Muscle Shoals

Muscle Shoals, town (1990 pop. 9,611), Colbert co., NW Ala., on the Tennessee River opposite Florence; inc. 1923. Chemicals, truck trailers, and nuts, screws, and bolts are manufactured. The river formerly descended in a series of unnavigable rapids called Muscle Shoals (c.35 mi/56 km long with a drop of more than 130 ft/40 m). The river became the site of a canal built by the state in the 1830s, but later it silted up and was abandoned; in 1890 a successful canal was constructed by U.S. army engineers. The area was bought (1933) by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which planned to develop hydroelectric power and navigation. The building of Wilson Dam (1925) and of Wheeler Dam (1936) resulted in the submersion of the Muscle Shoals rapids by about 10 ft (3 m) of water. The TVA's Environmental Research Center, the Public Power Institute, and the International Fertilizer Development Center are in Muscle Shoals.

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Muscle Shoals

Former rapids, Tennessee River, northwestern Alabama, U.S. At about 37 mi (60 km) long, it was a navigation hazard but is now submerged under at least 9 ft (3 m) of water by the Wilson, Wheeler, and Pickwick Landing dams, which completely eliminated the rapids. Manufacturing plants and hydroelectric power facilities are administered by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The city of Muscle Shoals (pop., 2000: 11,924) developed from the TVA complex in the Wilson Dam area.