Nashville Attractions | My Nashville 360

Lane Motor Museum

Tue, 15 May 2007 13:04:28 -0500

Opry Mills Mall

Tue, 15 May 2007 13:01:44 -0500

Cheekwood Botanical Gardens and Art Museum

Tue, 15 May 2007 11:56:45 -0500

Belmont Mansion

Tue, 15 May 2007 11:47:25 -0500

Belle Meade Plantation

Tue, 15 May 2007 11:45:03 -0500

Frist Center

Mon, 14 May 2007 13:06:29 -0500

Nashville Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center

Mon, 14 May 2007 13:03:34 -0500

Tennessee State Museum

Mon, 14 May 2007 13:00:21 -0500

Nashville Zoo at Grassmere

Mon, 14 May 2007 12:57:30 -0500

Adventure Science Center

Mon, 14 May 2007 12:50:56 -0500

Country Music Hall of Fame

Mon, 14 May 2007 12:38:29 -0500

Ryman Auditorium

Mon, 14 May 2007 12:36:20 -0500

Grand Ole Opry

Mon, 14 May 2007 12:32:55 -0500

Tennessee Titans

Mon, 14 May 2007 10:36:54 -0500

The Hermitage

Mon, 14 May 2007 10:30:33 -0500

Bicentennial Mall State Park

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 14:04:20 -0500

Bicentennial Mall State Park is a state park is located in the shadow of the State Capitol in downtown Nashville, Tennessee.

The 19 acre (77,000 m²) park, designed to complement the Tennessee Capitol Building, gives visitors a taste of Tennessee's history and natural wonder. It opened June 1, 1996 to serve as a lasting monument to Tennessee's Bicentennial celebration.

Park Rangers, well-versed in Tennessee's historical, natural and recreational attractions, are available to conduct organized tours of the park, give programs to large groups or to simply visit with park visitors about the wonders of Tennessee.

The park also includes erupting geyser fountains, each of which represent a river in Tennessee. The fountains are framed by a large wall, next to which a stream runs to represent the Mississippi River. These fountains are fruquented in the summer by many children.

The walls that surround the park have, etched into them, a timeline of Tennessee's history.

The park contains a large grass space (the "Mall") that stretches from the outside auditorium situated adjacent to the front plaza on James Robertson Parkway, to a circle of bells that ring on the hour, located at Jefferson Street. Also built was a three-building complex containing the Farmer's Market, an international market, and a building that hosts a weekly flea market.

Nashville's Union Station

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:38:12 -0500

Nashville's Union Station is a former railroad terminal opened in 1900 to serve the passenger operations of the eight railroads then providing passenger service to Nashville, Tennessee. Built just to the west of the downtown area, it was adjacent to a railroad gulch through which most of the tracks of the area were routed which was spanned by a viaduct adjacent to the station. The station was also served by streetcars prior to their discontinuance in Nashville in 1941.

History and architecture

The station is an example of late-Victorian Gothic Revival architecture and is highly castellated. The tower originally contained an early mechanical digital clock; when replacement French silk drive belts proved unavailable during World War I, it was replaced by a traditional analog clock. The tower was originally topped by a bronze statue of the Roman god Mercury; this was toppled in a storm in 1951. When a new Main Post Office was built in Nashville in 1935 it was built adjacent to Union Station and a connecting passageway between the two served to transport mail to and from trains for over three decades.

The station reached peak usage during World War II when it was the shipping-out point for tens of thousand of U.S. troops and the site of a USO canteen; it started a long decline shortly thereafter as passenger rail service in the U.S. generally went into decline. By the 1960s it was served by only a few trains daily. Much of its open spaces were roped off and its architectural features became largely the habitation of pigeons. The formation of Amtrak in 1971 reduced service to only one train northbound and another southbound each day, the "Floridian". When this service was discontinued in the late 1970s the station was abandoned entirely.

The station fell into the custody of the United States Government's General Services Administration, which struggled for years to find a viable redevelopment plan as the station declined further. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and had a tremendous sentimental appeal to many Nashvillians who categorically rejected any redevelopment plans which did not involve the retention of the main terminal building. In the early 1980s a group of investors came forward with a plan to finance the renovation of the station into a luxury hotel which was approved.

The hotel plan was based around the use of "junk bond" financing; the interest payments required were so severe that the hotel would require 90% occupancy at an average room rate of $135/night to break even. This was not supportable in the 1980s Nashville hotel market and the initial investors soon found the project to be bankrupt. Many feared that this meant that the station was doomed; however, the new investor group who bought the hotel out of bankruptcy were able to operate it profitably because they had a much lower cost basis in it and were not forced to charge such exorbitant room rates or project such a high occupancy rate. By the mid-1990s they had restored Mercury to his place atop the tower, albeit in a two-dimensional form painted in trump l'oeil style to replicate the original; this was destroyed in the 1998 downtown Nashville tornado but was soon replaced.

