, the defeated Union Army retreated to safety in Chattanooga. On November 23, 1863, the Battles for Chattanooga began when Union forces led by Major General Ulysses S. Grant reinforced troops at Chattanooga and advanced to Orchard Knob against Confederate troops besieging the city. The next day, the Battle of Lookout Mountain was fought, driving the Confederates off the mountain. On November 25, Grant's army routed the Confederates in the Battle of Missionary Ridge. In regard to victories won by the Union, Chattanooga marks one of three defining moments that turned the Civil War in their favor. The Battle of Gettysburg brought the streak of victories obtained by the Confederacy to an end, while the Siege of Vicksburg split the Confederacy itself in half, while Chattanooga served as the doorway to the deep south.^[20] These battles were followed the next spring by the Atlanta Campaign, beginning just over the nearby state line in Georgia and moving southeastward. After the war ended, the city became a major railroad hub and industrial and manufacturing center.

1867 flood

The largest flood in Chattanooga's history occurred in 1867, before the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) system was created in 1933 by Congress. The flood crested at 58 feet (18 m) and completely inundated the city. Since the completion of the reservoir system, the highest Chattanooga flood stage has been nearly 37 feet (11 m), which occurred in 1973. Without regulation, the flood would have crested at 52.4 feet (16.0 m).^[21] Chattanooga was a major priority in the design of the TVA reservoir system and remains a major operating priority in the 21st century.^[21]

20th century

In December 1906, Chattanooga was in the national headlines in United States v. Shipp, as the United States Supreme Court, in the only criminal trial in its history, ruled that Hamilton County Sheriff Joseph H. Shipp had violated Ed Johnson's civil rights when Shipp allowed a mob to enter the Hamilton County jail and lynch Johnson on the Walnut Street Bridge.^[22]

Chattanooga grew with the entry of the United States in the First World War in 1917; the nearest training camp was in Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. The Influenza pandemic of 1918 closed local movie theaters and pool halls.^[23] By the 1930s, Chattanooga was known as the "Dynamo of Dixie", inspiring the 1941 Glenn Miller big-band swing song "Chattanooga Choo Choo".^[24] Through Mayor P.R. Olgiati's efforts, Chattanooga became the first city in Tennessee to have a completed interstate highway system in the latter 1960s.^[25][26][27] In February 1958, Chattanooga became one of the smallest cities in the country with three VHF television stations: WROM-TV (now WTVC-TV) channel 9 (ABC), WRGP-TV (now WRCB-TV) channel 3 (NBC), and WDEF-TV channel 12 (CBS).^[28]

The same mountains that provide Chattanooga's scenic backdrop also trap industrial pollutants, which settle over the city. In 1969, the federal government declared that Chattanooga had the dirtiest air in the nation.^[29] Like other early industrial cities, Chattanooga entered the 1970s with serious socioeconomic challenges, including job layoffs because of de-industrialization, deteriorating city infrastructure, racial tensions, and social division. Chattanooga's population increased by nearly 50,000 in the 1970s. However, this was mostly because the city annexed nearby residential areas.^[30] By the mid-1980s, local leaders launched Vision 2000, an effort to revitalize and reinvent Chattanooga's culture and economy. Chattanooga's population declined by more than 10% in the 1980s, but regained it over the next two decades, the only major U.S. city to do so in that period.^[31]

Civil Rights Movement

The civil rights movement of Chattanooga began in 1960 when teenage students of Howard High School, inspired by activists in Nashville and Greensboro, began to organize a similar sit-in protest. Class President Paul Walker, Lehman Pierce and as many as 200 other black students organized peaceful sit-ins at four businesses along one block in downtown Chattanooga.^[32] White youth mobs responded with agitation, inflammatory language and violence. By the third day, Mayor Rudy Olgiatti instructed the fire department to utilize water hoses on crowds becoming the first city to utilize this tactic against protesters. Three months later the city would agree to desegregate the downtown businesses.^[33]

Unlike many southern cities the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. did not lead to riots in Chattanooga. Mayor Kelley and Police Commissioner Turner met with young people to defuse the situation and bought the protesters lunch. The frustrated youths voiced their complaints about racial injustice in Chattanooga, but were convinced to peacefully disperse.^[34]

