The French Broad River flows 213 miles (342.8 km) from near the village of
Rosman

Rosman, North Carolina

Rosman is a town in Transylvania County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 490 at the 2000 census. The northern terminus of U.S. Route 178 is less than one mile northwest of Rosman on U.S...

 in Transylvania County, North Carolina

Transylvania County, North Carolina

Transylvania County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2010, the population was 33,090. Its county seat is Brevard.- History :The county was formed in 1861 from parts of Henderson County and Jackson County...

, into the state of Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

. Its confluence

Confluence

Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water.Confluence may also refer to:* Confluence , a property of term rewriting systems...

 with the Holston River

Holston River

The Holston River is a major river system of southwestern Virginia and east Tennessee. The three major forks of the Holston rise in southwestern Virginia and have their confluence near Kingsport, Tennessee. The North Fork flows southwest from Sharon Springs in Bland County, Virginia...

 at Knoxville

Knoxville, Tennessee

Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...

 is the beginning of the Tennessee River

Tennessee River

The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names...

.

The French Broad River was named by white settlers centuries

Century

A century is one hundred consecutive years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages .-Start and end in the Gregorian Calendar:...

 ago because it was one of the two broad rivers in western North Carolina. The one which flowed into land claimed by France at that time

New France

New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...

 was named the "French Broad River", whereas the other, which stayed in land claimed by England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 – the Colony of North Carolina – was named the "English Broad River".