The French Broad River is a river in the U.S. states of North Carolina and Tennessee. It flows The French Broad predates the Alleghanian orogeny, through the resulting mountains it cuts; however, the current topographic relief of the Southern Appalachians is relatively new, making it virtually impossible to estimate the age of the river.

The Cherokee people, the historic Indigenous Americans who occupied the area at the time of European colonization, referred to the river by different names: Poelico and Agiqua ("broad") in the mountains of the headwaters; Zillicoah upriver of the confluence at present-day Asheville; and Tahkeeosteh (racing waters) from Asheville downriver. The river is considered to roughly mark the eastern boundary of the Cherokee homelands in this region, which included areas of present-day northwestern South Carolina, northeastern Georgia, and southeastern Tennessee. The French called the river the Agiqua, borrowing one of the Cherokee names.

Initiated as a project during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Douglas Dam was completed in the 1940s on the lower French Broad by the TVA to provide electricity and flood control. It is one of the larger TVA developments on a tributary of the Tennessee River. (The two other very large ones are Norris Lake on the Clinch River and Cherokee Lake on the Holston River.)

In 1987, the North Carolina General Assembly established the French Broad River State Trail as a blueway which follows the river for .

  • Little Pine Road
  • Barnard Road in Barnard (put-in for Section 9 of the French Broad, a Class III-IV whitewater run that is the most frequently paddled section of the river)
  • (U.S. 25)/(U.S. 70) in Hot Springs (takeout for Section 9); the Appalachian Trail crosses this bridge.

Tennessee

  • Cocke County
  • Wolf Creek Bridge
  • Bridge in Del Rio
  • James T Huff Bridge (U.S. 25/U.S. 70)
  • U.S. 321 in Newport
  • Holt Town Road
  • U.S. Route 25E from Cocke County into Jefferson County)
  • Douglas Lake to Knoxville
  • Interstate 40 and Swann Bridge (U.S. 70) over Douglas Lake
  • James D. Hoskins Bridge in Dandridge
  • Douglas Dam Road
  • TN 66 at Sevierville
  • Several golf cart path bridges over the Cain Islands
  • Doctor JH Gammondale Bridge in Marbledale

See also

  • List of North Carolina rivers
  • List of Tennessee rivers
  • Wilma Dykeman RiverWay Plan (for RiverLink's sustainable greenways and park developments on/near the French Broad River)

References

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Further reading

  • Dykeman, Wilma. The French Broad (1955).
  • Rich, Jeff. Watershed: The French Broad River (2012).

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  • French Broad Riverkeeper, conservation group that monitors water quality in the French Broad Watershed.
  • RiverLink, regional conservation group
  • French Broad River State Trail, official website for the state paddle trail.