On September 18, 1933, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was formally organized under a New Deal law signed earlier in the year. TVA’s mission included flood control, navigation, electricity generation, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region hard hit by poverty. The agency built dams and power plants that brought electricity to rural communities for the first time. It also engaged in soil conservation, reforestation, and fertilizer research. TVA became a model for large-scale public power and regional planning projects.
