50 Fun Facts About Chattanooga

Chattanooga is the seat of which Tennessee county?

It is Tennessee's fourth most populous city, after Nashville, Memphis and Knoxville.

What is Chattanooga's official nickname?

The others are unofficial; Gig City refers to its claim of the fastest internet in the western hemisphere.

The name Chattanooga is thought to come from a Muskogean or Creek phrase meaning what?

The rock in question is believed to be Lookout Mountain.

The 1816 landing that became Chattanooga was established by which future Cherokee Principal Chief?

In 1838 the US Army used the landing as one of three internment camps before the Trail of Tears.

Which Union general led the November 1863 Battles for Chattanooga that broke the Confederate siege?

Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland had been bottled up in the city since its defeat at Chickamauga in September.

Which Confederate general besieged the Union army in Chattanooga in autumn 1863?

His men held the high ground on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge until Grant's assaults of November 24 and 25.

The supply route Grant opened to feed the starving Union troops in Chattanooga was nicknamed what?

Joseph Hooker's men beat off a Confederate counterattack at Wauhatchie to keep it open.

On November 25, 1863, Grant's army routed the Confederates in a charge up which high ground east of the city?

George Thomas's men were only meant to take the rifle pits at the base but kept going to the top.

Chattanooga is one of three defining Union victories that turned the Civil War. What are the other two?

Gettysburg ended the Confederacy's winning streak and Vicksburg split it in half; Chattanooga opened the road to Atlanta.

The 1906 lynching of Ed Johnson in Chattanooga led to what unique event at the US Supreme Court?

Sheriff Joseph Shipp was found to have violated Johnson's rights by letting the mob into the jail.

The 1891 Walnut Street Bridge is the Southeast's oldest surviving example of which bridge type?

Restored as a pedestrian bridge in 1993, it closed again for renovation in March 2025.

Chattanooga's 1930s nickname, which inspired the Glenn Miller song, was what?

Mayor P. R. Olgiati later made it the first Tennessee city with a completed interstate.

"Chattanooga Choo Choo" was written for which 1941 film?

Mack Gordon wrote the words and Harry Warren the music; the Glenn Miller record hit number one on December 7, 1941.

"Chattanooga Choo Choo" holds what distinction in music-industry history?

RCA Victor presented it in 1942 after about 1.2 million sales.

In the lyrics of "Chattanooga Choo Choo", where does the singer board the train?

The route runs from Pennsylvania Station in New York through Baltimore and North Carolina to Terminal Station in Chattanooga.

The Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel is housed in which renovated building?

Downtown's Read House claims to be the longest continuously operating hotel in the Southeast.

In 1969 the federal government gave Chattanooga what unwelcome distinction?

The same mountains that make the city scenic trapped its industrial smog.

In September 2010 Chattanooga became the first US city to offer what through its city-owned utility EPB?

That is the origin of the Gig City nickname; AT&T and Comcast fought EPB's expansion in court.

Which German carmaker opened a $1 billion assembly plant in Chattanooga in 2011?

It was the company's first US plant since the Westmoreland, Pennsylvania factory closed in 1988.

Chattanooga is home to the world's first what?

Other local names include Double Cola, Unum and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.

Which marshmallow-and-graham-cracker snack is made by the Chattanooga Bakery?

Company legend says a Kentucky coal miner asked a salesman for a snack with graham crackers and marshmallow, as big as the moon.

MoonPies are traditionally paired with which drink?

The pairing is a Southern classic; coconut MoonPies appear for Mardi Gras.

The Tennessee Aquarium opened on the Chattanooga riverfront in which year?

Its Ocean Journey building was added in 2005; it houses more than 12,000 animals.

The Tennessee Aquarium's original 1992 building is called what?

The neighbouring Ocean Journey expansion followed in 2005.

Ruby Falls, the underground waterfall inside Lookout Mountain, was discovered in which year?

