Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Georgia
Downtown Atlanta
Flag Seal
Nickname: Hotlanta, The Big Peach, The ATL, A-Town, The A
Location in Fulton and DeKalb counties in the state of Georgia
Coordinates: 33°45′18″N 84°23′24″W / 33.755, -84.39
Country	United States
State	Georgia
Counties	Fulton, DeKalb
Government
- Mayor	Shirley Franklin (D)
Area
- City	132.4 sq mi (343.0 km²)
- Land	131.8 sq mi (341.2 km²)
- Water	0.7 sq mi (1.8 km²)
Elevation	738-1,050 ft (225-320 m)
Population (2006)
- City	483,108
- Density	3,667.4/sq mi (1,416/km²)
- Urban	3,499,840
- Metro	5,138,223
Time zone	EST (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
Area code(s)	404, 678, 770
Website: http://www.atlantaga.gov/

Atlanta (IPA: /ætˈlæntə/ or /ətˈlæntə/) is the capital and the most populous city of the state of Georgia, and the core city of the ninth most populous metropolitan area in the United States. It is the county seat of Fulton County, although portions of the city extend into DeKalb County and Clayton County. As of July 2006 the city of Atlanta has a population of 483,108 and a metropolitan population of 5,138,223. The July 2006 census estimate puts the combined statistical area (CSA) population at 5,478,667. Residents of the city are known as Atlantans.

Atlanta is often considered a poster child for cities worldwide experiencing rapid growth and urban sprawl.[1][2] Between 2000 and 2006, the Atlanta metropolitan area grew 20.5%, the highest percentage amongst the top-ten metro areas.[3]

Atlanta is sometimes referred to as "the capital of the New South,"[4] and has in recent years undergone a transition from a city of regional commerce to a city of international influence.

During the Civil Rights Movement, Atlanta stood apart from Southern cities that supported segregation, touting itself as the "city too busy to hate." The city's progressive civil rights record and existing population of African Americans, made it increasingly popular as a relocation destination for African Americans. African Americans soon became the dominant political force in the city, though today some regentrification has occurred.[5]

Common nicknames for the city include A-Town, A-T-L (derived from its IATA airport code), and Hotlanta. The city is also one of three cities in the United States to host the Summer Olympic Games, doing so in 1996. (St. Louis in 1904 and Los Angeles in 1932 and 1984 are the others).

History

Early to 1860

The region where Atlanta and its suburbs were built was originally Creek and Cherokee Native American territory. In 1813, the Creeks, who had been recruited by the British to assist them in the War of 1812, attacked and burned Fort Mims in southwestern Alabama. The conflict broadened and became known as the Creek War. In response, the United States built a string of forts along the Ocmulgee and Chattahoochee Rivers, including Fort Daniel on top of Hog Mountain in present-day Norcross, Georgia, and Fort Gilmer. Fort Gilmer was situated next to an important Indian site called "Peachtree Standing", named after a large tree which is believed to have been a pine tree (the name referred to the pitch or sap that flowed from it). The word "pitch" was misunderstood for "peach", thus the site's name. The site traditionally marked a Native American meeting place at the boundary between Creek and Cherokee lands, at the point where Peachtree Creek flows into the Chattahoochee. The fort was soon renamed Fort Peachtree.[6]

A map showing roads and Indian trails circa 1815, with late 19th century Fulton County and City of Atlanta outlines overlaid. Peachtree Trail is the dominant cross-shaped figure in the top half, intersecting at the site of Buck's Head Tavern. The branch north, called "Peachtree Road", would become Roswell Road. The left branch (today the site of West Paces Ferry Road -> Moore's Mill Road) ends at Peachtree Standing and Fort Peachtree (at the left end of the horizontal arm), on the Chattahoochee River. Modern-day Peachtree Road follows the south and northeast branches.

The Creek land in the eastern part of the metro area (including Decatur) was opened to white settlement in 1823. In 1835, leaders of the Cherokee nation ceded their land to the government in exchange for land out west under the Treaty of New Echota, an act that eventually led to the Trail of Tears.

In 1836 the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western and Atlantic Railroad to provide a trade route to the Midwest. The initial route was to run from Chattanooga to a spot called simply "Terminus", located somewhere east of the Chattahoochee River, which would eventually be linked to the Georgia Railroad from Augusta and the Macon and Western, which ran from Macon to Savannah.

According to the Georgia Secretary of State,[7] an experienced army engineer, Colonel Stephen Harriman Long, was chosen to recommend the location of the terminus. He surveyed various possible routes, then drove a stake near Five Points in modern Atlanta. Although the “zero milepost” marker has been moved repeatedly, its current location in Underground Atlanta is very close to Long's original choice.

A number of sites were proposed or actually designated as the Terminus, and the history is not completely clear. In 1837, work began to build it near Hog Mountain in present-day Norcross, where Fort Daniel was located, but the site was soon abandoned because there were too many creeks, valleys, and steep gradients. It was moved to Montgomery's Ferry near Fort Peachtree, for a savings of $18,000 per mile. Some historians claim that Decatur, a town founded in 1823 to the east of current Atlanta,[8] was proposed as the Terminus, but declined due to worries about noise and crime.

