What Is the Difference Between East Nashville and The Gulch?

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East Nashville and the Gulch differ in age, shape, and setting. The Gulch is a compact district beside downtown, built on a former railyard and redeveloped from the mid-2000s under a master plan. East Nashville is a large area of older neighborhoods across the Cumberland River, such as Edgefield, East End, and Lockeland Springs, shaped by more than a century of growth and rebuilding. For a visitor, the Gulch is an easy walk-in extension of downtown, while East Nashville is a short ride away and spreads over several neighborhood centers.

Side by Side

The Gulch East Nashville
Location southwest of downtown, from Broadway to the CSX rail line across the Cumberland River, northeast of downtown
Distance from Lower Broadway by road about 1.1 miles about 1.3 miles to the near side, 2.2 miles to Five Points
Origins named for a natural depression; five rail lines by 1861 and a railyard of some three dozen tracks by 1896 farms and trading posts at first; East End began in 1876 as an addition to the Edgefield community
Recent history declined after World War II and was neglected by the 1990s; revitalized from the mid-2000s under a master plan rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1916 and tornadoes in 1933, 1998, and 2020
Layout main streets Demonbreun and Division, crossed by 11th and 12th Avenues many smaller neighborhoods, including Historic Edgefield, East End, and Lockeland Springs

Sources: The Cultural Landscape Foundation on the Gulch; Wikipedia on East Nashville. Distances are OSRM driving routes, calculated October 24, 2026.

What That Means on a Visit

  • Getting there. The Gulch is close enough to walk from Lower Broadway. For East Nashville, take a rideshare or bus, or walk the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge to the east bank and continue from there.
  • How you spend the time. In the Gulch, restaurants and shops sit along a few streets near one another. In East Nashville, pick one neighborhood center, such as Five Points or the area around Lockeland Springs, and spend the afternoon or evening there rather than trying to cover the whole east side.
  • Walkability. East End ranked first and Lockeland Springs eighth in Walk Score’s March 2024 list of Nashville’s most walkable neighborhoods; the ranking is in which Nashville neighborhoods are walkable.

How both fit on the city map is in the layout of Nashville, and choosing one as a base is in what neighborhood to stay in.

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