The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers West Point Lake is on the Chattahoochee River just north of West Point, Georgia. It stretches 35 miles and at full pool is 25,900 acres. Authorized by the Flood Control Act of 1962, work started on the lake in December 1965 and the impoundment began in October 1974. With the exception of special situations, like a drought, the water is kept between 633 MSL (mean sea level – an average level of the surface of one or more of Earth’s bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured) and 635 MSL. The county seat of Troup, Lagrange, Georgia, just off I-85,. where I-185 heads south to Columbus, is 60 miles southwest of Atlanta and the closest major city to the lake.