Cumberland

Former county in northwest England, becoming part of Cumbria in 1974.

After the Roman withdrawal from Britain, Cumberland became part of Strathclyde, a British kingdom. In 945 it passed to Scotland, but in 1157 it went to England, and the region became the scene of frequent battles between the two countries until the union of the English and Scottish crowns in 1603.

Cumberland

City and administrative headquarters of Allegany County, northwest Maryland, USA, in the Allegheny Mountains, on the Potomac River and Wills Creek, 85 km/53 mi south of Johnstown, Pennsylvania; population (2000) 21,500. Cumberland is the industrial centre of a forest, farm, and coal region. Industries manufacture sheet metal, missile components, rubber, textiles, paper products, glass, bricks, beer, and railroad equipment. It is home to Allegany Community College (1961).

Cumberland was originally an American Indian settlement, and then became a trading post and fort; it was incorporated as a city in 1856. The city developed in the 19th century as a terminus for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, and as a junction on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad.

Cumberland

Cumberland Falls, Kentucky. The Cumberland, a branch of the Ohio River, rises in Kentucky, winds southwest into Tennessee, and then turns north and back into Kentucky. The horseshoe shape of the falls gives it the nickname ‘the Niagara of the South.’

River flowing through southern Kentucky and northern Tennessee, USA; length 1,116 km/693 mi. It is formed by the confluence of several headstreams in Harlan County, southeast Kentucky, and flows through Lake Cumberland and Old Hickory Lake, joining the Ohio River at Smithland, near Paducah. Dams along its course and tributaries are part of the Tennessee Valley Authority system.

The Cumberland's tributaries in Kentucky include the Laurel, Little, and Tradewater rivers; in Tennessee they include the Obey, Caney Fork, Stones, and Harpeth. The Cumberland valley is a historic transportation route, and has also been an important mining and agricultural area.

Course From its head the Cumberland flows west through Pine Mountain, a western ridge of the Appalachians, and continues through the Daniel Boone (formerly Cumberland) National Forest, in which Cumberland Falls, 21 m/68 ft high and 38 m/125 ft wide, are noted for their ‘moonbow’, seen at the full Moon. It then flows west into Lake Cumberland, formed by the Wolf Creek Dam (1951), before turning south into Tennessee, where the Obey River drains Dale Hollow Lake into it. The river flows southwest through dam-created Cordell Hull Lake, then past Carthage, and through Old Hickory Lake (impounded by Old Hickory Dam). From Nashville it turns northwest and flows through Lake Barkley, back into Kentucky and the ‘Land between the Lakes’, and continues to the Ohio.