The Tennessee River Joins the Ohio, Not the Mississippi Directly

The Tennessee River does not flow directly into the Mississippi River. Instead, it travels 652 miles through Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, and Mississippi (state) before emptying into the Ohio River at Paducah, Kentucky. The Ohio River then continues to its confluence with the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois. Thus, the Tennessee is a major tributary of the Ohio, which in turn is the largest tributary of the Mississippi by volume.