Lynchburg is best known as the location of Jack Daniel's distillery, whose famous Tennessee whiskey is marketed worldwide as the product of a city with only one traffic light.

One early settler, Thomas Roundtree, established a cotton mill along the creek in the vicinity of the modern Jack Daniel's Distillery.

[6] An article by Jeanne Ridgway Bigger in the spring 1972 issue of the Tennessee Historical Quarterly states that the city was named after a "Judge Lynch", who presided over a vigilante committee that met in the city sometime after the War of 1812.

[4] Company E of the Confederate Army's 1st Tennessee Cavalry consisted primarily of Lynchburg residents.

[7] A monument to the area's Confederate soldiers stands on the lawn of the Moore County Courthouse.

[4] During the 1870s, Lynchburg was situated at the center of an agrarian economic triangle consisting of Tullahoma to the northeast, Shelbyville to the northwest, and Fayetteville to the south.

[4] The rise of automobile traffic and the establishment of a state highway system in the early 20th century led to a commercial boom in Lynchburg, and many of the buildings on the courthouse square were built during this period.

By 1920, Lynchburg had several schools and churches, a weekly newspaper, two banks, and several "flourishing business establishments".

[4] The passage of a state law barring the manufacture of liquor in 1909 effectively shut down the city's distilleries.

In 1937, the state repealed the law barring the manufacture of alcoholic beverages, and Motlow reopened the Jack Daniel's Distillery.

[8] Motlow State Community College opened its campus in 1969 on 187 acres of land donated by Reagor Motlow and family in the northern part of Moore County in what is today part of Lynchburg.

The city lies in a valley carved by East Fork Mulberry Creek (part of the Elk River watershed).

State Route 55, known as Majors Boulevard in Lynchburg, is the city's main thoroughfare.