In the 1700's I have invisioned the difficulties that settlers had crossing the Clinch Mountains between Bean Station and Tazewell, then fording the Clinch River somewhere near where the present Clinch River Bridge is. I have found two accounts online of crossings:

 

An early trip through this wilderness comes from the "Memoirs" of Mrs. Jane Allen Trimble

A later was when John Sevier along with the commissioners crossed at Looney's Gap Excerpts from Sevier Journal.

 Has the construction on the new four lane bridge been as good as it could have been? See my Sloppy Construction on 25E Bridge Grainger/Claiborne County Line.