Want to tour Alabamaâs 99-year-old dam? Enter lottery for a shot
TVA is throwing itself a birthday party this year to commemorate its 90th anniversary, which includes offering tours of some of the dams in the federal utility’s system.
Alabama’s Wilson Dam, a site for one of those tours, is even older than TVA itself.
And if you want to check it out for yourself, you can register to have your name entered into a lottery. Names will be chosen for TVA tours to be given on Aug. 4 and Aug. 18.
Related: Watch water spill over Wilson Dam at 2 million gallons per second
Located on the Tennessee River in northwest Alabama, Wilson Dam is in Muscle Shoals and is the largest hydroelectric facility in the TVA system. With construction beginning in 1918 and completed in 1924, Wilson Dam stretches almost a mile across the river at 4,541 feet and is 137 feet high.
About 3,700 vessels pass through the dam’s locks each year. The main lock is 100-by-600 feet and with a maximum lift of 100 feet, it’s the highest single-lift lock east of the Rockies.
TVA said Wilson Dam is the only neoclassical-style dam in the its system, “integrating themes of ancient Roman and Greek architecture into the modern structure.”
Construction of the dam began after the federal government built two nitrate plants to make explosives in Muscle Shoals. The dam was needed to supply electricity for the plants.
TVA acquired the dam in 1933.
If you want to enter your name in the lottery drawing for one of the tours, click here for details and entry forms. Registration closes on July 23.
Other tours being offered are Aug. 11 at Norris Dam, Aug. 25 at Chickamauga Dam and Sept. 8 at Pickwick Dam.