Atlanta Unleashed: Unveiling the City’s Best-Kept Secrets
Atlanta, Georgia, has a population of 520,000 and is located in north-central Georgia. Since 1868, the city has served as the state capital. It is the state’s largest and most populous city, and it is home to all major industries and multinational corporations. It is the administrative center of Fulton County.
But a small part of the urban area is in DeKalb County, which is a densely populated part of the ninth metropolitan area in the United States. This area is home to about 5,300,000 people.
Atlanta was founded in 1837 as the last stop on the Western and Atlantic Railroad. During the bloody American Civil War, it quickly grew into a major economic center and a key strategic point for the Confederate army.
It was conquered by General Sherman’s Yankee troops in 1864 and destroyed in the fire made famous by the scenes in the film Gone With the Wind.
Atlanta has become a symbol of a South that is always changing and trying to make a bigger place for itself in the country’s social, political, and economic spheres. It is a city that rose from the ashes thanks to the tenacity and courage of its people.
The city’s selection to host the 1996 Olympics provided a strong impetus for change. A significant amount of redevelopment and infrastructure modernization work was completed in preparation for the Olympics, which was critical for the city’s long-term competitiveness.
If you go to Rossella O’Hara’s hometown in Gone with the Wind hoping to find traces of her past, you will undoubtedly be disappointed. There are skyscrapers and futuristic buildings in place of Tara, such as the glass and steel cylinder of the Westin Peachtree Plaza, at 210 Peachtree Street, the work of architect John Portman and, until recently, the highest hotel in the world, with its 70 floors.
Modern Peachtree Center, which is bounded by Baker, Ellis, Williams, and Courtland Streets, is where most of New York’s department stores are located. Traveling south on Peachtree Street or taking the South Line subway will bring you to Five Point, where the five major city arteries converge for just one stop.
The Underground Atlanta is a unique “underground” shopping center near the metro station between Central Avenue and Upper Alabama Street. It has hundreds of shops and clubs that look out over cobblestone streets lit by gas lamps. The Coca-Cola Pavilion is located next to the Underground at 55 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. The famous drink was made for the first time in 1880 by a pharmacist named John Styth Pemberton. To celebrate, there will be movies, memorabilia, and free samples of the drink.
The CNN headquarters at Ted Turner, Atlanta’s other well-known structure, is on Marietta Street near Teachwood Drive. The CNN Studio Tour shows you how the famous network works and lets you tour the building, which has restaurants and shops like the Ted Turner Store, where you can buy Gone with the Wind merchandise.
Margaret Mitchell, author of the book that has more readers than the Bible, is buried in Oakland Cemetery, alongside golf champion Bobby Jones and Confederate and Union soldiers.
The writer’s grave, where squirrels frequently jump, is difficult to find because it bears the name of her second husband, John Marsh. Mitchell fans will be able to find nearly all of her works at the Atlanta Public Library, located at 126 Carnegie Way, right in the heart of downtown.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Historic District, located on Auburn Avenue between Jackson and Randolph Streets, is another historic site. This neighborhood, affectionately known as “Sweet Auburn” by the locals, was the ghetto where people of color lived prior to integration. Martin Luther King was born at 501 Auburn Avenue, which is now open to the public every day.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who was assassinated in Memphis in 1968, preached nonviolence at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on 407 Auburn Avenue. The Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change is located behind the church, where King is buried and a documentary about his life is shown.
The northern side of Atlanta is where Peachtree Street becomes Peachtree Road. The children and grandchildren of Atlanta’s great noble families live in remodeled pre-war homes or villas built in the same style as their ancestors’ homes in the Buckhead district, the city’s most desirable neighborhood.
Visit the Atlanta History Society complex to see this fascinating part of Atlanta. The Tullie Smith House and the candid Swan House are both in a large park. The Tullie Smith House is a fully remodeled house, while the candid Swan House is a well-furnished neoclassical mansion. The Atlanta History Society also has a museum with Civil War artifacts. To see more magnificent homes, walk west to Paces Ferry, where the Governor’s Mansion, also in neoclassical style, stands.
The North Line of the subway leads to other interesting places: the Fox Theater, located at 660 Peachtree Street NE, adjacent to the North Avenue station, was a cinema sanctuary in the 1920s, with 4,518 seats. Reservations are required to visit the environment, which is particularly kitschy. To the north, near the Arts Center station, is the Woodruff Arts Center, which houses a true architectural jewel: the High Museum of Art, designed by Richard Meier, one of the modern movement’s greatest exponents.
Collections of American and African art, as well as works by Carracci, Veronese, and Picasso, can be found among the white marble, glass, and fountains. The bus will take you from the Arts Center station to Piedmont Park, which is home to the Atlanta Botanic Garden, which is filled with tropical flowers and plants. Grant Park, on the other hand, is home to a zoo and the grandiose Cyclorama, the city’s most important historical attraction.
It is a massive three-dimensional painting that depicts the bloody battle of Atlanta and was created between 1885 and 1886 by a group of German and Polish painters. The show is visible from a moving platform, and it is accompanied by trumpet blasts and gunshots.
The climate is subtropical and humid. The summers are hot and the winters are usually mild, but there are often short periods of very cold weather. The average high temperature in July is 32 degrees Fahrenheit, and the average low temperature is 21 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures often reach 37 or 38 degrees during the hottest part of the day, which, combined with the high humidity, makes it feel hot.
However, the days are pleasant in January, with highs just above 10 degrees and lows that rarely fall below 0.
There are some exceptions, so it is possible for the city to get a few short snowfalls here and there. Rainfall is plentiful, averaging 1300 mm per year. Blizzards are a rare but not unheard-of occurrence, especially between January and February.
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the city’s huge airport. It is only 10 miles south of downtown. The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) is a subway system with 77 kilometers of track and 38 stations. More than 100,000 people use it every day.
Amtrak manages rail transportation, which stops at a station near downtown. To travel outside the city, choose between the three interstate highways that skirt the center: I-20, I-75, and I-85.