More problematic was the attempt to find a modern use for the massive train shed adjacent to the terminal building, where the passengers actually met the trains. The structure, said to be the largest of its kind in the world and an engineering masterpiece, continued to deteriorate as its fate was debated. Plans, including those involving jacking it up to the level of the surrounding street (from the gulch level) and making it into a farmers' market, never came to fruition and the structure was eventually demolished after its design had been carefully recorded.

BellSouth Building or "Batman Building"

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:35:17 -0500

The BellSouth Building (also known as BellSouth Tower and formerly the South Central Bell Building) is a 188-meter (617-foot), 33-story skyscraper at 333 Commerce Street in Nashville, Tennessee. It is the tallest building in the state of Tennessee.

Though the building still shows the logo for the defunct BellSouth, it is the regional headquarters of AT&T Southeast (BellSouth's successor), and currently serves as the temporary headquarters for Nissan North America, while its new offices are being constructed in Franklin, Tennessee. The architects who designed it were Earl Swensson Associates. It was completed in 1994. Locals affectionately refer to the building as the "Batman Building" or the "Bat Tower" because it has a resemblance to the mask worn by Batman.

Originally the plan for the building was to not have any spires, but only the decorative bridge. This look would have made the top of the skyscraper look more like a receiver of a telephone in its cradle. The building's current styling is similar to the Melbourne Central Tower in Melbourne, Australia.

Richard Miller, of Earl Swensson Associates said, "The BellSouth Tower, at the time we did that they wanted a signature piece of architecture. What happens inside the building drives the way the outside looks." --The Tennessean, December 23, 2003.

In the end, the BellSouth Building has become a landmark for the city of Nashville, reinforcing a modern image for the city.

Atop the western spire are two video cameras operated by WTVF Channel 5. Together known as "Skycam", they have provided breathtaking views of the city and live news events for the station since 1995.

Lake Hickory Lake & J. Percy Priest Lake

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 12:18:11 -0500

Old Hickory Lake is a man-made lake in north central Tennessee. It is formed by the Old Hickory Lock and Dam, located on the Cumberland River at mile 216.2 in Sumner and Davidson Counties, approximately 25 miles upstream from Nashville. The city of Hendersonville is situated on the northern shoreline of the lake, and the city of Old Hickory is located on the southern side of the lake, just upstream of the lock and dam. The lake extends 97.3 miles upstream to Cordell Hull Lock and Dam near Carthage, Tennessee. The dam and lake are named after President Andrew Jackson (nicknamed "Old Hickory"), who lived in the vicinity at The Hermitage.

The lock, dam, powerhouse and lake are operated and supervised by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' personnel under the direction of the District Engineer at Nashville.

Old Hickory Lake is a mainstream storage impoundment on the Cumberland River operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The reservoir contains 22,500 surface acres at an elevation of 445 feet (above sea level) and extends 97.3 river miles. Water level fluctuations are minimal with minimum pool elevation at 442 feet. Public facilities include nine marinas, three Corps-operated campgrounds, and 41 boat access sites, as well as the Old Hickory Lake Arboretum.

J. Percy Priest Lake is an artificial lake in north central Tennessee. It is formed by J. Percy Priest Dam, located between miles six and seven of the Stones River. The dam is located about 10 miles (16 km) east of downtown Nashville and impounds a lake 42 miles (68 km) long. The lake and dam are named for Congressman Percy Priest.

J. Percy Priest Lake covers portions of Davidson, Rutherford, and Wilson Counties and consists of 14,200 acres (57 km²) of water at summer pool elevation 490 feet (149 m) above mean sea level. The water is surrounded by 18,854 acres (76 km²) of public lands; 10,000 acres (40 km²) are devoted to wildlife management. The Natural Resource Management Office (615-889-1975) maintains three campgrounds (Anderson Road, Seven Points, and Poole Knobs), eleven day-use/picnic areas (Anderson Road, Cook, Damsite, East Fork, Fate Sanders, Jefferson Springs, Nice's Mill, Overlook, Seven Points, Smith Springs, and Tailwater), and twelve boat launching ramps (Anderson Road, Cook, East Fork, Fall Creek, Fate Sanders, Hurricane Creek, Jefferson Springs, Lamar Hill, Mona, Nice's Mill, Poole Knobs, Seven Points, Smith Springs, Stewart's Creek, and Viverett Creek). Additionally the lake is also home to numerous marinas and the Vanderbilt Sailing Club. The dam, powerhouse, lake, and public lands are operated and supervised by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' personnel under the direction of the District Engineer at Nashville. It is near Nashville Shores.

