Welcome to Atlanta!

At about 1000 feet above sea level, Atlanta sits atop a ridge south of the
Chattahoochee River near the Appalachian foothills. The capital of Georgia, Atlanta
is located in the northwest part of the state. It was founded in 1837 at the end of
the railroad line as Terminus and renamed Atlanta in 1845. It is Georgia's largest
city and one of the leading cities of the South. Atlanta has a humid subtropical
climate with generally hot, humid summers and mild winters.
In 2000, the population of Atlanta was 416, 474. There are over 500,000 jobs
in Atlanta. Several major national and international companies are headquartered
in Atlanta or its nearby suburbs, including The Coca-Cola Company, Home Depot,
BellSouth, and United Parcel Service. Cingular Wireless, CNN, Chick-fil-A, Delta Air
Lines, Earthlink, Nintendo of America (distribution center), Southern Company,
SunTrust Bank, and Waffle House are also headquartered in Atlanta.
The city is a major cable television programming source; CNN Center, headquarters
of the Cable News Network, is in Atlanta where the network was founded by Ted
Turner, and The Weather Channel broadcasts from just outside of town. Other
networks from Atlanta include Cartoon Network and companion channel
Boomerang, TNT, Turner South, CNN Headline News, and TBS.
Atlanta is served by Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International
Airport, the world's busiest airport. Atlanta has more than 30
institutions of higher education, among which Emory
University, the Georgia Institute of Technology (popularly
known as Georgia Tech), Georgia State University, Mercer
University, and Oglethorpe University are prominent. Atlanta University Center, a
consortium of historically black colleges and universities, is also located in the city.
Atlanta boasts 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.
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, High Museum of Art, and Atlanta College of Art. Museums geared
specifically towards children include the Fernbank Science Center and Imagine It!
Atlanta's Children's Museum. The Atlanta Opera is arguably the most important
opera company in the southeastern United States and enjoys a growing audience
and international reputation.
Atlanta features the world's largest aquarium, the Georgia Aquarium. The aquarium
features over 100,000 specimens in tanks holding
approximately eight million gallons of water. One
unique museum is the World of Coca-Cola featuring the
history of the world famous soft drink brand. Adjacent
is Underground Atlanta, a historic shopping and entertainment complex situated
under the streets of downtown Atlanta. 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.
Piedmont Park is the largest park in metro Atlanta, with more than 2.5 million
visitors each year. 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. On its face are giant carvings of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall
Jackson. It is also the site of impressive 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 the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, a Spring arts
and crafts festival at Piedmont Park, Atlanta Jazz Festival, the largest free jazz
festival in the USA, Sweet Auburn SpringFest, and the Georgia Renaissance Festival.
Sports are popular in Atlanta. Whether you like baseball,
football, basketball, hockey, or soccer, you can join residents
as they cheer on the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Falcons, Atlanta
Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers, and the Atlanta Silverbacks.