Question: In the 19th century, Rhea Springs was inundated when the completion of Watts Bar Dam by the Tennessee Valley Authority, a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter on May 18, 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development to the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected by what historical event?

Context paragraphs:
Rhea Springs, Tennessee: Rhea Springs was a community once located along the Piney River in Rhea County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States.  Originally established in the 19th century as a health resort, the community was inundated when the completion of Watts Bar Dam by the Tennessee Valley Authority flooded the lower Piney Valley in 1942.

Watts Bar Lake: Watts Bar Lake is a reservoir on the Tennessee river created by Watts Bar Dam as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority system.

Chickamauga Dam: Chickamauga Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Chattanooga, Tennessee, United States.  The dam is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the late 1930s as part of a New Deal era initiative to improve navigation and bring flood control and economic development to the Tennessee Valley.  The dam impounds the 36240 acre Chickamauga Lake and feeds into Nickajack Lake.

Widows Bar Dam: Widows Bar Lock and Dam was a dam once located along the Tennessee River in Jackson County, Alabama, USA.  It was situated 407 mi above the mouth of the Tennessee River, near the river's confluence with Widows Creek.  The dam was completed 8 September 1924, and was designed and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  It was serviced by a 60 ft by 265 ft navigation lock.  When the Tennessee Valley Authority took control of flood control and navigation improvement operations in the Tennessee Valley in the 1930s, Widows Bar was considered too high maintenance, and it was dismantled as part of the construction of Guntersville Dam.

Chickamauga Lake: Chickamauga Lake is a United States reservoir along the Tennessee River created when the Chickamauga Dam, as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority, was completed in 1940.  The lake stretches from Watts Bar Dam at mile 529.9 (853 km) to Chickamauga Dam at mile 471.0 (758 km) making the lake 58.9 miles (94.8 km) long.  It borders Rhea County, Meigs County, and Hamilton County with 810 miles (1,303 km) of shoreline and two bridges crossing it at State Highway 60 and Highway 30.  The lake is commonly used for recreational and outdoor activities, especially at the southern end, due to the high population density surrounding it.  It was named after the Chickamauga (tribe) of Cherokees who used to live in the area.

Watts Bar Dam: Watts Bar Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Meigs and Rhea counties in Tennessee, United States.  The dam is one of nine dams on the main Tennessee River channel operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1940s to provide flood control and electricity and to help create a continuous navigable channel along the entire length of the river.  The dam is the technical boundary between the 39090 acre Watts Bar Lake— which it impounds— and Chickamauga Lake, which stretches from the dam's tailwaters southward to Chattanooga.

Tennessee Valley Authority: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation in the United States created by congressional charter on May 18, 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development to the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly affected by the Great Depression.  The enterprise was a result of the efforts of Senator George W. Norris of Nebraska.  TVA was envisioned not only as a provider, but also as a regional economic development agency that would use federal experts and electricity to rapidly modernize the region's economy and society.

Norris Dam: Norris Dam is a hydroelectric and flood control structure located on the Clinch River in Anderson County and Campbell County, Tennessee, United States.  Its construction in the mid-1930s was the first major project for the Tennessee Valley Authority, which had been created in 1933 to bring economic development to the region and control the rampant flooding that had long plagued the Tennessee Valley.  The dam was named in honor of Nebraska Senator George Norris (1861–1944), a longtime supporter of government-owned power in general, and supporter of TVA in particular.  The project infrastructure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016.

Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station: The Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant is a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) nuclear reactor pair used for electric power generation.  It is located on a 1,770-acre (7.2 km²) site in Rhea County, Tennessee, near Spring City, between the cities of Chattanooga and Knoxville.  Watts Bar supplies enough electricity for about 1,200,000 households in the Tennessee Valley.

Fort Loudoun Dam: Fort Loudoun Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Tennessee River in Loudon County, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States.  The dam is operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which built the dam in the early 1940s as part of a unified plan to provide electricity and flood control in the Tennessee Valley and create a continuous 652 mi navigable river channel from Knoxville, Tennessee to Paducah, Kentucky.  It is the uppermost of nine TVA dams on the Tennessee River.  The dam impounds the 14600 acre Fort Loudoun Lake and its tailwaters are part of Watts Bar Lake.  The generating capacity of Fort Loudoun Dam is enhanced by the Tellico Reservoir, from which water is diverted via canal to Fort Loudoun Lake.

Supporting paragraphs: Rhea Springs, Tennessee Tennessee Valley Authority
Answer: the Great Depression