Several months later in 1837, the legislature finally established the zero-mile marker for the Terminus at a point near the present-day Georgia World Congress Center, because the area was relatively flat and would better allow for turnarounds.(The zero-mile marker was later moved a short distance east, and today sits underneath Five Points, which was built on iron pilings above the railroad.) The first store, a general store, was opened at the site in 1839 by John Thrasher and a Mr. Johnson.

The area around Atlanta, later to become a part of the city, also began to be developed. A well-marked Indian trail, known as the Peachtree Trail, had long run from the area of present-day Suwanee, Georgia to the site of Standing Peachtree. To the south, in the present-day Campbelltown Road area, the Owl Rock Methodist Church was founded in 1828 by Richmond Barge and other members of the Mutual Rights faction. In 1838, Henry Irby started a tavern and grocery on a spur of the road, and the paths leading to his establishment became Paces Ferry Road and Roswell Road. Two years later the head of a buck was mounted on a pole in front of the tavern, and the region came to be called Buck's Head and then Buckhead.

By 1842, the settlement at the Terminus had six buildings and 30 residents. When a two-story depot building was built, the residents asked that the settlement be named "Lumpkin", after Wilson Lumpkin, the Governor of Georgia. He asked them to name it after his daughter, instead, and Terminus became Marthasville. Just three years later, the Chief Engineer of the Georgia Railroad, (J. Edgar Thomson) suggested that it be renamed to "Atlantica-Pacifica", which was quickly shortened to "Atlanta". The residents approved—apparently unabashed by the fact that not a single train had yet visited—and the town was eventually incorporated as "Atlanta" in 1847.

A slave auction house on Whitehall St.

The first Georgia Railroad freight and passenger trains arrived in 1845. In 1846, a third railroad,the Macon & Western, completed tracks to Terminus, connecting the little settlement with Macon and Savannah. The town then began to boom. In 1847, two hotels were built and two newspapers were published. The population exploded to 2,500 citizens. In 1848, the first mayor was elected, the first homicide occurred and the first jail was built. A new city council approved the building of wooden sidewalks, banned business on Sundays, and appointed a town marshal.

By 1854-55 another railroad had connected Atlanta to Chattanooga. The town had grown to 6,000 residents and had a bank, a daily newspaper, a factory to build freight cars, a new brick depot, property taxes, a gasworks, gas streetlights, a theater, a medical college, and juvenile delinquency.[9]

Civil War and Reconstruction

During the American Civil War, Atlanta served as an important railroad and military supply hub. (See also: Atlanta in the Civil War.) In 1864, the city became the target of a major Union invasion (the subject of the 1939 film Gone with the Wind). The area now covered by Atlanta was the scene of several battles, including the Battle of Peachtree Creek, the Battle of Atlanta, and the Battle of Ezra Church. On September 1, 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood evacuated Atlanta after a four-month siege mounted by Union General William T. Sherman and ordered all public buildings and possible Confederate assets destroyed. The next day, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered the city, and on September 7 Sherman ordered the civilian population to evacuate. He then ordered Atlanta burned to the ground on November 11 in preparation for his punitive march south.

After a plea by Father Thomas O'Reilly of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Sherman did not burn the city's churches or hospitals. The remaining war resources were then destroyed in the aftermath, and in Sherman's March to the Sea. The fall of Atlanta was a critical point in the Civil War, its much publicized fall giving confidence to the Northerners, and (along with the Battle of Mobile Bay) leading to the re-election of Abraham Lincoln and the eventual surrender of the Confederacy.

The city emerged from the ashes – hence the city's symbol, the phoenix – and was gradually rebuilt. It soon became the industrial and commercial center of the South. From 1867 until 1888, U.S. Army soldiers occupied McPherson Barracks (later renamed Fort McPherson) in southwest Atlanta to ensure Reconstruction era reforms. To help the newly freed slaves, the Federal Government set up a Freedmen's Bureau, which helped establish what is now Clark Atlanta University, one of several historically black colleges in Atlanta.

In 1868, Atlanta became the fifth city to serve as the state capital. Henry W. Grady, the editor of the Atlanta Constitution, promoted the city to investors as a city of the "New South", by which he meant a diversification of the economy away from agriculture, and a shift from the "Old South" attitudes of slavery and rebellion. As part of the effort to modernize the South, Grady and many others also supported the creation of the Georgia School of Technology (now the Georgia Institute of Technology), which was founded on the city's northern outskirts in 1885.

Post Civil War to Present

In 1880, Sister Cecilia Carroll, RSM, and three companions traveled from Savannah, Georgia to Atlanta to minister to the sick. With just 50 cents in their collective purse, the sisters opened the Atlanta Hospital, the first medical facility in the city after the Civil War. This later became known as Saint Joseph's Hospital.

Around 1900, Atlanta's wealthier inhabitants began to develop land north of the city. In 1904, Amos G. Rhodes (who had founded the Rhodes Furniture Company in 1875) built a mansion on Peachtree Street north of 10th Street called "Rhodes Hall". It has been preserved as the headquarters of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, which offers tours of the house to the public.

In 1907, Peachtree Street, the main street of Atlanta, was busy with streetcars and automobiles.

As Atlanta grew, ethnic and racial tensions mounted. The Atlanta Race Riot of 1906 left at least 27 dead[10] and over seventy injured. In 1913, Leo Frank, a Jewish supervisor at a factory in Atlanta was put on trial for raping and murdering a thirteen-year old white employee from Marietta, a suburb of Atlanta. After doubts about Frank's guilt led his death sentence to be commuted in 1915, riots broke out in Atlanta and Frank was kidnapped from prison, with the collusion of prison guards, and carried to Marietta where he was lynched.

In the 1930s, the Great Depression hit Atlanta. With the city government nearing bankruptcy, the Coca-Cola Company had to help bail out the city's deficit. The federal government stepped in to help Atlantans by establishing Techwood Homes, the nation's first federal housing project in 1935. With the entry of the United States into World War II, soldiers from around the Southeastern United States went through Atlanta to train and later be discharged at Fort McPherson. War-related manufacturing such as the Bell Aircraft factory in the suburb of Marietta helped boost the city's population and economy. Shortly after the war in 1946, the Communicable Disease Center, later called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was founded in Atlanta from the old Malaria Control in War Areas offices and staff.

In 1951, the city received the All-America City Award, due to its rapid growth and high standard of living in the southern U.S.

In the wake of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education, which helped usher in the Civil Rights Movement, racial tensions in Atlanta began to express themselves in acts of violence. For example, on October 12, 1958, a Reform Jewish temple on Peachtree Street was bombed. The "Confederate Underground" claimed responsibility. Many believed that Jews, especially those from the northeast, were advocates of the Civil Rights Movement.

Atlanta's Inman Park neighborhood was the city's first planned suburb. Today, it features several mansions and many colorful bungalows that are beautifully restored.

In the 1960s, Atlanta was a major organizing center of the US Civil Rights Movement, with Dr. Martin Luther King and students from Atlanta's historically black colleges and universities playing major roles in the movement's leadership. On October 19, 1960, a sit-in at the lunch counters of several Atlanta department stores led to the arrest of Dr. King and several students, drawing attention from the national media and from presidential candidate John F. Kennedy. Despite this incident, Atlanta's political and business leaders fostered Atlanta's image as "the city too busy to hate". In 1961, Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. became one of the few Southern white mayors to support desegregation of Atlanta's public schools. While the city mostly avoided confrontation, minor race riots did occur in 1965 and in 1968.

In 1990, the International Olympic Committee selected Atlanta as the site for the Centennial Olympic Games 1996 Summer Olympics. Following the announcement, Atlanta undertook several major construction projects to improve the city's parks, sports facilities, and transportation. Former Mayor Bill Campbell allowed many "tent cities" to be built, creating a carnival atmosphere around the games. Atlanta became the third American city to host the Summer Olympics, after St. Louis (1904 Summer Olympics) and Los Angeles (1932 and 1984). The games themselves were notable in the realm of sporting events, but they were marred by numerous organizational inefficiencies as well as the Centennial Olympic Park bombing, which resulted in the death of one person and injured several others. Much later, it was determined that the bombing was carried out by North Carolinian Eric Robert Rudolph as an anti-government and pro-life protest.

Geography

Topography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 343.0 km² (132.4 mi²). 341.2 km² (131.8 mi²) of it is land and 1.8 km² (0.7 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 0.51% water.

At about 1050 feet or 320 meters above mean sea level (the airport is 1010 ft), Atlanta sits atop a ridge south of the Chattahoochee River. Amongst the 25 largest MSAs, Atlanta is the third-highest in elevation, slightly lower than Phoenix, but significantly lower than Denver (1 mile or 1,600 m).

According to folklore, its central avenue, Peachtree Street, runs through the center of the city on the Eastern Continental Divide. In actuality, the divide line enters Atlanta from the south, proceeding to downtown. From downtown, the divide line runs eastward along DeKalb Avenue and the CSX rail lines through Decatur.[11] Rainwater that falls on the south and east side runs eventually into the Atlantic Ocean while rainwater on the north and west side of the divide runs into the Gulf of Mexico.[11]

The latter is via the Chattahoochee River, part of the ACF River Basin, and from which Atlanta and many of its neighbors draw most of their water. Being at the far northwestern edge of the city, much of the river's natural habitat is still preserved, in part by the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Downstream however, excessive water use during droughts and pollution during floods has been a source of contention and legal battles with neighboring states Alabama and Florida.[12][13]

Climate

Atlanta averages 2 inches of snowfall annually.

