[1] The dam was named in honor of Nebraska Senator George Norris (1861–1944), a longtime supporter of government-owned utilities in general, and of TVA in particular.

Norris Lake, the largest reservoir on a tributary of the Tennessee River, has 33,840 acres (137 km2) of water surface and 809 miles (1302 km) of shoreline.

Norris Reservoir spans a 73-mile (117 km) stretch of the Clinch from the dam to River Ridge at the Claiborne-Grainger county line.

Part of the opposition was from Senator Norris, who advocated a government-sponsored dam at the site, arguing that a private entity would be almost wholly concerned with power generation rather than flood control and coordination with projects elsewhere in the valley.

Throughout the late 1920s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made several proposals to build a dam at the site, but all were rejected by Congress or vetoed by President Calvin Coolidge.

As the agency lacked any engineering or dam construction experience, it relied heavily on the Army Corps' original design, and received ample consulting from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

[1] Hungarian-American architect Roland Wank (1898–1970) revised the initial plans from Bureau of Reclamation engineers, and gave the poured-concrete Norris Dam a modernist style, which was controversial and advanced for the era of construction, but the result would eventually succeed in elevating Roland Wank to the position of Chief Architect for TVA from 1933 through 1944.

Approximately one-third of Caryville, at the head of the reservoir's Cove Creek embayment, was flooded and a number of structures in the town had to be moved.

[11] Notable visitors to the dam included President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, journalist Ernie Pyle, Swiss architect Le Corbusier, track star Jesse Owens, and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

[12] The project's intent of providing aid to residents of the Clinch and Powell watershed has been argued by scholars and historians,[14] specifically regarding the TVA's acquisition of roughly 150,000 acres (61,000 ha) of farmland, and the displacement of an estimated 3,000 families and 5,300 graves.