Tennessee Valley Divide

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The Tennessee Valley Divide is the eastern and southern boundary of the drainage basin of the Tennessee River and its tributaries.

The Tennessee Valley Divide begins near the northeasternmost source of the Tennessee River, in the vicinity of Bluefield, West Virginia. From there, the divide follows an irregular line towards the south. In this area of south-western Virginia, the divide forms the boundary between the drainage of the Tennessee River and the New River, which also flows to the Ohio River.

Near Blowing Rock, North Carolina, the divide meets the Eastern Continental Divide in the Blue Ridge Mountains. This point forms a triple point between the streams draining west to the Tennessee, north to the New River, and east to the coastal rivers of North Carolina.

From Blowing Rock, the Tennessee Valley Divide coincides with the Eastern Continental Divide, to another triple point in northern Georgia, from which point streams flow northwards towards the Tennessee River, eastwards to the Atlantic coast of Georgia, and southwards towards the Gulf of Mexico.

From there, the Tennessee Valley Divide trends generally westward, dividing the Tennessee Valley in Alabama from the generally southward-flowing rivers of Alabama and Mississippi. Some of those rivers, such as the Tombigbee River, have their headwaters remarkably close to the Tennessee River. The divide then turns north and ends at the foot of Broadway in downtown Paducah, Kentucky, which also marks Mile 0 of the Tennessee River at its confluence with the Ohio.

The divide forms the eastern and southern boundary of the Tennessee Valley beginning at the West Virginia border and passing through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky.