The Chattanooga Choo Choo left Cincinnati bound for Chattanooga in 1880. It was the first railroad to provide transportation north to south. |
Now it is a Holiday Inn Hotel. |
Next door was this building. It looks like someone just took a knife and cut off one side. |
One day several of us took a bike ride from the dam to downtown, 7 miles each way. Along the path we found these stone creations. It really doesn't take much to amuse us we decided. Here is the fish. |
Here is the paddle wheeler. |
We even had fun with the silhouettes. |
Maybe my friend Jim posed for this sculpture? |
Here we found a canoe. |
Once we arrived downtown we took a boat ride on the Tennessee River. Not the boat above. The above boat is what I watched. It is a duck. Never heard of a duck boat? Well, it travels in the water..... |
and can drive right onto the land. It is a military amphibious assault vehicle, used during WWII. One of these days I'm going to take a ride in one. |
A view of downtown from our boat ride. |
Now here is a picture of the boat we were on. It was a fun 2 hour ride. |
Every Saturday evening there is entertainment downtown in the square. This night it was a jazz performer. |
This is the memorial for all the soldiers lost during this battle and the battle of Chattanooga. |
Lower on the mountain is Ruby Falls. The original cave had been used by the Indians and later by soldiers both union and confederate during the war. But the cave opening had to be closed off when they put a railroad tunnel through the area. An enterprising gentlemen decided to dig down to open up a commercial pathway for touring the old cave. During the excavation, 400 feet down (the original cave is 600 feet below), they found a new cave and in exploring discovered Ruby Falls, named after his wife. |
This building was built from rock excavated in the area and during the construction of the tunnel down to the cave. |
Enterprising people have named some of the formations in the cave. It really does look like a Donkey's ass. |
But the highlight of the tour was Ruby Falls. Over 145 feet high it is supposed to be the highest underground waterfall. Otherwise this cave did not come close to some of the other caves I've seen this year. Opened Dec 30, 1928, the original tours were to the lower cave, but by 1935 the upper cave with Ruby Falls was so popular they closed off the lower cave and it is no longer accessible. The upper cave was opened to the public in June 1929.
Standing under Ruby Falls |
They also have an incline railway to the top of Lookout Mountain. Their claim to fame is 'the steepest incline in America'. |
I don't know what the degree of incline is, but it was steep. |
Since my son is a cavalry scout in the national guard, I thought this was a great tribute to the cavalry. Still today, the cavalry plays an important part of military make up. |
This stone church, built in 1850, was used as a hospital, headquarters and point of reference during the civil war. |
Once a 1447 foot railroad tunnel, Tunnel Hill was built in 1850 and used until 1928, it was replaced when larger rail cars came and along. It's notoriety was the 'great train chase' during the civil war. This tunnel was strategic since supplied needed to get past from Chattanooga and north to the south and Atlanta. At one point union soldiers captured "The General", a train engine and raced it toward Atlanta. Confederate soldiers were right behind in "The Texas".
6 comments:
Looks like y'all had a great time. I didn't know there was that much to do in Chattanooga.
Wow! You're such an insipration! I can't believe all the travels you've been on, and what you've seen. Your blog is really interesting and filled with so much history. Someday I hope to see the States as you are doing.
I hope you don't mind me reading... I found it when I searched for photos of Sulphur, OK to share with my college Earth Science class. (My fiance is from the area, and I wanted to show them some pics of the springs.) It's a shame so much of it was dry when you visited.
Blogging about your experiences is such an great way to create living history. I hope to teach seventh and eighth grade upon graduation in May, and intend to use edublogs.org as a source of communicating with my students.
Thanks for sharing!
- Sammi Jo
Sammi Jo, I'm glad you enjoy my blog. I do it so I have a history of what I have been doing, as well as it's the easiest way to let friends and family keep up.
Great pics, 2 date errors. One says 1950 instead of 1850 and another says 1964 instead of 1864.
Thanks Robert. I even found one more in addition to what you found. Hopefully they have all been corrected now.
John and I took our motorcycle down to the state line between TN and NC. We rode twisty roads for a couple of days and on the way back stayed in Cherokee, NC. Lovely town.
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