Editing Spring City, Tennessee (section)

==History==
Spring City began as a stop along the [[Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway|Cincinnati Southern Railroad]] in the 1870s. The town was originally named Sulphur Springs, because of the mass amount of sulphur in the water. Sometime later it became "Rheaville," and later became incorporated with nearby Rhea Springs, and took on the name Rhea Springs. Due to an explosion, much of the town flooded or burnt, and the town relocated to its current location and was renamed Spring City, in honor of the original settlement, Sulphur Springs. The original location now lies at the bottom of a nearby section of Watts Bar Lake. Spring City thrived as a railroad shipping hub during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its first railroad depot, a simple wooden building constructed in 1879, burned in 1892, and was replaced by a larger one.<ref name=guffey>Pat Guffey, "[http://www.rheaheraldnews.com/lifestyles/article_c5f59738-3527-11e4-b296-001a4bcf887a.html Historical Notes About Spring City]," ''Rhea Herald-News'', September 5, 2014.</ref>  This second depot was in turn replaced by the current depot, which was completed by the [[Southern Railway (US)|Southern Railway]] in 1909.<ref>Carroll Van West, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Fh11WlwYe9wC&dq Tennessee's Historic Landscapes]'' (University of Tennessee Press, 1995), p. 233.</ref>

[[File:Spring-City-Depot-tn1.jpg|left|210px|thumb|Spring City Depot, completed in 1909]]

The city received an economic boost in 1942 with the [[Tennessee Valley Authority]]'s completion of Watts Bar Dam and its associated reservoir southeast of the town. That same year saw the completion of the Watts Bar Fossil Plant, TVA's first [[Fossil-fuel power station|coal-fired plant]]. In 1973, TVA began building [[Watts Bar Nuclear Plant]]. Its first reactor, Watts Bar Unit 1, became active in 1996. The construction of the second reactor, Watts Bar Unit 2, was originally suspended in 1985, but resumed in 2007. It entered commercial operation in October 2016.

On August 22, 1955, 11 schoolchildren were killed, and many others injured, when their school bus was struck by a 103-car freight train at a track crossing in Spring City.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/45169|title=Interstate Commerce {{sic|Comm|ision|nolink=y}}, Report of the Accident Investigation {{sic|Occ|uring|nolink=y}} on the CINCINNATI, NEW ORLEANS AND TEXAS PACIFIC, SOUTHERN RAILWAY SYSTEM, SPRING CITY, TENN |publisher=[[Interstate Commerce Commission]]|date=August 22, 1955|access-date=July 31, 2023}} - [https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/45169/dot_45169_DS1.pdf PDF file]</ref>

On July 28, 2016, a train hauling coal derailed by the train depot and museum due to a faulty wheel on one of the privately owned coal cars. There were no casualties. A lengthy cleanup followed, where both track crossings in town had to be closed while repairs were made and debris cleared.