Atlanta has a humid subtropical climate, (Cfa) according to the Köppen classification, with hot, humid summers and mild winters by the standards of the United States.

The summers are hot and humid, with July highs averaging 89 °F (32 °C), and low averaging 71 °F (21 °C). Temperatures can exceed 100 °F (38 °C) during a major heat wave. The highest temperature recorded in the city is 105 °F (40.6 °C), reached on July 13 and July 17, 1980. January is the coldest month, with an average high of 52 °F (11 °C), and low of 33 °F (1 °C). Warm fronts can bring springlike temperatures in the 60s and 70s in winter, and Arctic air masses can drop temperatures into the low teens as well. An average year sees frost on 48 days; snowfall averages around two inches (5 centimeters) annually.[14] The heaviest single storm brought 10 inches on January 23, 1940.[15] The lowest temperature recorded in the city is -9 °F (-22 °C), reached on 13 February 1899. A close second was -8 °F on 21 January 1985. Frequent ice storms can cause more problems than snow; the most severe such storm may have occurred on January 7, 1973.[16]

Like the rest of the Southeastern U.S., Atlanta receives abundant rainfall, which is relatively evenly distributed throughout the year. Average annual rainfall is 50.2 inches (1275 mm).[17]

Cityscape

Atlanta's skyline is punctuated with highrise and midrise buildings of modern and postmodern vintage. Its tallest landmark – the Bank of America Plaza – is the 26th-tallest building in the world at 1,023 feet, and was one of the ten tallest buildings on Earth when built. It is also the tallest building in the United States outside of Chicago and New York City.[18]

The city's highrises are clustered in three districts in the city—Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead.[19] (there are two more major suburban clusters, Perimeter Center to the Northeast and Cumberland/Vinings to the Northwest). The central business district, clustered around the Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel – the tallest building in Atlanta at the time of its completion in 1976 – also includes the newer 191 Peachtree Tower, SunTrust Plaza, Georgia-Pacific Tower, and the buildings of Peachtree Center. Midtown Atlanta, farther north, developed rapidly after the completion of One Atlantic Center in 1987 established the neighborhood as a center of commercial development.[original research?]

The influx of business to Midtown has continued – the district's newest tower, 1180 Peachtree, opened in 2006 at a height of 645 feet, and won a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Award that year from the U.S. Green Building Council. Atlanta has been in the midst of a construction and retail boom, with over 60 new highrise or midrise buildings either proposed or under construction as of April 19, 2006.[20] October 2005 marked the opening of Atlantic Station, a former brownfield steel plant site redeveloped into a mixed-use urban district. In early 2006, Mayor Franklin set in motion a plan to make the 14-block stretch of Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta (nicknamed "Midtown Mile") a street-level shopping destination envisioned to rival Beverly Hills' Rodeo Drive or Chicago's Magnificent Mile.[21][22]

In spite of civic efforts such as the opening of Centennial Olympic Park in downtown in 1996, Atlanta ranks near last in area of park land per capita among cities of similar population density, with 8.9 acres per thousand residents (36 m²/resident) in 2005.[23] The city has a reputation, however, as a "city of trees" or a "city in a forest";[24][25] beyond the central Atlanta and Buckhead business districts, the skyline gives way to a sometimes dense canopy of woods that spreads into the suburbs. Founded in 1985, Trees Atlanta has planted and distributed over 68,000 shade trees.[26]

The city's northern section, Buckhead, is consistently ranked by the Robb Report as one of the most affluent communities in the United States. Since the opening of the intown segment of the Georgia 400 tollway linked the district to the city superhighway system in the early 1990s, Buckhead has developed a dense commercial district, clustered around the high-end retail centers at Lenox Square and Phipps Plaza and including a growing number of office buildings and residential highrises, some in the 40+ story range. The Mansion on Peachtree, a 42 Story Luxury Hotel and Condominiums will open in Early 2008 and The Sovereign, planned to reach 660 feet, is due for completion in late 2007.[27]

The edge cities clustered around Perimeter Mall and Cumberland Mall have distinct skylines of their own. The Concourse at Landmark Center, located near Perimeter Mall in Sandy Springs, includes a pair of buildings called the King and Queen that each measure 570 feet in total height.

The sprawling layout of the Atlanta region has resulted in serious traffic and air quality problems. The metro area has one of America's longest average daily commutes, and is one of the most car-dependent cities on the planet due both to suburban sprawl and underfunded mass transit systems.[original research?] It also has a reputation as being one of the most dangerous for pedestrians,[28] as far back as 1949 when Gone with the Wind author Margaret Mitchell was struck by a speeding car and killed while crossing Peachtree Street.

Culture

Tourism

Atlanta recently introduced a new logo and slogan for tourism. Atlanta: every day is an opening day

The Sweet Auburn district is preserved as the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site.

The Varsity has been an Atlanta landmark for over 75 years.

The Georgia Aquarium.

Atlanta's Piedmont Park is the city's largest park. A portion of the park is seen here with the Midtown Atlanta Skyline.

