Cumberland Plateau in the context of "U.S. Route 25E"

The Allegheny Plateau (/ˌælɪˈɡeɪni/ AL-ig-AY-nee) is a large dissected plateau area of the Appalachian Mountains in western and central New York, northern and western Pennsylvania, northern and western West Virginia, and eastern Ohio. It is divided into the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau and the glaciated Allegheny Plateau.

The plateau extends southward into western West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and Tennessee, where it is instead called the Cumberland Plateau.

Tennessee (/ˌtɛnɪˈsiː/ , locally /ˈtɛnɪsi/), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, Arkansas to the southwest, and Missouri to the northwest. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. According to the United States Census Bureau, the state's estimated population as of 2024 is 7.22 million.

Tennessee is geographically, culturally, and legally divided into three Grand Divisions of East, Middle, and West Tennessee. Nashville is the state's capital and largest city, and anchors its largest metropolitan area. Tennessee has diverse terrain and landforms, and from east to west, contains a mix of cultural features characteristic of Appalachia, the Upland South, and the Deep South. The Blue Ridge Mountains along the eastern border reach some of the highest elevations in eastern North America, and the Cumberland Plateau contains many scenic valleys and waterfalls. The central part of the state is marked by cavernous bedrock and irregular rolling hills, and level, fertile plains define West Tennessee. The state is twice bisected by the Tennessee River, and the Mississippi River forms its western border. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the nation's most visited national park, is in eastern Tennessee.

The Tennessee River Gorge is a 26-mile (42 km) canyon in the U.S. states of Tennessee and Alabama formed by the Tennessee River. The fourth largest river gorge in the Eastern United States, it was cut into the Cumberland Plateau where the river winds from southeast Tennessee into northeast Alabama. Previously known as Walden Gorge, it cuts through Walden Ridge, dividing the ridge into Sand Mountain, Alabama, on its south. Locally, the gorge is known as Cash Canyon.

Interstate 75 (I-75) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs 1,786.47 miles (2,875.04 km) from Miami Lakes, Florida to the Canada–United States border at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. In the U.S. state of Kentucky, I-75 runs through the eastern half of the state, from the Tennessee state line near the city of Williamsburg to the Ohio state line near Covington. The Interstate serves the state's second-most populous city, Lexington. Outside of it, the route is mostly rural or suburban in nature, mainly providing access to other cities via state and U.S. Highways. The major landscapes traversed by I-75 include the rolling hills and mountains of the Cumberland Plateau, the flat Bluegrass region, the urban core of Lexington, and the highly urbanized suburbs of Northern Kentucky; it also very briefly crosses through the Eastern Kentucky Coalfield at its southernmost stretch and passes near the Daniel Boone National Forest in London.

Of the six states which I-75 passes through, the segment in Kentucky is the second-shortest, at 191.78 miles (308.64 km) long. I-75 parallels the older U.S. Route 25 (US 25) and U.S. Route 25E (US 25E) corridors for its entire length in Kentucky. The Interstate was part of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, with a section of it from the Ohio River at Covington to an unknown location north of Richmond being the first segment of the Interstate Highway, opened in 1957. Unfinished portions of the highway were eventually completed in increments, with the very last section being opened in 1969. Due to the rapid growth and high traffic volume in the Lexington metropolitan area and Northern Kentucky, many widening projects and renovations have been undertaken on I-75 since then. The Interstate has one auxiliary route, I-275, a beltway encircling Cincinnati.

The Unglaciated Allegheny Plateau is located in an arc around southeastern Ohio, West Virginia, into western Pennsylvania and a small portion of southwestern New York State.

This area is a dissected plateau, characterized by sandstone, shale, and many coal seams. This is the part of the Allegheny Plateau that lies outside the continental glaciation of the ice age.

The Glaciated Allegheny Plateau is the portion of the Allegheny Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains that lies within the area covered by the last glaciation. As a result, this area of the plateau has lower relief and gentler slopes than the relatively rugged Unglaciated Allegheny Plateau. It lies to the north and west of the unglaciated plateau, and forms an arc in northeastern to southeastern Ohio lying between the glacial till plains and the Unglaciated Allegheny Plateau. The Glaciated Allegheny Plateau extends into a belt of southern New York State and the central Susquehanna River basin. Major cities on the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau are Akron and Youngstown.

A small area of the Allegheny Plateau was glaciated during the Wisconsin Stage, the late Illinoian Stage, and Pre-Illinoian B and G glaciations of the Pre-Illinoian Stage. This area – only a few hundred square kilometers owing to the blockage the steep relief of the mountains provides at the edge of the ice sheet – contains only old drift now buried by long periods of soil development.

Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the state's capital and largest city, Nashville, as well as Clarksville, the state's fifth largest city, and Murfreesboro, the state's sixth largest city and largest suburb of Nashville. The Nashville metropolitan area, located entirely within the region, is the most populous metropolitan area in the state, and the Clarksville metropolitan area is the state's sixth most populous. Middle Tennessee is both the largest, in terms of land area, and the most populous of the state's three Grand Divisions.

Geographically, Middle Tennessee is composed of the Highland Rim, which completely surrounds the Nashville Basin. The Cumberland Plateau is located in the eastern part of the region. Culturally, Middle Tennessee is considered part of the Upland South. Commodity crops such as cotton and tobacco were cultivated by migrant settlers in the region in the antebellum era, who were largely dependent on the labor of enslaved African Americans. In addition, planters bred and trained livestock, such as the world-famous Tennessee Walking Horse, which was developed as a breed in the region during this time.

The Wolf River is a 40.3-mile-long (64.9 km) river in the U.S. states of Tennessee and Kentucky that rises at the base of the Cumberland Plateau in Fentress County, Tennessee and flows westward for several miles before becoming part of Dale Hollow Lake. The river is part of the Cumberland River drainage basin in Middle Tennessee and southern Kentucky. Via the Cumberland and Ohio rivers, it is part of the Mississippi River watershed. It is not to be confused with the Wolf River of West Tennessee which flows into the Mississippi at Memphis.

The Wolf River begins at the confluence of Pogue Creek and Delk Creek in a rugged hollow approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of the community of Pall Mall. Two miles below its source, the river absorbs Rotten Fork before entering the communities of Wolf River and Pall Mall, both of which are associated with World War I hero Alvin C. York. York's farm and gristmill were both located along the river at Pall Mall, and he and his family are buried in the large cemetery at Wolf River. York's farm is now part of a state historic park. The area is known as "the valley of the three forks of the Wolf," as noted in the 1941 film "Sergeant York." Below Pall Mall, the river continues westward across the northeastern Highland Rim into Pickett County, passing just east and north of Byrdstown as it flows through rolling farmland and forest. About a mile downstream from the TN 111 bridge, its water becomes slack due to the impoundment of Dale Hollow Lake on the Obey River. The lake's Wolf River embayment winds along the Kentucky-Tennessee border and has its confluence with the Obey River embayment just southeast of the point where Pickett County, Clay County, Tennessee, and Clinton County, Kentucky meet. Before the lake was impounded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1943, the confluence was the site of the community of Lillydale, formerly called Mouth of Wolf. The Lillydale name lives on in a Corps recreation area on the south shore of the lake. The Wolf River embayment also lies in Cumberland County, Kentucky.