CUMBERLAND GAP TUNNEL

The Cumberland Gap Tunnel is 4,600-foot vehicular tunnel that carries U.S. Route 25E under Cumberland Gap National Historical Park near the intersection of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. The eastern entrance to the tunnel is located in Cumberland Gap, Tennessee and the western exit is located in Middlesboro, Kentucky. The Cumberland Gap Tunnel is one of only two mountain vehicular tunnels in the United States that cross a state line, the other being the East River Mountain Tunnel on Interstate 77 between Virginia and West Virginia.

ATHENA PARTHENOS (REPLICA)

The Parthenon in Centennial Park, in Nashville, Tennessee, is a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens. Alan LeQuire, a Nashville native, was awarded the commission to produce the Parthenon’s cult statue. His work was modeled on descriptions given of the original. The modern version took eight years to complete, and was unveiled to the public on May 20, 1990. The Nashville Athena Parthenos is made of a composite of gypsum cement and ground fiberglass. In 2002, Parthenon volunteers gilded Nashville’s Athena resulting in making the modern statue appear more like the original. The 23.75-karat gold leaf on Nashville’s Athena Parthenos weighs a total of 8.5 pounds and is one-third the thickness of tissue paper. The Athena Parthenos statue stands in the east room of the main hall and is the focus of the Parthenon just as it was in ancient Greece. She is cuirassed and helmeted, carries a shield on her left arm and a small (6-foot high) statue of Nike (Victory) in her right palm. An equally colossal serpent rears its head between her and her shield. Nashville’s Athena Parthenos stands 41 feet 10 inches tall, making her the largest piece of indoor sculpture in the Western World.

THE LOST SEA

The Lost Sea is a non-subglacial underground lake in Craighead Caverns, an extensive cave system located in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains between Sweetwater and Madisonville, Tennessee. The Lost Sea is the largest underground lake in the United States and the second largest in the world. The visible surface of the lake measures 800 feet long and 220 feet wide (4.5 acres) at normal “full” capacity. The lake is 140 feet below the entrance to the cave and has a depth of at least 70 feet.

GATLINBURG SKY BRIDGE

At 680 feet in length, the Gatlinburg Skybridge is the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in North America.

PARIS, TEXAS V. PARIS, TENNESSEE

WIDEST MEDIANS ON THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM

WIDEST MEDIANS ON THE INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM
Interstate	Location	Width of Median
I-24	Southeast of Monteagle, Tennessee (Mile Marker 135)	1.86 Miles
I-84	Deadman Pass, Oregon (Mile Marker 226)	1.86 Miles
I-8	In-Ko-Pah Gorge, Imperial County, California (Mile Marker 123)	1.43 Miles

I-24 in Tennessee

I-84 in Oregon

I-8 in California

EAST TENNESSEE AREA CODE 865

On October 1, 1999, east Tennessee area code 423 was split and new area code 865 was assigned to Knoxville. Typically, when an area code is split, the largest city in an existing numbering plan area keeps the original code – in this case, Knoxville. However, the Tennessee Regulatory requested that the code 865 be assigned to Knoxville because on a standard telephone keypad, the numbers 865 correspond to the letters VOL, the commonly used short version of Volunteers, which is the formal nickname of the sports teams at the University of Tennessee.

STATE LIQUOR LAWS - INDIANA - TENNESSEE - ILLINOIS - TEXAS

	Indiana	Tennessee	Illinois	Texas
Bar Closing Time	3 a.m.	3 a.m.	1 a.m. to 5 a.m. depending on municipality	2 a.m.
Beer	Grocery Stores
Wine	Grocery Stores
Liquor	Grocery Stores	Liquor Stores	Grocery Stores	Liquor Stores
Sunday Restrictions	None	No off-premises sale of hard liquor	None	Liquor stores closed; alcohol cannot be purchased until noon
Off-Premise Sales Hours	Sun to Sat: 7 a.m. to 3 a.m.	Sun to Sat: 8:00 a.m. to 11 p.m.		Mon to Sat: 7 a.m. to 12 a.m. (1 a.m. Saturdays) Sun: 12 p.m. to 12 a.m.
State Run Liquor Stores	No

HOUSING PRICES - COMPARISON OF INDIANA, TENNESSEE AND ILLINOIS

Illinois house prices have not yet returned to pre-2008 recession levels, and in fact, saw a nominal decline in the last quarter. Indiana and Tennessee housing prices did not have significant declines during the recession and both states returned to pre-recession levels in the second-quarter of 2015. Tennessee housing prices have seen a rise of 29% since the first-quarter of 2008, and Indiana has seen an increase of 19%.

POPULATION GROWTH - INDIANA V. TENNESSEE

According to most recent census bureau estimates, Indiana has dropped from the 15^th most populous state to the 17^th.  Massachusetts dropped from number 14 to number 15 and Tennessee rose from number 17 to number 16.

Tennessee’s population growth rate is more than twice Indiana’s.

FACT	INDIANA	TENNESSEE
Population estimates, July 1, 2018	6,691,878	6,770,010
Population, percent change – April 1, 2010	3.20%	6.70%
Population, Census, April 1, 2010	6,483,802	6,346,105
Building Permits, 2017	21,684	37,912

Source: U.S. Census Bureau Quick Facts

FARMS IN THE U.S. AND SELECTED STATES

FARMS IN THE UNITED STATES
CENSUS YEAR	TOTAL FARMS	AVERAGE SIZE (ACRES)
2002	2,128,982	441
2007	2,204,792	418
2012	2,109,303	434

FARMS IN SELECTED STATES (2012)
	TOTAL FARMS	AVERAGE SIZE (ACRES)
Illinois	75,087	359
Indiana	58,695	251
Tennessee	68,050	160

KENTUCKY BEND

The Kentucky Bend is an exclave of Fulton County, Kentucky, encircled by the states of Tennessee and Missouri. It is a portion of a peninsula defined by an oxbow loop meander of the Mississippi River, and its inclusion in the state of Kentucky stems from uncertainties of the course of the Mississippi River when the boundary between Tennessee and Kentucky was established.

The only highway into the area is Tennessee State Route 22. It is impossible to get to the Kentucky Bend (even on foot or in a boat) without going through either Missouri or Tennessee.