The Fox Theatre.

Atlanta hosts a variety of museums on subjects ranging from history to fine arts, natural history, and beverages. Prominent among them are sites honoring Atlanta's participation in the civil rights movement. Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in the city, and his boyhood home on Auburn Avenue in the Sweet Auburn district is preserved as the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site. Meetings with other civil rights leaders, including Hosea Williams and Congressman John Lewis, often happened at Paschal's, a diner and motor inn which was a favorite for "colored" people, banned from "white" restaurants in an era of racial segregation and intolerance. King's final resting place is in the tomb at the center of the reflecting pool at the King Center.

Other history museums and attractions include the Atlanta History Center; the Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum (a huge painting and diorama in-the-round, with a rotating central audience platform, that depicts the Battle of Atlanta in the Civil War); the Carter Center and Presidential Library; historic house museum Rhodes Hall; and the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum.

The arts are represented by several theaters and museums, including the Fox Theatre. The Woodruff Arts Center is home to the Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Symphony, and High Museum of Art. The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center is the city's home for challenging contemporary art and education geared toward working artists and collectors of art. Museums geared specifically towards children include the Fernbank Science Center and Imagine It! Atlanta's Children's Museum. The High Museum of Art is the city's major fine/visual arts venue, with a significant permanent collection and an assortment of traveling exhibitions. The Atlanta Opera, which was founded in 1979 by members of two struggling local companies, is now one of the fastest growing opera companies in the nation and garners attention from audiences around the world.[29]

Atlanta features the world's largest aquarium, the Georgia Aquarium, which officially opened to the public on November 23, 2005. The aquarium features over 100,000 specimens, including five whale sharks, in tanks holding approximately eight million gallons of water.[30] Adjacent is the World of Coca-Cola which opened in May 2007, featuring the history of the world famous soft drink brand and its well-known advertising. Underground Atlanta, a historic shopping and entertainment complex is situated under the streets of downtown Atlanta. In addition Atlantic Station, a huge new urban renewal project on the northwestern edge of Midtown Atlanta, officially opened in October 2005. While not a museum per se, The Varsity is the main branch of the long-lived fast food chain, featured as the world's largest drive-in restaurant.[31]

Piedmont Park hosts many of Atlanta's festivals and cultural events.[32] In 1887, a group of prominent Atlantans purchased 189 acres (0.76 km²) of farmland to build a horse racing track, later developed into the site of the Cotton States International Exposition of 1895, made famous by W.E.B Dubois' "Fingers of the Hand" speech.[32] In 1904, the city council purchased the land for US$98,000,[33] and today it is the largest park in metro Atlanta,[34] with more than 2.5 million visitors each year.[35]The grounds were part of the Battle of Peachtree Creek – a Confederate division occupied the northern edge on July 20, 1864 as part of the outer defense line against Sherman's approach. Next to the park is the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Zoo Atlanta, with a panda exhibit, is in Grant Park.

Just east of the city, Stone Mountain is the largest piece of exposed granite in the world.[36] On its face are giant carvings of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson. It is also the site of laser shows in the summer. A few miles west of Atlanta on I-20 is the Six Flags Over Georgia Theme Park, which opened near the city in 1967, and was the second theme park in the Six Flags chain.

Popular annual cultural events include:

• Atlanta Dogwood Festival (a Spring arts and crafts festival at Piedmont Park)
• Screen on the Green (Outdoor classic movies in June in Piedmont Park)
• Atlanta Pride (Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered Pride event)
• Atlanta Jazz Festival (largest free jazz festival in the USA)
• Sweet Auburn SpringFest
• Inman Park Festival
• Virginia-Highlands Summerfest
• Georgia Renaissance Festival
• Greek Festival
• JapanFest
• Dragon Con (A science fiction and fantasy convention that is the largest of its type)
• Anime Weekend Atlanta
• Momocon (Two-day free admission anime/gaming/comics convention at Georgia Tech)

Entertainment and performing arts

Atlanta has a thriving music industry and is home to many famous hip-hop and R&B musicians. Jermaine Dupri's 2001 hip hop single "Welcome to Atlanta" (feat. Ludacris) declares Atlanta the "new Motown", referencing the city of Detroit, Michigan, which was known for its contributions to popular music, fertile job market and affordable urban housing in the 1950s to 1980s. The Dirty South style of hip-hop emerged in part from Atlanta artists such as Outkast and Goodie Mob. More recently, rapper/producer Lil Jon has been a driving force behind the party-oriented style known as crunk.