In 1971, John Franklin Sr. became the first African-American elected official of Chattanooga.^[35] However racial tensions related to poverty and education continued to simmer. In the same year, a cancelled concert refusing to give ticket refunds sparked a four-day riot of black youth. An all-night curfew was called and close to 2,000 National Guard troops arrived in the city, setting up a post at City Hall.^[36] The unrest led to 1 death and 300 arrests.^[37]

On April 19, 1980, three Ku Klux Klan members rode down historic 9th street and opened fire on five black women: Viola Ellison, Lela Mae Evans, Katherine O. Johnson, Opal Lee Jackson and Fannie Crumsey. All of the women survived.^[38][39] When an all-white jury acquitted the three Klan members for their crime, Chattanooga erupted into four nights of rioting.^[40] Not deterred by the jury verdict, the five women went on to be plaintiffs in a historic civil lawsuit against the Klan. In 1982, the federal courts ordered the Klan to pay the women $535,000 on account of the attack. This case created the legal strategy for dismantling the Klan across the country in the following years.^[41]

In 1987, the city's at-large voting process was challenged on the basis that it marginalized the voting power of Black voters.^[42] The issue was initially presented by Lorenzo Ervin, Annie Thomas and Maxine Cousin to the ACLU in Atlanta. Following the case of Brown v. Board of Commissioners of Chattanooga, the city terminated the at-large voting system.^[43]

21st century

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the city of Chattanooga has grown, attracting people from out of state and even out of the country.^[44]

Chattanooga launched the first one-gigabit-per-second Internet service in the United States in September 2010, provided through the city-owned utility EPB.^[45]

In August 2012, Chattanooga developed its own typeface, called Chatype, which marks the first time a municipality has its own typeface in the United States and the first crowd-funded, custom-made typeface in the world.^[46][47]

On July 16, 2015, five people — four U.S. Marines and one sailor — were murdered and two more were wounded in shootings at two U.S. military facilities in Chattanooga. The perpetrator was Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, an Islamic terrorist.^[48]

On November 21, 2016, a school bus carrying students from Woodmore Elementary School crashed in the Brainerd neighborhood, killing 6 and injuring 23.^[49] In March 2018, the driver, an employee of Durham School Services, was convicted of six counts of criminally negligent homicide, 11 counts of reckless aggravated assault, seven counts of assault, reckless endangerment, reckless driving and illegally using his phone while driving.^[50] The crash reignited the debate about whether seat belts should be required in school buses.^[51]

On June 5, 2022, there was a mass shooting in Chattanooga that left three dead and injured 11.^[52]

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 144.6 square miles (374.4 km²), of which 137.1 square miles (355.2 km²) are land and 7.4 square miles (19.2 km²), or 5.12%, are water.^[53] The most prominent natural features in and around Chattanooga are the Tennessee River and the surrounding mountains. The Tennessee River is impounded by the Chickamauga Dam north of the downtown area. The city is nestled between the southwestern Ridge-and-valley Appalachians and the foot of Walden's Ridge; the river separates the ridge from the western side of downtown. Several miles east, the city is bisected by Missionary Ridge. The downtown area sits at an elevation of approximately 676 feet (206 m), one of the lowest elevations in East Tennessee.^[54]

Cityscape

Downtown Chattanooga

Downtown Chattanooga has a wide variety of entertainment, dining, cultural and architectural attractions, including the Tennessee Aquarium, opened in 1992; the Creative Discovery Museum, opened in 1995; and the historic Walnut Street Bridge, reopened in 1993. The downtown footprint is bounded by interstate highway I-24 on the south to Frazier Avenue in the Northshore, as well as US highway 27 in the west to Central Avenue in the east.^[55]

The modern downtown skyline is dominated by the Aquarium, the Republic Centre^[56] (tallest building in Chattanooga^{[57][circular reference]}), John C. Portman Jr.'s the Westin (Gold Building),^[58] the James Building (Chattanooga's first skyscraper),^[59] and The Block,^[60] a climbing gym with 5,000 square feet of functional climbing space. Chattanooga has buildings with historical significance, such as The Read House Hotel (the longest continuously operating hotel in the Southeastern United States),^[61] the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel (a converted railroad terminal), the Maclellan Building,^[62] the Dome Building^[59] (once the home to the Chattanooga Times), and the Tivoli Theatre. The BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee headquarters,^[63] atop Cameron Hill,^[64] is the second-largest LEED Gold-certified corporate campus in the nation.^[65]

