Tennessee Aquarium & Bluff View Arts District

Chattanooga's cultural core sits along a two-block stretch of the Tennessee River bluff — the Tennessee Aquarium anchors the north end with one of the world's largest freshwater aquarium facilities, and the Bluff View Arts District on the south end occupies a cluster of Victorian houses above the river with the Hunter Museum of American Art and a network of sculpture gardens overlooking the Tennessee River Gorge. The Aquarium's River Journey building traces the Tennessee River watershed from its mountain headwaters through the Cumberland Plateau and into the Mississippi — with alligator snapping turtles, river otters, and paddlefish in tanks that recreate actual Tennessee River habitats. The Hunter Museum across the bluff holds the most significant collection of American art in the tri-state region, with works from the colonial era through the contemporary period in a building that bridges a 1904 Neoclassical mansion and a 2005 glass and concrete addition cantilevered over the bluff edge.