Record Producers L.A. Reid and Babyface founded LaFace Records in Atlanta in the late-1980s; the label has eventually become the home to multi-platinum selling artists such as Toni Braxton, TLC, OutKast, Goodie Mob, Monica, Usher and Ciara, many of whom are Atlantans themselves. It is also the home of So So Def Records, a label founded by Jermaine Dupri in the mid-1990s, that signed acts such as Da Brat, Jagged Edge, Xscape and Dem Franchise Boyz. The success of LaFace and SoSo Def led to Atlanta as an established scene for record labels such as LaFace parent company Arista Records to set up satellite offices. Atlanta is also home to multi-platinum rappers Ludacris and T.I., among others. Artists such as Keyshia Cole, Bow Wow, B5, Phife Dawg, T-Pain, and Brian Littrell of the Backstreet Boys have moved to the city and made it their home. Atlanta is also a well known place for producers and artists trying to get into the music business.

Atlanta has also produced rock and pop music singers, such as The Black Crowes, alternative metal band Sevendust, sludge metal band Mastodon, ska/punk band Treephort, rock bands Swimming Pool Q's, Uncle Green (a.k.a 3 Lb. Thrill), Light Pupil Dilate, Big Fish Ensemble, Collective Soul and Third Day, the folk-pop Indigo Girls, Butch Walker, and was a proving ground for Connecticut-born pop-rock-blues musician John Mayer. Mayer, as well as India.Arie and Shawn Mullins, all performed pre-fame at Eddie's Attic, an independent club in the intown suburb of Decatur. The "Open Mic Shootout" at Eddie's Attic consistently draws singer-songwriter talent from across the nation, and is held every Monday night.

The High Museum of Art, a division of the Woodruff Arts Center in Midtown Atlanta.

Atlanta's classical music scene includes well-renowned ensembles such as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Opera, Atlanta Ballet, period-instrument ensemble New Trinity Baroque, Atlanta Boy Choir, and many others. Classical musicians include renowned conductors such as the late Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony's Robert Spano.

The city has a well-known and active live music scene, though recently rapid gentrification and early venue closing times have hurt small clubs and other music venues. In the early 1980s, Atlanta was the home of a thriving new wave music scene featuring such bands as The Brains and The Producers, closely linked to the new wave scenes in Athens, Georgia and other college towns in the southeast.

Historically there have been a variety of live music traditions going back to Cabbagetown country music pioneer Fiddlin' John Carson, also including a thriving scene in the 90's, also in Cabbagetown, centered around a bar called Dotties, now known as Lenny's and relocated a few blocks away. Video Concert Hall, precursor to MTV, was founded in Atlanta.

Sports

Turner Field

Atlanta has a rich sports history, including the oldest on-campus Division I football stadium, Bobby Dodd Stadium, built in 1913 by the students of Georgia Tech. Atlanta also played host to the second intercollegiate football game in the South, played between the A&M College of Alabama and the University of Georgia in Piedmont Park in 1892; this game is now called the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry. The city hosts college football's annual Chick-fil-A Bowl (Formerly known as The Peach Bowl) and the Peachtree Road Race, the world’s largest 10 km race. Atlanta was the host city for the Centennial 1996 Summer Olympics. Centennial Olympic Park, built for 1996 Summer Olympics, sits adjacent to CNN Center and Philips Arena. It is now operated by the Georgia World Congress Center Authority.

The city is also host to four different major league sports. The Atlanta Braves baseball team has been the Major League Baseball franchise of Atlanta since 1966; the franchise was previously known as the Boston Braves (1912-1952), and the Milwaukee Braves (1953-1965). The team was founded in 1871 in Boston, Massachusetts as a National Association club, making it the oldest continuously operating sports franchise in North American sports. The Braves won the World Series in 1995 and had a recently ended unprecedented run of 14 straight divisional championships from 1991 to 2005. Before the Braves moved to Atlanta, the Atlanta Crackers were Atlanta's professional baseball team from 1901 until their last season in 1965. They won 17 league championships in the minor leagues. The Atlanta Black Crackers were Atlanta's Negro League team from around 1921 until 1949.

Grady Memorial Hospital is one of Atlanta's major Hospitals.

The Atlanta Falcons American football team plays at the Georgia Dome. They have been Atlanta's National Football League franchise since 1966. They have won the division title three times, and a conference championship once, going on to lose to the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII. Super Bowl XXVIII and XXXIV were held in the city. In the Arena Football League, The Georgia Force has been Atlanta's team since the franchise relocated from Nashville in 2002. The 2005 National Conference champions play in Philips Arena.

The Atlanta Hawks basketball team has been the National Basketball Association franchise of Atlanta since 1969; the team was previously known as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks (1946-1951), Milwaukee Hawks (1951-55), St. Louis Hawks (1955-68). The team's sole NBA championship was in 1958, when they were the St. Louis Hawks.

From 1992 to 1996 Atlanta was home to the short-lived Atlanta Knights, an International Hockey League team. Their inaugural season was excellent for a new team, and was only bested by their sophomore season in which they won the championship Turner Cup. In 1996 they moved to Quebec City and became the Quebec Rafales. In 1999 the Atlanta Thrashers hockey team became Atlanta's National Hockey League franchise. They replaced the Atlanta Flames which had departed for Calgary, Alberta in 1980, becoming the Calgary Flames. The Thrashers made it to their first playoffs in 2007. Both the Thrashers and the Hawks play in Philips Arena.

