French Broad River

The headwaters of the French Broad River are near the town of Rosman in Transylvania County, North Carolina, just northwest of the Eastern Continental Divide near the northwest border of South Carolina. They spill from a {{convert|50|ft|m|adj=on}} waterfall called Courthouse Falls at the terminus of Courthouse Creek near Balsam Grove. The waterfall feeds into a creek that becomes the North Fork, which joins the West Fork west of Rosman. South of Rosman, the stream is joined by the Middle and East forks to form the French Broad River.

From there it flows northeast through the Appalachian Mountains into Henderson, and Buncombe counties. In Buncombe County, the river flows through Asheville where it receives the water of the Swannanoa River. Downstream of Asheville, the river passes north through Marshall and Madison County. After passing through Hot Springs in the Bald Mountains, the river enters Cocke County, Tennessee.

In Cocke County, the river passes through Del Rio and receives the waters of both the Pigeon and the Nolichucky rivers northwest of Newport. The river enters the slack waters of Douglas Lake, which was created by the Tennessee Valley Authority's Douglas Dam in Sevier County, approximately {{convert|32|mi|km}} upstream from the river's mouth. Near Sevierville, at Kodak, the French Broad River receives the flow of the Little Pigeon River, which drains much of the Tennessee section of the Great Smoky Mountains. After flowing through a wide gap in Bays Mountain, it enters Knox County. Its confluence with the Holston River forms the Tennessee River at a place known as "Forks of the River", at the eastern edge of Knoxville.

• North Fork
• West Fork
• East Fork
• Middle Fork
• Pigeon River
• Nolichucky River
• Mills River
• Davidson River
• Swannanoa River
• Little River (French Broad River)

The French Broad River is believed to be one of the oldest in the world, cutting over eons through ancient rocks in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.{{cite news|url=https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2018/08/02/answer-man-french-broad-river-really-one-worlds-oldest/884880002/|title=Answer Man: Is the French Broad one of the world's oldest rivers?|last=Boyle|first=John|work=Asheville Citizen-Times|date=August 2, 2018|access-date=August 3, 2018}} 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.{{Cite web|url=https://news.ncsu.edu/2013/01/tpgallen/|title=Researchers Find Evidence of Geological 'Facelift' in the Appalachians|website=NC State News|access-date=Oct 19, 2020}}

The Cherokee people, the historic Indigenous Americans who occupied the area at the time of European invasion and conquest, 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.[http://www.blueridgeheritage.com/attractions-destinations/french-broad-river French Broad River], Blue Ridge National Heritage Area 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.{{fact|date=March 2025}}

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 {{convert|117|mi|km}}. The paddle trail is a part of the North Carolina State Trails System, which is a section of the NC Division of Parks and Recreation. A system of launch point sites was created along the river to support the trail.

The portion of the French Broad River in Tennessee was designated as a state scenic river by the Tennessee Scenic Rivers Act of 1968. Approximately {{convert|33|mi}} of the river in Cocke County, starting at the North Carolina border and extending downstream to the place where it flows into Douglas Lake, are designated as a Class III, Partially Developed River.File:HotSprings FrenchBroad.jpg near Hot Springs, North Carolina]]

The following is a list of crossings of the French Broad from Brevard to the confluence with the Tennessee River.

• Transylvania and Henderson counties
• Patton Bridge
• Crab Creek Road
• Blantyre Road
• Etowah School Road in Etowah
• McLean Bridge (U.S. 64) in Etowah
• Johnson Bridge
• Fannings Bridge
• Butler Bridge
• Kings Bridge (N.C. 191)
• Boylston Highway (N.C. 280) at the Asheville Regional Airport
• Buncombe County/Asheville
• Glenn Bridge
• Long Shoals Road (N.C. 146) in Skyland
• Blue Ridge Parkway
• Interstate 26
• Interstate 40 at the Biltmore Estate
• Carrier Bridge in Asheville
• Haywood Road in Asheville
• Smith Bridge in Asheville
• Bowen Bridge (Interstate 26/I-240/U.S. 19/U.S. 74) in Asheville
• Pearson Bridge in Asheville
• Old Leicester Highway in Craggy
• Fletcher Martin Road
• Madison County
• Two Bridges connecting Marshall to Blannahasset Island
• 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.

• 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

• 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)

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite web

|url = https://files.nc.gov/ncparks/north-carolina-state-parks-system-size-01.01.2019.xlsx

|title = Size of the North Carolina State Parks System

|date = January 1, 2019

|publisher = North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation

|format = XLS

|access-date = July 21, 2019

|url-status = live

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190721220647/https://files.nc.gov/ncparks/north-carolina-state-parks-system-size-01.01.2019.xlsx

|archive-date = July 21, 2019

}}

}}

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

• {{Commonscatinline}}
• {{GNIS|1306463|French Broad River}}
• [http://mountaintrue.org/programs/water/save-the-french-broad/ French Broad Riverkeeper], conservation group that monitors water quality in the French Broad Watershed.
• [http://www.riverlink.org RiverLink], regional conservation group
• [https://trails.nc.gov/state-trails/french-broad-river-state-trail French Broad River State Trail], official website for the state paddle trail.

{{Protected areas of North Carolina}}

{{authority control}}

Category:Rivers of Buncombe County, North Carolina

Category:Rivers of Henderson County, North Carolina

Category:Rivers of Madison County, North Carolina

Category:Rivers of North Carolina

Category:Rivers of Tennessee

Category:Rivers of Sevier County, Tennessee

Category:Rivers of Cocke County, Tennessee

Category:Rivers of Jefferson County, Tennessee

Category:Rivers of Knox County, Tennessee

Category:Water trails