Downtown Chattanooga has four main bridges over the Tennessee River: the Walnut Street Bridge, the Market Street Bridge, the Olgiati Bridge, and the Veterans Memorial Bridge. These bridges allow pedestrians to connect the Riverfront and Northshore to the Tennessee Riverwalk and Bluff View Art District. Downtown Chattanooga parks include Coolidge Park, Renaissance Park, Miller Park, Miller Plaza and Main Terrain Art Park. The Martin Luther King District runs parallel to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's campus and features the largest mural in Chattanooga.^[66] The 40,000-square-foot mural was created by Philadelphia-based muralist Meg Saligman and seven other local artists.^[67]

Downtown revitalization

In late 20th and early 21st centuries, substantial private and governmental resources have been invested in transforming the city's tarnished image. In 1993, restoration of the Walnut Street Bridge was completed. An excellent specimen of the Camelback truss bridge, it is the oldest surviving bridge of its kind in the Southeastern United States, having been built in 1891. Efforts to improve the city include the "21st Century Waterfront Plan" – a $120 million redevelopment of the Chattanooga waterfront area, which was completed in 2005. The Tennessee Aquarium, which opened in 1992, has become a major waterfront attraction that has helped to spur neighborhood development.^[68] Since the opening of the aquarium, downtown Chattanooga has received over $5 billion of private investment,^[69] including nearly $1 billion from 2014 to 2018.^[70]

The city has won three national awards for outstanding "livability", and nine Gunther Blue Ribbon Awards for excellence in housing and consolidated planning.^[71] Public art experts chose Passageways 2.0 City Thread from among 50 outstanding public art projects created in 2018 through the Public Art Network Year in Review program, a national program that recognizes compelling public art.^[72] In addition to winning various national and regional awards, Chattanooga has been in the national limelight numerous times. Chattanooga was the profile city of the August 2007 edition of US Airways Magazine.^[73] Chattanooga-based businesses have been recognized for their investment in solar energy.^[74] In December 2009, Chattanooga was ranked 8th out of America's 100 largest metro areas for the best "Bang For Your Buck" city, according to Forbes magazine, which measured overall affordability, housing rates, and more.^[75]

Neighborhoods

Chattanooga has many buildings and three neighborhoods on the National Register of Historic Places: Ferger Place, Fort Wood, and St. Elmo. Additionally, Chattanooga has several local historic districts: Battery Place, Glenwood, Missionary Ridge, M.L. King, and Stringer's Ridge. Four of these are formally managed as local historic districts by the city.^[76]

Notable suburbs

Climate

Chattanooga, like much of Tennessee, has a four-season humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa). Winter days are usually mild, but most years have at least one day (average 3.2) where the high remains at or below freezing. Snowfall is highly variable from year to year. 11 inches (28 cm) were recorded between January 9–10, 2011.^[77] The average snowiest month is February which corresponds with the annual peak in nor'easter activity. Summers are hot and humid, with a July daily mean of 80.0 °F (26.7 °C) and 52 days annually with 90 °F (32 °C) or greater temperatures.^[78] Chattanooga is the sixth fastest warming city in the United States due to climate change.^[79]

Average annual precipitation is over 52 inches (1,300 mm). On average, November through March represents an extended relatively wet period, because of Chattanooga's frequent placement (in the winter season) in a zone of conflict between warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and cold, dry air from Canada, amplified by jet-stream energy and abundant Gulf moisture. July presents a secondary maximum in precipitation, due to frequent thunderstorm activity. Despite the mountains that surround the city, Chattanooga has been affected by tornadoes.^[80] These tornadoes include the 2011 Super Outbreak, which impacted the city and nearby locations, including Apison and Cherokee Valley in Catoosa County, Georgia, where fifteen people died, eight in Apison and seven in Cherokee Valley.^[81][82][83] An EF3 tornado struck southeastern portions of Chattanooga on the night of April 12, 2020, and caused significant damage and three fatalities.^[84]