Chattanooga
Chattanooga, a town on the Tennessee River in southern Tennessee, USA; 167,700 residents (2010). The city has a large and diverse industry, which especially grew up after 1933, when cheap electricity became available from the hydroelectric power plant at Chickamauga Dam (see Tennessee Valley Authority). The production includes nuclear reactors, steam boilers and chemical products.
The old Chattanooga Choo Choo train station, whose name was immortalized in the song by Tex Beneke and Glenn Miller, has today been transformed into an exciting hotel and exhibition complex.
The name Chattanooga is thought to be derived from the words of the Creek Indians for the nearby Lookout Mountain. During the American Civil War, in the fall of 1863, some of the decisive battles at Chickamauga and Chattanooga were fought, which after the victory of the Northern State Army became the starting point for General Sherman’s campaigns against Atlanta and Savannah.
Knoxville
Knoxville, a town on the Tennessee River in eastern Tennessee, USA; 178,900 residents (2010), of which approximately 17% black. The city, which has a past as the capital of Tennessee (1796-1812 and 1817-19), houses a number of industries and colleges in addition to the headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Authority. SE of the city is the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Memphis
Memphis, a town on the Mississippi River in southwestern Tennessee, USA; 646,900 residents (2010), of which 63% are black. It was founded in 1819 and was named after the location of a high river bank after the Egyptian capital in ancient times. The city has one of the largest river ports in the USA, which in the time of the wheel steamers was based on trade with e.g. cotton and tobacco. It has a versatile industry and houses the headquarters of large companies such as Delta Airlines, Federal Express and Holiday Inn.
The tourist business is large and born of the city’s cult status as one of the hotspots for blues, soul and rock music. Almost hysterically famous is Elvis Presley’s former home, Graceland Mansion; other attractions are the blues street Beale Street and the legendary Sun Studio (1953-68), where Elvis, Johnny Cash and BB King recorded their first records. National Civil Rights Museum is built on the site where Martin Luther King was shot in 1968. The town’s landmark, The Great American Pyramid (1991), is listed as a steel and glass replica of the Cheops Pyramid in 2/3 size.
Nashville
Nashville, off. Nashville-Davidson, capital of Tennessee, USA; 601,200 residents (2010). The city is a regional center for trade, finance and insurance. The industry is diverse and includes car factories in the suburbs of Smyrna (Nissan) and Spring Hill (General Motors). Nashville is also a well-known educational center, especially for Christian sects, which run several colleges. Since the 1920’s, however, the city has been especially famous for country & western music: the Nashville studios are among the largest in the United States, and here is the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and the theme park Opryland, from where the popular TV show Grand Ole has been broadcast since 1974 Opry.
Music
Since the mid-1950’s, Nashville has also been the term for the music that, played and recorded in or around the city, seeks to unite country music with a more metropolitan and modern tone. Simultaneously with a flourishing of Nashville’s musical life and in order not to lose ground to the emerging rock and roll, large record companies focused on modernizing the country genre, through the use of strings, winds and background choruses and newly written material at the expense of the traditional songs. Among other things. artists like Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves (1924-64) and Chet Atkins came to personify this music. In the 1990’s, approximately one-third of all U.S. popular recordings made in and around Nashville.
