It is also an important link to the Tennessee Valley Authority Chickamauga Dam, which the highway crosses on the Wilkes T. Thrasher Bridge.

SR 153 then turns north, leaves Hixson, and ends at US 27/SR 29 at a partial cloverleaf interchange, with the road continuing as Dayton Pike into Soddy Daisy.

The Chickamauga Dam was constructed by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) from 1936 to 1940 in order to provide electricity, flood control, and improved navigation to the region.

[2] On January 18, 1940, Tennessee Congressman (and later Senator) Estes Kefauver proposed an amendment to a TVA appropriations bill that would have provided funding for a bridge across the dam, but the whole house rejected this.

[3] From 1947 to 1949, Hamilton County Judge Wilkes T. Thrasher made several trips to Washington DC requesting federal funding and approval of the bridge.

[7][8] Steel erection was completed on March 31, 1954, and the bridge was dedicated and opened to traffic on October 15, 1954, in a ceremony officially naming it for Thrasher.

[12][13] On August 1, 1953, the Hamilton County government announced that they had chosen the route for the stretch between SR 317 and US 27 out of two proposed alignments.

Due to higher-than-anticipated traffic volumes, a decision was made in September 1958 for the remainder of SR 153 to be controlled access.

In March 1957, it was reported that a project to widen the Thrasher Bridge to four lanes had been included in the state's 5-year highway program and would take place in 1961.

When the four-lane controlled-access alignment of US 27 that replaced the old Dayton Pike was constructed in the mid-to-late 1970s, the SR 153 designation was extended approximately 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) north along this route to the new freeway.