Nashville to Great Smoky Mountains

You're starting near one of Nashville's most historically significant buildings.

The Tennessee State Capitol is one of the few government buildings in America that doubles as a tomb.

That massive stadium across the Cumberland River is Nissan Stadium, built in 1999 for three hundred and ninety million dollars.

You're passing through one of Nashville's oldest commercial corridors.

The lake you're crossing is J. Percy Priest Reservoir, completed in 1968 and named after a Tennessee congressman who served fourteen terms in the U.S. House.

You're crossing Wilson County, which sits on some of the thinnest soil in Middle Tennessee.

Lebanon earned its name in the early 1800s because settlers found the surrounding hills so thick with eastern red cedar that they compared the landscape to the biblical…

Right about here, you're driving over one of Tennessee's most important geological boundaries.

You're driving across the Eastern Highland Rim, a flat to gently rolling limestone plateau that sits roughly a thousand feet above sea level.

The bridge ahead crosses the Caney Fork River, one of the only trout fisheries in the Deep South.

Cookeville sits on one of the broadest, flattest sections of the Cumberland Plateau, about two thousand feet above sea level.

Monterey sits at nearly two thousand feet, making it one of the highest towns along the entire I-40 corridor between Nashville and Knoxville.

Right around here, I-40 crosses the Eastern Continental Divide, an invisible boundary that splits every raindrop's fate.

Crossville sits right on top of the Cumberland Plateau at about two thousand feet elevation, making it one of the highest cities on any interstate east of the…

The sandstone quarried right around this community has ended up in some of the most prominent buildings in the country, including parts of the Smithsonian Institution in…

You're passing through Rockwood, a town that exists because of a gap in the Cumberland Plateau wall.

The Cumberland Plateau drops away here through one of the steepest sections of I-40 in Tennessee.

You're passing Harriman, founded in 1890 as one of the boldest social experiments in American history.

Kingston holds one of the strangest political distinctions in American history. On September 21, 1807, it served as the state capital of Tennessee for exactly one day.

The water you see as I-40 crosses near Kingston is Watts Bar Lake, impounded in 1942 when TVA completed Watts Bar Dam on the Tennessee River.

The Clinch River, which you can spot near here, holds a remarkable dual identity.

Loudon County, where you're driving now, sits on some of the most productive farmland in East Tennessee.

David Glasgow Farragut, the first person to hold the rank of admiral in United States Navy history, was born just a few miles from here in 1801 on the banks of the…

The Pellissippi Parkway, formally Interstate 140, was built specifically to connect two of Tennessee's biggest research assets — Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the…

You're driving through what was once the heart of the Overhill Cherokee towns.

Alcoa is one of America's most intact company towns.

Maryville College, established in 1819, was one of the first institutions in the South to admit both women and African Americans, decades before the Civil War.

Chilhowee Mountain ahead of you is the front door of the Blue Ridge province — the outermost ridge of the Great Smoky Mountains.

The Little River alongside you is one of the few rivers in the Appalachians that both begins and ends entirely within the same mountain range.

Townsend exists because of one of the most intensive logging operations in Appalachian history.

You're entering Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which draws over twelve million visitors annually, making it the most visited national park in the United States —…