In golf, the final event of the PGA Tour season, THE TOUR Championship, is played annually at East Lake Golf Club. This golf course is used because of its connection to the great amateur golfer Bobby Jones, an Atlanta native.

From 2001 to 2003 Atlanta hosted the Atlanta Beat soccer team of the defunct Women's United Soccer Association. They appeared in two of the three Founders Cup championships held, losing to the Bay Area CyberRays in 2001, and the Washington Freedom team in 2003. Atlanta is the home of the Atlanta Silverbacks of the United Soccer Leagues First Division (Men) and W-League (Women). In 1968 the Atlanta Chiefs professional soccer team won the NASL championship, playing their home games at the now demolished Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.

The Atlanta Kookaburras are a successful Australian rules football club that compete in men's and women's divisions in the MAAFL and SEAFL and USAFL National Championships.

Other nearby sports facilities include Atlanta Motor Speedway, a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) NASCAR race track in Hampton, Georgia. Road Atlanta is another famous local race track, located in Braselton, Georgia. In 2005 Atlanta competed with other major U.S. cities for the NASCAR Hall of Fame. In March 2006, Atlanta lost to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Atlanta also was the home to the now-defunct World Championship Wrestling organization and events.

Atlanta hosted the NCAA Final Four Men's Basketball Championship in April 2007.

Media

Atlanta's only major daily paper is The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Weekly papers include Creative Loafing, The Sunday Paper and Atlanta Nation. A monthly newsprint publication Stomp And Stammer features local music news, indie rock record reviews, and cultural commentary. A handful of other publications exist.

International medical, law, and business publisher NewsRx is headquartered in the Atlanta suburb of Vinings.

The Atlanta Arts community is connected through the ARTNEWS (list serve).

The Atlanta metro area is served by a wide variety of local television stations, and is the ninth largest designated market area (DMA) in the U.S. with 2,059,450 homes (1.88% of the total U.S.). All of the major networks have stations in the market, along with two PBS stations and some independent ones.

Several cable television networks also operate from Atlanta, including TBS, CNN, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and TNT. These stations are owned by Turner Broadcasting System (now a subsidiary of Time Warner). The Weather Channel (owned by Landmark Communications) also broadcasts from the Atlanta area. According to Billboard, the first nationwide music video programming on cable television, Video Concert Hall was created in Atlanta.

There are also numerous local radio stations serving every genre of music, sports, and talk. The nationally syndicated Neal Boortz and Clark Howard shows are broadcast from Atlanta radio station AM 750 WSB.

Cox Enterprises, which owns the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WSB-TV, and WSB-AM-FM, is headquartered in Atlanta.

Cumulus Media, Inc. engages in the acquisition, operation, and development of commercial radio stations in mid-size radio markets in the United States and is also headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. As of December 31, 2005, it owned and operated 307 radio stations in 61 mid-sized U.S. media markets; and a multimarket network of 5 radio stations in the English-speaking Caribbean; as well as provided sales and marketing services for 2 radio stations under local marketing agreement.

Nintendo's American Division has its distribution center based in Atlanta, the primary location from where imported games and products arrive to United States and are often inspected and shipped to stores nationwide.

Religion

A Methodist church in Atlanta.

There are over 1,000 places of worship within the city of Atlanta.[37] A large majority of Atlantans profess to following a Protestant Christian faith, the city being a major Southern Baptist center. A number of African-American megachurches are located in the Atlanta area, including New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, and World Changers Ministries, led by Creflo Dollar, and Greenforest Baptist Church. In addition to nearly 50 nonsectarian private schools listed in Fulton and DeKalb counties, there are over 80 religiously-affiliated private schools.

Atlanta is also home to a large, vibrant Jewish community estimated by the Jewish Federation of Atlanta's Jewish Community Study to include 120,000 individuals in 61,300 households (study by the Ukeles Associates, 2006).[38] This study places Atlanta's Jewish population as the 11th largest in the United States, up from 17th largest in 1996.[39] The Temple, a reform synagogue, located on Peachtree Street, and its then-rabbi, Alvin Sugarman, were featured in the film Driving Miss Daisy.

With over 100,000 Hindus, primarily residing in suburban metro Atlanta, Atlanta has the fourth largest Hindu population of all major cities in the United States. Atlanta Hindus practice their faith at one of the area's many mandirs (temples). At 99, Georgia has one of the highest concentrations of temples in the United States. The primarily large Hindu sect known as BAPS is scheduled to inaugurate the largest Hindu temple in the world in August 2007, in Lilburn, Georgia, a suburb of northeastern Atlanta.

Atlanta is also home to thousands of Muslims. The metro area has over 30 mosques, the largest being Masjid Al-Farooq downtown.

As the see of the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta, Atlanta serves as the Provincial See for the Province of Atlanta. It is the second fastest-growing diocese in the United States.