Parthenon and Centennial Park

Mon, 09 Apr 2007 10:31:01 -0500

The Parthenon resides in Centennial Park of Nashville. This replica of the original Parthenon in Athens serves as a monument to what is considered the pinnacle of classical architecture. Nashville also uses this as a great opportunity for a art museum.

The 42-foot statue re-creation of Athena is the focus of the Parthenon just as it was in ancient Greece. The building and the Athena statue are both full-scale replicas of the Athenian originals.

The Parthenon was originally built for Tennessee's 1897 Centennial Exposition. The plaster replicas of the Parthenon Marbles found in the Naos are direct casts of the original sculptures which adorned the pediments of the Athenian Parthenon, dating back to 438 B.C. Originals of these powerful fragments are housed in the British Museum in London.

Nashville Parthenon Facts

• The huge bronze doors on either end weigh 7.5 tons each. These doors are 24' high, 7' wide and 1' thick. There are a total of four doors to these sizes in the Pathernon. This makes them the Largest set of matching bronze doors in the world!

• The Pathernon faces east just like it's predecessor in Greece.

• Before 1988 visitors would enter Nashville's Parthenon through the doors at the west end of the building. Now vistors must enter the Parthenon through the east end of the building. The reason for the change is that ancient Greeks considered the east facade the "front" of the building.

• Athena stands 41'10" tall which makes her the Largest piece of indoor sculpture in the Western World.

• Nike's statue in Athena's right hand is 6'4" tall.

• Athena's breastplate, bracelets and belt have eleven snakes represented.

• Nashville's Athena was shown to the public May 20, 1990. The sculptor is Alan LeQuire.

• Nashville's Parthenon is 65 feet high.

Centennial Park (Nashville) is a large urban park located approximately two miles (three km) west of downtown Nashville, Tennessee, across West End Avenue (U.S. Highway 70S) from the campus of Vanderbilt University and adjacent to the headquarters campus of the Hospital Corporation of America.

Lake Watauga is a small artificial lake in Centennial Park

The 132-acre park was originally farmland which was turned into the state fairgrounds after the Civil War. From 1884 to 1895, the site served as a racetrack and was known as West Side Park. In 1897, it was the site of the Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition and was renamed Centennial Park. After the exposition ended, most of the building and exhibits (with the exception of a full-scale model of the Athenian Parthenon) were dismantled, leaving in its place a landscaped open area with a small artificial lake (named "Lake Watauga" after the region in western North Carolina where many of Nashville's early settlers moved from), sunken gardens, and a bandshell. This area became an important recreation site for white Nashvillians; "Jim Crow" laws forbade its use by blacks until the 1960s, which resulted in disagreements which led to the closure of the park's swimming pool and its subsequent reopening as an arts center.

The Parthenon replica, built largely out of plaster as a temporary exhibit building (the Nashville pavilion of the Centennial Exposition) began to fall into disrepair and was proposed for demolition on several occasions, but public sentiment in favor of this symbol of Nashville as the "Athens of the South" precluded this. Finally, in the 1920s it was agreed to replace the temporary plaster building with a permanent, concrete and steel replacement which remains today and has been refurbished on several occasions. It functions today primarily as an art gallery. It contains a statue of Pallas Athena, said to be the largest indoor sculpture in the Western world, which was commissioned by the city and realized by the renowned Nashville sculptor Alan LeQuire. Owing to the completeness and the multiple color surface painting (called polychrome), this replica is arguably closer to what the Athenians saw than are the current ruins in Athens.

From 1954 to 1967, the Parthenon was the backdrop for an enormous nativity scene sponsored by the now-defunct Harvey's department store. The scene was approximately 280 feet long, 75 feet deep and was flooded with colorful lights. However, the Italian firm from which the Harvey family had purchased it went out of business soon afterwards. Hence, no authorized repairs, technical support, or even reliable guides to proper maintenance of the fixtures were available. By 1968, the fixtures were in such serious disrepair the nativity could not be exhibited. Financial responsibility became too much for Harvey’s and the city of Nashville and the scene was sold to a Cincinnati shopping center. According to the Nashville Banner, the nativity scene was shown only two Christmas seasons in Cincinnati before it collapsed and was discarded.

Centennial Park is the site of the climactic scene in Robert Altman's Nashville, a picture beloved of many film critics.

There were many mature shade trees in the park until the Nashville Tornado of 1998; most of them were damaged or destroyed in the storm. The park was also the site of the storm's sole fatality, a Vanderbilt ROTC cadet. Since then, the park and other areas of outdoor gathering in the Nashville area have been equipped with storm-warning sirens.

On November 11, 2005, Centennial Park became Nashville's first wireless internet park by offering free Wi-Fi internet access to park patrons.

The park also contains a recreation center and is the home of the administrative offices of the city's Department of Parks and Recreation.