High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! In the state of Tennessee, Interstate 40 traverses the entirety of the state from west to east, running from the Mississippi River at the Arkansas border to the northern base of the Great Smoky Mountains at the North Carolina border. The road connects three of Tennessee`s largest cities—Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville—and crosses all of Tennessee`s physiographical provinces—the Mississippi Embayment and Gulf Coastal Plain in West Tennessee, the Highland Rim and Nashville Basin in Middle Tennessee, and the Cumberland Plateau, Appalachian Valley and Ridge Province, and Blue Ridge Province in East Tennessee. The Tennessee section of I-40 is 455 miles (732 km) long, the longest of any state.