Atlanta is also the see of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, one of the largest in the country, both in number of member parishes and in individual worshipers. The Diocese is headquartered at Saint Philip's Cathedral and is lead by the Right Reverend J. Neil Alexander whose powerful and influential voice within the Church made him a candidate for Primacy at the 2006 General Convention.

The city is also the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Atlanta, with Annunciation Cathedral and Metropolitan Alexios presiding. In total, there are eleven Orthodox parishes in Atlanta, including Greek, Orthodox Church in America, Antiochian, Serbian, Ukrainian and Romanian.

The Southeast Conference, United Church of Christ, is also headquartered in Atlanta and serves the states of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and central and eastern Tennessee. There are eight United Church of Christ congregations in the Atlanta metro area.

The headquarters for The Salvation Army's United States Southern Territory is also located in Atlanta. The Salvation Army's Board of Trustees oversees all of The Salvation Army's churches and social service centers located in 13 southern states and Washington, DC. The Salvation Army is not only a church, but also a 501 (c)3 Non-profit Charitable organization who assists nationally nearly 1 in 10 Americans via the broadest social programs offered to any community, nationwide without discrimination. There are eight churches, numerous social service centers, and Youth Clubs located throughout the CSA of Atlanta, Georgia.

Economy

The World of Coca-Cola museum reopened at a new location near the Georgia Aquarium on May 26, 2007.

One of seven American cities classified as Gamma world cities, Atlanta ranks third in the number of Fortune 500 companies headquartered within city boundaries, behind New York City and Houston.[40] Several major national and international companies are headquartered in Atlanta or its nearby suburbs, including four Fortune 100 companies: The Coca-Cola Company, Home Depot, and United Parcel Service in adjacent Sandy Springs. The headquarters of AT&T Mobility (formerly Cingular Wireless), the largest mobile phone service provider in the United States,[41] can be found a short distance inside the Perimeter beside Georgia State Route 400.[42] Newell Rubbermaid is one of the most recent companies to relocate to the metro area; in October 2006, it announced plans to move its headquarters to Sandy Springs.[43] Other headquarters for some major companies in Atlanta and around the metro area include Arby's, Chick-Fil-A, Earthlink, Equifax, Georgia-Pacific, Oxford Industries, Southern Company, SunTrust Banks, and Waffle House. Over 75% of the Fortune 1000 companies have a presence in the Atlanta area, and the region hosts offices of about 1,250 multinational corporations.

Delta Air Lines is the city's largest employer and the metro area's third largest.[44] Delta operates the world's largest airline hub at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and, together with the hub of competing carrier AirTran Airways, has helped make Hartsfield-Jackson the world's busiest airport, both in terms of passenger traffic and aircraft operations. The airport, since its construction in the 1950s, has served as a key engine of Atlanta's economic growth.[45]

Federal Reserve Bank in Midtown Atlanta.

Much of the wealth created by local companies' growth has found itself reinvested in the region through philanthropy. Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus contributed more than $200 million dollars to build the new Georgia Aquarium near Centennial Olympic Park.[46] Fellow Home Depot co-founder Arthur Blank purchased the Atlanta Falcons in 2002,[47] and has pledged $35 million for construction of the new Santiago Calatrava-designed Atlanta Symphony Center in Midtown.[48] The late Coca-Cola executive Robert W. Woodruff established an Atlanta-based charitable foundation worth nearly $2 billion,[49] and made a grant to Emory University in 1979 that at the time was the largest single contribution to a university endowment in American history. Roberto Goizueta also made substantial contributions to Emory University before his death;[50] the business school there now bears his name.

Atlanta has a sizable financial sector. SunTrust Banks, the seventh largest bank by asset holdings in the United States,[51] has its home office on Peachtree Street in downtown.[52] The Federal Reserve System has a district headquarters in Atlanta; the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, which oversees much of the deep South, relocated from downtown to midtown in 2001.[53] Wachovia announced plans in August 2006 to place its new credit-card division in Atlanta,[54] and city, state and civic leaders harbor long-term hopes of having the city serve as the home of the secretariat of a future Free Trade Area of the Americas.[55]

The Downtown Connector

The auto manufacturing sector in metropolitan Atlanta has suffered setbacks recently, including the planned closure of the General Motors Doraville Assembly plant in 2008, and the shutdown of Ford Motor Company's Atlanta Assembly plant in Hapeville in 2006. Together the closures mean the loss of 6,000 to 8,000 jobs in the Atlanta region. Kia, however, has broken ground on a new assembly plant near West Point, Georgia.[56]

The city is a major cable television programming center. Ted Turner began the Turner Broadcasting System media empire in Atlanta, where he bought a UHF station that eventually became WTBS. Turner established the headquarters of the Cable News Network at CNN Center, adjacent today to Centennial Olympic Park. As his company grew, its other channels – the Cartoon Network, Boomerang, TNT, Turner South, CNN International, CNN en Español, CNN Headline News, and CNN Airport Network – centered their operations in Atlanta as well (Turner South has since been sold). The Weather Channel, o