Leo Lambert's crew were tunnelling toward the older Lookout Mountain Cave when they broke into it.

Which chemist and cave enthusiast's company found Ruby Falls while drilling for another cave?

He named the falls after his wife, Ruby.

Rock City claims that from Lover's Leap you can see how many states?

A University of Tennessee scientist noted in 2007 that the claim really refers to high points in those states, and predates modern air pollution.

The Lookout Mountain attraction became famous through which advertising campaign?

Clark Byers painted more than 900 barns in 19 states between 1935 and 1969.

Rock City is actually across the state line in which state?

It sits on top of Lookout Mountain, in the town of Lookout Mountain, Georgia, and opened in May 1932.

The Lookout Mountain Incline Railway has a maximum grade of about what?

That makes it one of the world's steepest passenger railways; it opened in November 1895.

The Incline Railway runs from which historic Chattanooga neighbourhood to the summit of Lookout Mountain?

St. Elmo is one of three Chattanooga neighbourhoods on the National Register of Historic Places.

In December 2024 what shut down the Incline Railway for months?

The rails, cables and cross timbers were damaged before the line reopened.

Which blues singer, the "Empress of the Blues", was born in Chattanooga in the 1890s?

Orphaned young, she and her siblings sang on street corners; the city's Bessie Smith Cultural Center honours her.

Chattanooga's Class AA baseball team is called what?

They are affiliated with the Cincinnati Reds and play in the Southern League.

Chattanooga's tallest building, at 21 storeys, is which tower?

The James Building was the city's first skyscraper.

Chattanooga's largest flood, in 1867, came long before which federal agency tamed the river in 1933?

The Chickamauga Dam now impounds the river just north of downtown.

Which science-fiction and fantasy convention has been held in Chattanooga every January since 1976?

It draws around a thousand fans, many of them to the Choo Choo Hotel.

Since 2013 Chattanooga has hosted which endurance event, then held in only about eleven US cities?

The city had already hosted the USA Cycling professional road championships that year.

Erlanger, Chattanooga's main hospital, ranks where among US public healthcare systems?

It is a Level One trauma centre and the only tertiary-care provider for southeast Tennessee.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is what within the UT system?

UTC had more than 12,000 students in 2025–26.

Which dam impounds the river just north of downtown Chattanooga?

The city lies between the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians and the foot of Walden's Ridge.

Which R&B superstar, a Chattanooga native, filmed a 1999 concert video in the city?

Usher Live was shot in his hometown; more than a decade later Tim McGraw filmed his Truck Yeah video there too.

Along with which other city is Chattanooga considered a principal city of East Tennessee?

Chattanooga is the state's fourth-most populous city and anchors its fourth-largest metropolitan area.

As the birthplace of which vehicle does Chattanooga host a dedicated Hall of Fame and Museum?

The International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum sits in the city, near the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum.

In 2012 Chattanooga became the first US municipality to have its own what?

Chatype was also the world's first crowd-funded, custom-made typeface, arriving two years after the city's pioneering gigabit internet.

Since 2005, Chattanooga has been the sole production site for which breath mint?

The William Wrigley Jr. Company makes them there; the city also hosts Brach's candy maker Ferrara and a Krystal presence.

In which year did the community of Ross's Landing incorporate as the city of Chattanooga?

Just a year earlier the U.S. Army had used the landing as one of three internment camps for Cherokee people before the Trail of Tears.

McKee Foods, maker of Little Debbie snack cakes, is headquartered in which town near Chattanooga?

The privately held, family-run company sits alongside other big local names such as Unum and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.

Which publisher of the Chattanooga Times went on to buy The New York Times?

The Times later merged in 1999 with its bitter rival, the News-Free Press, to form the city's only daily paper.

The Chickamauga Mound, Chattanooga's oldest visible man-made feature, dates from roughly when?

Archaeological finds show continuous human occupation of the area from around 10,000 BCE through the Cherokee period ending in 1838.