Co-lab Generator and River-centric Chattanooga History

On Wednesday, June 10^th, we enjoyed a change of pace with a nice air-conditioned round of creativity and continued work through the co-lab generator canvas. The projects started to take shape and there was a lot of encouragement, collaboration and excitement as fellows helped each other with their respective projects and pushed each other with questions and ‘what ifs’.

Patrice Glass met us at GPS and we went on a short history tour of Chattanooga. Our first stop was a spot by the river under the Market St. bridge. We learned that houses and businesses of the past all faced the river until the railroad was built and Chattanoogans turned their back on the river to face the railroad. Today, we are looking again to the river and finding new opportunities to use it to make a livable and thriving city. We saw pictures of the sling ferry that took people across the river when there were no bridges. We also learned how the river played an important part in the civil war in and around Chattanooga.

            Our next stop was downtown where we saw evidence of underground Chattanooga in the form of windows bisected by sidewalk and a parking garage that showed the former elevation of the city streets. We learned about several severe floods that affected the city, leading to the decision to raise the level of downtown so that the front doors of existing buildings were now on the second floor of the building.