Geography
Clinch Mountain is a long ridge, about 150 miles (240 km) in length. It runs generally southwest-northeast, with numerous curves. Its north-south extent is 97 miles (156 km), and east-west 172 miles (277 km). Due to its size it is sometimes called a mountain range or complex. According to peakbagger.com, the Clinch Mountain Complex includes the sub-range of Knob Mountain, as well as four high point summits above 4,000 feet (Beartown Mountain, Flattop Mountain, Morris Knob, and Chimney Rock Peak).
For its entire length, Clinch Mountain only has two true gaps during which the ridge is completely sliced in half and continues as Clinch Mountain on either side, divided by a creek. One of those is Moccasin Gap at Weber City, Virginia (the Norfolk Southern Railway and U.S. Highways 23-58-421 utilize that crossing because there is no elevation in the division of the mountain). Moccasin Gap is currently planned to undergo major mountain removal to accommodate a planned highway project. The natural appearance of the gap will be altered significantly. The second true gap in Clinch Mountain is Little Moccasin Gap, 30 miles northeast of Moccasin Gap, where U.S. Highway 58 Alternate crosses between Hansonville and Abingdon, Virginia.
All other transportation crossings, as noted below, require an elevation climb to the top of the Clinch Mountain.
When U.S. Highway 25E was realigned into a four-lane highway northwest of Bean Station, Tennessee in the 1980s, it was necessary to cut a new gap into the top of Clinch Mountain, which lowered the original gap elevation by 200 feet. That realignment, along with the lowering of Interstate 26-U.S. Highway 23 at Sams Gap on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, are the only instances of a highway gap in Tennessee actually lowering an original gap where a state or federal highway was built through. (Sams Gap was lowered by 150 feet to accommodate the new Interstate 26 highway).
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