Aqueduct. 900 feet long.
Aqueduct spanning Shoals Creek.
Lock 9, where Mussel Shoals Canal opens into Tennessee River.
Much has been written concerning these immense falls, but it is the purpose of this article to give only such facts as will be of interest and practical use to prospective developers of this great power, and to those who are to help build up this beautiful valley into one of the busiest manufacturing centers in the United States.
In a general way the value and importance of this great power is expressed by one of the ablest American engineers who has examined and surveyed these shoals: “There is no place in the world where greater advantages are to be found for the harnessing of water power for the uses of industry, or where there is greater power awaiting development within reach of the seaboard by water and by rail transportation than Mussel Shoals.”
The following, from the report of Chief Engineer F. H. Newell, and incorporated by Senator Morgan in his recent report to the Senate on the “Navigation of the Tennessee River,” is reproduced here as being the most accurate and authentic account of the various important features of the Mussel Shoals with reference to their capacity for developing power:
“In the Tennessee river, in the vicinity of Florence, Ala., are several shoals capable of the development of power.
“The shoals are a succession of cascades, amid many islands, in a river bed varying in width from a half-mile to three miles. The difference between high and low water is only five or six feet, corresponding to a rise of fifty feet at Chattanooga. Beginning at Brown’s Ferry, twelve miles below Decatur, Ala., the river has the following falls:
