Atlanta

Atlanta is the capital and largest and most populous city of the state of Georgia and the thirty-third largest city in the United States in 2008. It has an estimated population of 537,958. Its metropolitan area, officially known as Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA MSA (commonly known as Metro Atlanta), is the ninth most populous metropolitan area in the country, with approximately 5.5 million residents. Like most of the Sun Belt, the Atlanta region experienced significant growth in the 2000s, adding more than a million residents between 2000 and 2008. This was the largest growth of any US area behind Dallas. -Fort Worth metroplex. With a gross income of $270 billion, Atlanta's economy is ranked 15th among cities in the world and 6th in the United States.

Considered a city of business and transportation hub, Atlanta is the world headquarters for The Coca-Cola Company, AT&T Mobility, Delta Air Lines, and CNN. In addition, the city has the third largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies and more than 75% of Fortune 1000 companies are based in this metropolitan area. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, located seven miles south of downtown from Atlanta, it is the busiest airport in the world and the only one that covers the services of the city.

Atlanta is also the county seat of Fulton County and the fifth seat of government for the state of Georgia. A small portion of Atlanta's city limits border DeKalb County.

This city has hosted very important events, including hosting the 1996 Olympic Games and also hosting the international beauty pageant known as Miss Universe in December 2019.

History

The place Atlanta occupies today was Cherokee and Creek territory, until the deportation of these tribes. The territory where Atlanta stands was ceded to the state of Georgia by the Native Americans of the Creek tribe in 1821. Atlanta was founded in 1836 and received city status in 1847.

During the Civil War, it reached a population of 15,000 and became an important railway junction. Atlanta was a prominent supply center for the Confederate troops, which is why it became the objective of General William Tecumseh Sherman's campaign from Chattanooga. Several major battles took place in its vicinity, before it was taken on September 1, 1864. Then, Confederate General John Bell Hood evacuated the city after a four-month siege by federal troops—a historic event immortalized in the novel Gone with the Wind (1936)—. On September 7, 1864, Mayor James Calhoun surrendered the city to invaders. On November 15, Sherman burned almost the entire city before marching out to sea.

Atlanta recovered quickly after the Civil War and was chosen as the state capital in 1868, a decision made final after a popular vote in 1877. In 1900 it became the largest city in the state.

The importance of Atlanta in the history of the black population and the civil rights movement is very significant. Within the framework of the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta (1895), Booker T. Washington delivered his speech known as the 'Atlanta Compromise', in which he advocated political and social equality for the black population in exchange for economic security. In the 1960s, Atlanta was the center from which the civil rights movement for people of color was launched. In 1957, Martin Luther King and other civil rights activists founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to strengthen and spread the movement for racial conformity. Between 1962 and 1969, racial integration in Atlanta schools was carried out peacefully. In 1973 Atlanta became the first major city in the southern United States to have a black mayor.

Although the population of the borough of Atlanta has declined since the 1970s, that of its metropolitan area has grown exponentially between 1980 and 1990.

Atlanta was selected as the Olympic venue on September 18, 1990 in the Japanese city of Tokyo. There were various opinions favorable to the choice of Athens, because the event would be held just 100 years after the first Olympic Games in the Modern Era. However, the International Olympic Committee opted for the American city in the last votes, believing several of the voters that the infrastructures would not be completed on time in case of choosing the Greek city; Even so, the decision was not without controversy days after the vote — Athens hosted the Olympic Games again for the second time in 2004.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 343 km², of which 341.2 km² is land and 1.8 km² is water. The total water area is 0.51%. Perched 1,020 feet above sea level and the airport 1,000 feet, Atlanta sits atop the southern ridge of the Chattahoochee River.

The Continental Divide from the east enters Atlanta from the south, passing through the center of the city. From downtown, the Divide runs east along DeKalb Avenue and the CSX Railroad through Decatur. Rainfall in the southern and eastern areas flows into the Atlantic Ocean, while rainfall from the north and west they flow to the Gulf of Mexico via the Chattahoochee River. The river is part of the ACF River Basin, which receives most of Atlanta's and its neighborhoods' water. Much of the river's natural habitat is still preserved in the far northwest corner of the city, in part by the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. However, the excessive use of water during droughts and contamination during floods has been a source of disputes and legal battles with the neighboring states of Alabama and Florida.

Climate

Atlanta during a storm.

Atlanta has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa) according to the Köppen classification, with more or less defined seasons, although winter is shorter, with hot and humid summers and mild winters (some outbreak times are cold), but susceptible to blizzards even in small amounts on several occasions unlike the rest of the Southeast US. July mean highs are 90°F (32°C) and lows 22 °C. Despite being at the same latitude as Baghdad, in temperatures the climate can be compared to that of Florence, Italy, even though it is close to the considerably drier Mediterranean. 38°C. The highest temperature recorded in the city was 41 °C, in July 1980. January is the coldest month, with temperatures between 11 °C and 1 °C. For its part, the lowest temperature recorded in Atlanta it was -9 °C in February 1899. The city registered a temperature very close to the all-time low in January 1985, when the thermometers plummeted to -8 °C. Atlanta has a more temperate climate than other cities in the south of the same latitude due to its relative altitude, 320 meters above sea level.

As in the rest of the southeastern United States, Atlanta receives abundant levels of precipitation, which is relatively distributed throughout the year. The average rainfall is 1,275 mm. There are usually 36 days of frost in Atlanta each year, while the average snowfall is 5 cm. The largest storm dropped 10 in (25 cm) of precipitation on January 23, 1940. Snowstorms are very rare, but they can happen, and the last one hit the city in March 1993. Ice storms usually cause more problems than ice storms. snow and the last one took place on January 7, 1973.

Average Atlanta, United States climate parameters
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Temp. max. abs. (°C)	21.7	23.8	26.9	32.4	35.5	36.6	37.2	36.9	33.0	28.2	23.0	21.2	37.2
Average temperature (°C)	12.9	13.9	14.3	17.4	22.3	26.2	29.2	28.5	24.4	17.8	12.7	10.4	24.7
Average temperature (°C)	5.5	8.7	10.0	12.2	17.0	20.8	25.6	24.0	24.2	13.4	10.2	5.3	17.5
Temp. medium (°C)	−0.9	2.3	5.8	9.0	11.6	15.4	18.0	17.6	14.0	10.0	7.7	0.1	9.2
Temp. min. abs. (°C)	−10.0	−15.6	−7.4	−2.5	−0.8	5.6	8.4	8.0	3.0	−2.3	−6.2	−13.6	−15.6
Total precipitation (mm)	58.7	49.2	65.0	75.5	95.5	66.7	66.8	88.8	93.1	122.4	76.7	61.7	920.1
Precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm)	6.7	5.3	6.7	8.1	8.9	7.7	5.4	7.1	6.1	8.3	6.4	6.3	83
Hours of sun	58.9	96.1	151.9	177.0	210.8	243.0	285.2	251.1	186.0	130.2	60.0	58.9	1909.1
Source: NOAA February 2010
Source No. 2: Weatherbase.com

The American Lung Association ranked Atlanta 13th in terms of pollution levels in the United States. The combination of pollution and pollen levels and uninsured citizens led the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America to rate Atlanta as the worst American city for asthmatics.

In addition, an EF2 scale tornado struck downtown Atlanta with 130 mph winds. The tornado caused extensive damage to the State Farm Arena, the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, the Georgia Dome, Centennial Olympic Park, the CNN Center, and the Georgia World Congress Center. Also damaged were the neighborhoods of Vine City to the west and Cabbagetown, Fulton Bag and Cotton Mills to the east. There were dozens of injuries, but only one death. The catastrophe took authorities months to repair the damage caused by the tornado.

Urbanism

Atlanta City Panorama from Piedmont Park.

Architecture

Atlanta's skyline is made up of modern and post-modern high-rise and mid-rise buildings. The tallest building, Bank of America Plaza, is the 37th tallest building in the world at 312 meters. It is also the tallest building in the United States outside of Chicago and New York.

Midtown Atlanta.

City center.

Unlike other southern cities in the country like Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington and New Orleans, Atlanta chose not to maintain its old historic southern architecture. Instead, Atlanta saw itself as a city leading an advanced "New South" and opted for expressive modern structures. Atlanta's skyline includes work by major American firms and leading architects of the 20th century like Michael Graves, Richard Meier, Marcel Breuer, Renzo Piano, Pickard Chilton or David Chipperfield. Atlanta's most notable architect is John Portman, whose creation of the atrium at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta hotel in 1967 left a significant mark on the hospitality industry. Through this work, Portman—a graduate of the Georgia Institute of Technology College of Architecture—downtown Atlanta was reconfigured with his designs for the AmericasMart, Peachtree Center, the Westin Peachtree Plaza hotel, and the SunTrust Plaza. The skyscrapers are concentrated in three districts of the city—Downtown, Midtown, and Buckhead. The central business district, located around the Hyatt Regency Atlanta hotel—one of the tallest buildings in the city at the time of its completion in 1967 — also includes 191 Peachtree Tower, Westin Peachtree Plaza, SunTrust Plaza, Georgia-Pacific Tower, and the Peachtree Center buildings. Midtown Atlanta, to the north, experienced rapid growth after One Atlantic Center was completed in 1987.

Urban development

Buckhead quarter.

Businesses and companies continue to be the cornerstone of the Midtown neighborhood. The neighborhood's new tower block, 1180 Peachtree, opened in 2006 at 620 feet tall and achieved a Gold Energy Leadership certification and Environmental Design awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. The city has experienced a construction boom and had, as of April 19, 2006, about sixty new large- and mid-rise projects, both proposed and under construction. Construction was completed on Atlantic Station in October 2005, a former steel industrial plant that was redeveloped into a mixed-use urban district. In early 2006, Mayor Franklin launched a plan to boost Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta (known as the "Midtown Mile") for commercial purposes to compete with Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills or the Magnificent Mile in Chicago..

Centennial Olympic Park from Atlanta.

Despite the efforts made with the opening of Centennial Olympic Park downtown in 1996, Atlanta still ranks well below the average open space per capita among cities with similar population densities, at 36,000 square meters per capita. per thousand inhabitants in 2005. However, the city is known as the "city of trees" or "city in the woods." Founded in 1985, Trees Atlanta has planted and distributed nearly 68,000 trees in the city.

The northernmost neighborhood in the city, Buckhead, is twelve kilometers from downtown Atlanta and is characterized by wealthy neighborhoods such as Peachtree Battle, Tuxedo Park, Peachtree Hills and Chastain Park, and is considered one of the neighborhoods most prosperous in the United States. East Atlanta is experiencing rapid gentrification. It boasts of having modern and urban neighborhoods with bungalows of craftsman styles or Victorian mansions. Its neighborhoods include Inman Park, Candler Park, Lake Claire or Little Five Points. The more affordable neighborhoods of Kirkwood, Old Fourth Ward, East Atlanta, Cabbagetown, Reynoldstown and Edgewood also have a lot to offer. These areas of the city are attracting young and hipster residents, between the ages of 18 and 35, due to their location Close to shopping centers, transportation and its cultural life. In addition to creating new spaces in the city, developers have used many old buildings to create outdoor spaces in these neighborhoods. On the south side of Atlanta, in Collier Heights, resides a wealthy and elite community of African descent, in neighborhoods such as Cascade Heights and Peyton Forest.

Demographics

According to the 2008 American Community Study, the city of Atlanta had a population of 537,958, up 28% from the 2000 census. According to this study conducted between 2006 and 2008, African-Americans accounted for 55.8% of the population; of which 55.4% were non-Hispanic. White Americans made up 38.4% of Atlanta's population; of which 36.2% were non-Hispanic. Amerindians were 0.2% of the population. 1.9% were Asian Americans. Pacific Islanders made up less than 0.1% of the city's total population. Individuals of another race were 2.6% of the population; of which 0.2% were non-Hispanic. Individuals of two or more races represented 1.1% of Atlanta's population. Hispanics and Latinos of any race comprised 4.9% of the city's population.

The city of Atlanta has experienced unique growth in its white population, at a rate that has outpaced the rest of the nation. The proportion of whites in the city's population, according to the Brookings Institution, grew rapidly between 2000 and 2006, more than in any other American city. Growth went from 31% in 2000 to 35% in 2006, with 26,000 new white citizens, more than double the increase between 1990 and 2000. The trend indicates that growth will be constant each year. Washington, D.C. only has comparable results in white population growth during those years.

The city also has one of the largest concentrations of the LGBT population. It is located in third position among the main American cities, only surpassed by San Francisco and, slightly, by Seattle, and has 13% of citizens openly recognized as gay, lesbian or bisexual.

As of the 2000 Census (revised 2004), Atlanta had the 12th highest population of single-person households in the nation among cities of 100,000 or more residents, at 38.5%.

Another study conducted in 2000 by the Census Bureau revealed that around 250,000 residents commuted to Atlanta daily for work or other work, boosting the city to a daily population of 676,431. This is a 62.4% increase in the resident population in Atlanta, making it the highest daily population in the country among cities with fewer than 500,000 residents.

The census results showed that the city was the thirteenth fastest growing population in the United States, in absolute and relative terms. The significant arrival of Latino immigrants since the 1990s to the area has contributed to these data metro atlanta. This influx has provided the city with new cultural and religious practices and affects the economy and demographics of the urban area, which is reflected in the city's new Hispanic communities.

Atlanta also has one of the fastest growing populations of millionaires in the United States. The number of households in the metropolitan area with $1 million or more in investable assets, excluding primary residence and consumer goods, was 60,799 in 2007 and is projected to increase 69% through 2011.

Government

Atlanta City Hall.

Atlanta is governed by a mayor and a city council. The city council is made up of 15 representatives, one for every twelve city districts and three general positions. The mayor can veto a bill passed by the council, but the council can override the veto with a two-thirds majority. Atlanta's mayor is Democrat Kasim Reed.

Every mayor elected in the city since 1973 has been of African descent. Maynard Jackson served two terms, succeeded by Andrew Young in 1982. Jackson returned for a third time in 1990 before Bill Campbell's election in 1994. In 2001, Shirley Franklin became the first woman to be elected mayor of Atlanta, and the first black woman to serve as mayor in a major city in the South. She was re-elected in 2005, winning 90% of the vote. Atlanta city politics during the Campbell administration suffered from a notorious reputation for corruption, and in 2006 a federal jury convicted former mayor Bill Campbell of three counts of tax evasion in connection with gambling.

As the state capital, Atlanta is home to most of Georgia's government buildings. The Georgia State Capitol, located in the center of the city, houses the offices of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Secretary of State, as well as the General Assembly. The Governor's Mansion is located on West Paces Ferry Road, in a residential section of Buckhead. Atlanta is home to the headquarters of Georgia Public Broadcasting and Peachnet, and is the county seat of Fulton County, with whom it shares responsibility for the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System. Atlanta is served by the Atlanta Police Department, which has an estimated number of 1,700 police officers.

The United States Postal Service runs several post offices in the city. Atlanta's main post office is located at 3900 Crown Road SW, near the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Crime

According to the FBI's annual crime report, Atlanta had 141 homicides in 2006, up from 151 in 2004. In total, in the greater Atlanta area (Cobb, Clayton, Fulton, Gwinnett, and Dekalb counties) there were 487 murders in 2007. Atlanta's violent crime rate is higher than most other major cities in the United States.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) operates the United States Penitentiary, Atlanta, a high-security federal prison.

In 2018, police killed 78 people in Atlanta.

Economy

The World of Coca-Cola Museum was reopened in its new location next to the Georgia Aquarium on 26 May 2007.

Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank in Midtown Atlanta.

Atlanta is one of only eight US cities classified as a "beta world city" after a study carried out by Loughborough University in 2008 and was ranked third on a list that brought together the cities with the largest number of Fortune 500 companies within their city limits, behind only New York and Houston. Many national and international companies have their headquarters in Atlanta or its nearby suburbs, including three Fortune 100 companies: The Coca-Cola Company, Home Depot, and United Parcel Service in adjacent Sandy Springs.

CNN Center.

Delta Air Lines central offices.

The headquarters of AT&T Mobility (originally known as Cingular Wireless), the second largest mobile phone company in the United States, is located near Lenox Square. Newell Rubbermaid is one of the latest corporations to settle within from the Atlanta metropolitan area; in October 2006 their plans to move their headquarters to Sandy Springs were announced. There are other companies that have their headquarters in Atlanta or its metropolitan area such as Arby's, Chick-fil-A, EarthLink, Equifax, Gentiva Health Services, Georgia-Pacific, Oxford Industries, RaceTrac Petroleum, Southern Company, SunTrust Banks, Mirant, and Waffle House. In early June 2009, NCR Corporation announced that it was moving its headquarters to Duluth, Georgia. About 75% of Fortune 1000 companies have a presence in the Atlanta area, and the region is home to 1,250 multinational corporations. In 2006, the Atlanta Metropolitan Area ranked tenth among the most important cities in terms of high technology in the United States, since it had 126,700 high-tech jobs.

Delta Air Lines is the company that generates the most employment in the city and the third in the metropolitan area. Delta operates in one of the most important air hubs in the world such as the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and, together with Southwest Airlines (previously and since 1996: AirTran Airways), has helped make this airport the busiest in the world, both in terms of passenger volume and air operations. Since its construction in the 1950s, the airport has been a key player in Atlanta's economic growth.

Atlanta has a sizable financial sector. SunTrust Banks, the seventh largest bank by asset holdings in the United States, is headquartered on Peachtree Street in downtown. The Federal Reserve System has its district headquarters in Atlanta, while the Reserve Bank Federal Atlanta, which manages much of the Deep South, moved to Midtown in 2001. Wachovia announced in August 2006 plans to base its new credit card division in Atlanta, while city and state leaders have high hopes that Atlanta could host the secretariat for the future Free Trade Area of the Americas.

The city is also home to a notable biotechnology sector, for which it has received various awards at events such as the International Biotechnology Convention.

The auto industry has suffered particularly during the economic crisis in Atlanta, specifically with the closure of General Motors' Doraville Assembly plant in 2008 and Ford's Atlanta Assembly plant in Hapeville in 2006. However, Kia has opened a new plant near West Point, Georgia.

The city is a major center for cable television programming. Ted Turner began building his media empire with the Turner Broadcasting System in Atlanta, where he purchased a UHF station that eventually became WTBS. Turner established the Cable News Network headquarters at the CNN Center, next to what is now Centennial Olympic Park. As the company expanded, its other channels—Cartoon Network, Boomerang, TNT, Turner South, Turner Classic Movies, CNN International, CNN en Español, HLN, and CNN Airport Network—also established operations in Atlanta (Turner South It was sold). Turner Broadcasting is a subsidiary of Time Warner. The Weather Channel, acquired in a consortium with NBC Universal, Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, has its offices near Marietta.

Cox Enterprises, a private company controlled by James C. Kennedy, his sister Blair Parry-Okeden, and their aunt Anne Cox Chambers, has significant media holdings in Atlanta and outside the city, with offices in Sandy Springs. Its DeKalb County-based subsidiary Cox Communications is the third-largest cable television provider in the United States. The company publishes about a dozen newspapers in the United States, including includes The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. WSB, the flagship station of Cox Media Group, was the first AM station in the south of the country.

Culture

Entertainment and Performing Arts

Fox Theater.

Atlanta has a thriving music industry and is the hometown of numerous rock and pop singers and bands including The Black Crowes, alternative metal band Sevendust, sludge metal band Mastodon, ska/punk band Treephort, rock bands Swimming Pool Q's, Uncle Green (aka 3 Lb. Thrill), Light Pupil Dilate, Big Fish Ensemble, Collective Soul and Third Day, folk-pop bands Indigo Girls, Butch Walker, and pop-rock-blues musician John Mayer (although born in Connecticut). Mayer, like India.Arie and Shawn Mullins, has performed at Eddie's Attic, an independent club in the Decatur neighborhood. Electronic and instrumental rock band Sound Tribe Sector 9 is also from Atlanta.

The city is also known for its live music venues. In the early 1980s, Atlanta featured new wave bands like The Brains and The Producers, closely tied to new wave in Athens and other college towns in the Southeast. Historically there have been a variety of live music traditions dating back to country music pioneer Fiddlin' John Carson. The Video Concert Hall television show, the forerunner of MTV, was founded in Atlanta. Atlanta hosted several annual events including live music: Jazz Festival, Music Midtown, Montreux Festival, Out on Film gay film festival, Gay Pride Festival, On the Bricks, Dogwood Festival, and National Black Arts Festival, among others.

Rialto Center on 80 Forsyth Street.

Atlanta is the origin and birthplace of several R&B singers and rappers. The group Arrested Development, winner of two Grammy Awards in 1993, and the single by Jermaine Dupri and Ludacris "Welcome to Atlanta" in 2001, they declare Atlanta the "new Motown", alluding to the city of Detroit, which was known for its contributions to popular music. The Dirty South genre arose in part thanks to Atlanta artists like Outkast and Goodie Mob. More recently, rapper and producer Lil Jon established a style known as crunk.

Producers L.A. Reid and Babyface founded LaFace Records in Atlanta in the late 1980s. The label has featured multi-platinum artists such as Toni Braxton, TLC, OutKast, Goodie Mob, Monica, Usher and Ciara, many of whom are Atlanta natives. The city is also home to So So Def Records, a label founded by Jermaine Dupri in the mid-1990s that features artists such as Da Brat, Jagged Edge, Xscape, and Dem Franchize Boyz. Also from Atlanta are multi-platinum rappers Ludacris and T.I., as well as others like Young Jeezy, Bubba Sparxxx, B.o.B., Lil Scrappy, Yung Joc, Gucci Mane and Unk. Kanye West was born in Atlanta, although he grew up in Chicago. Artists like Keyshia Cole, Bow Wow, B5, Phife Dawg, T-Pain, Brian Littrell of the Backstreet Boys, and Elton John moved to the city and made it their home.

Corndogorama is an annual music festival, founded in 1996 by Dave Railey, featuring performances by local bands as well as indie rock, hip-hop, metal, and electronic music groups.

Atlanta's classical music scene includes the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Opera, Atlanta Ballet, New Trinity Baroque Orchestra, and Atlanta Boy Choir, among others. The best-known classical music artists are Robert Shaw and Robert Spano.

Atlanta is home to more than 100 theater, dance, and film companies. Actor's Express, Dad's Garage, Screen on the Green, Atlanta Dance Theater, Lionheart Theater Company, Atlanta Film Festival 365, Ballethnic Dance Company, Center for Puppetry Arts, IKAM Productions, PushPush Theater Company, Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, and many others, offer a wide variety of entertainment options. Notable theaters and entertainment venues include the Fox Theatre, Rialto Theatre, Atlanta Civic Center, Tabernacle, Alliance Theatre, 7 Stages, 14th Street Playhouse, Ferst Center for the Arts, Chastain Amphitheater, the Variety Playhouse, the Callanwolde and the Shakespeare Tavern, among others.

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Tourism

The Georgian Aquarium.

Piedmont Park is the largest park in the city.

Atlanta is the 13th largest city in the country in attracting foreign tourists, with more than 478,000 visitors from other countries in 2007. That same year (according to Forbes), it was estimated that Atlanta it attracted 37 million visitors. The city boasts the world's largest indoor aquarium, the Georgia Aquarium, which officially opened to the public on November 23, 2005. The new World of Coca-Cola opened next to the Aquarium in May 2007, and includes the history of the famous drink brand and offers visitors the opportunity to try different Coca-Cola products from around the world. The Underground Atlanta, a shopping and entertainment center located under the streets of downtown Atlanta. Atlantic Station, a new urban renewal project on the northwest side of Midtown Atlanta, opened in October 2005.

Atlanta has a wide variety of museums covering topics such as history, fine arts, natural history, and beverages. These include the Atlanta History Center, the Carter Center, the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site, the Atlanta Cyclorama and Civil War Museum, Rhodes Hall, the Margaret Mitchell House & Museum, and the children's museums Fernbank Science Center and Imagine It! Children's Museum of Atlanta.

Piedmont Park is home to many of Atlanta's festivals and cultural events, including the annual Atlanta Dogwood Festival and Atlanta Pride. The Atlanta Botanical Garden is adjacent to the park. Zoo Atlanta, in Grant Park, has a panda exhibit. Just to the east of the city is Stone Mountain, the largest piece of granite in the world.

Over Labor Day weekend each year, Atlanta hosts the popular Dragon*Con convention. The event attracts 30,000 visitors annually. The month of August is dedicated to film when Atlanta hosts Independent Film Month, and in October Midtown Atlanta hosts the popular gay film festival Out on Film.

Religion

There are over a thousand places of worship in the city of Atlanta. Protestants are well represented in Atlanta, with the city historically being a major center for traditional Southern denominations such as the Southern Baptist Convention, United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church. There are a large number of "mega churches" in the area, especially in suburban areas.

Atlanta contains a large Catholic population which grew from 292,300 members in 1998 to 750,000 in 2008, an increase of 156%. About 10% of metropolitan Atlanta residents are Catholic. Four parishes of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, Atlanta serves as the metropolitan see for the Province of Atlanta. The archdiocesan cathedral is Atlanta Cathedral of Christ the King and the current archbishop is Wilton D. Gregory. Also in the metropolitan area are several Eastern Catholic parishes.

The city is home to the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, the seat of Metropolis Atlanta and its bishop, Alexios. Other Orthodox Christian jurisdictions represented by parishes in the Atlanta area include the Antioch Orthodox Church, the Russian Orthodox Church, the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the Serbian Orthodox Church, and the Orthodox Church in America.

The San Marcos Methodist Church.

Atlanta is the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, which includes all of northern Georgia, much of central Georgia, and the Chattahoochee River Valley of western Georgia. This diocese has its seat in the Cathedral of Saint Philip in Buckhead and is headed by the Most Illustrious Bishop J. Neil Alexander.

Atlanta serves as the headquarters of several regional church bodies. The Southeast Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has offices in downtown Atlanta. The city's metropolitan area is home to eight United Church of Christ congregations, one of which, First Congregation in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, is noted for being the church with which former mayor Andrew Young is affiliated.

African American traditional denominations such as the National Baptist Convention and the African Methodist Episcopal Church are widely represented in the area. These churches have several seminaries that form the Interdenominational Theological Center complex at the Atlanta University Center. The Salvation Army of the Southern Territory of the United States is headquartered in Atlanta. It has eight churches, numerous social service centers, and youth clubs located throughout the Atlanta area.

The city has a temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints located in the suburb of Sandy Springs. The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Atlanta, in nearby Lilburn, is currently the largest Hindu temple in the world outside of India. It is one of approximately fifteen Hindu temples in the Atlanta metropolitan area, along with seven other Hindu temples. in Georgia. There are also some 75,000 Muslims in the area and approximately thirty-five mosques. The largest mosque, Atlanta's Al Farooq Masjid, is located on 14th Street.

The Atlanta metropolitan area is also home to a Jewish community that includes 120,000 members in 61,300 households. This study ranks Atlanta's Jewish population as the 11th largest in the United States, up from 17th. 1996. Atlanta also has a considerable number of Christian ethnic congregations such as Korean Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian Churches, Tamil Church Atlanta, Telugu Church, Hindi Church, Malayalam Church, Ethiopian, Chinese, and other religious ethnic groups. traditional.

Media

The Atlanta metropolitan area is served by numerous local television channels and is the eighth largest media market in the United States with 2,310,490 households (2% of the nation's total). There are also several local stations of radio of varied genres such as sports and music.

Cox Enterprises, a private company controlled by Anne Cox Chambers, has media holdings in Atlanta, among other places. Its Cox Communications division is the third-largest provider of cable television services in the country; the company also publishes more than a dozen daily newspapers in the United States, including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. WSB AM, Cox Radio's flagship station, was the first broadcast station in the American South.

The main television channels in Atlanta are WSB-TV (Channel 2.1, also known as "Atlanta 2"), an ABC affiliate, and the city's first television channel, WAGA-TV (Channel 5.1), WXIA-TV (Channel 11.1, aka "11 Alive"), WATL-TV (Channel 36.1, aka The ATL), WGCL-TV (Channel 46.1) and WUPA (Channel 69.1). The market also has two PBS member stations: WGTV (Channel 8.1) and WABE (Channel 30.1).

Atlanta is home to the nation's first cable television superchannel, first known as WTCG (Channel 17), later as WTBS in 1979, and now as WPCH-TV (also known as "Peachtree TV") in 2007.

The Atlanta radio market is the seventh largest in the country according to Arbitron, with more than 40 stations, including WSB-AM (750), WCNN-AM (680), WQXI-AM (790), WGST-AM (640), WVEE-FM (103.3), WSB-FM (98.5), WWWQ-FM (99.7), and WBTS-FM (95.5).

Sports

The Turner Field, the Atlanta Braves stadium.

Atlanta is home to several professional sports franchises, including teams from all four major leagues in the United States. The Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL) have played in the city since 1966. The Braves were founded in 1871 under the name of Boston Red Stockings, and it is the franchise oldest professional team in the United States. The Braves won the World Series in 1995, and clinched 14 consecutive division titles from 1991 to 2005.

The Atlanta Falcons have been an American football team based in Atlanta since 1966. The team plays at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and have won the division title three times (1980, 1998, 2004) and two league championships. conference, being runners-up in Super Bowl XXXIII in 1999 and Super Bowl LI in 2017. Atlanta hosted Super Bowl XXVIII in 1994 and Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000.

The Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) have played in the city since 1968. The team's history dates back to 1946, when they were known as the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, playing in the area now known as the Quad Cities (Moline and Rock Island, Illinois, and Davenport, Iowa). The team later moved to Milwaukee in 1951, and to St. Louis in 1955, where they won their only NBA championship as the St. Louis Hawks. In 1968, the team finally relocated to Atlanta. In October 2007, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) announced that Atlanta would receive an expansion franchise, beginning its first season in May 2008, under the name for the Atlanta Dream and playing at State Farm Arena. The franchise is not affiliated with the Hawks. Atlanta also hosted the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship Final Four for the last time in April 2007.

From 1972 to 1980, the Atlanta Flames played ice hockey in the National Hockey League (NHL). The team moved to Calgary, Alberta in 1980, due to its owner's financial difficulties, and became the Calgary Flames. On June 25, 1997, Atlanta was awarded an expanding NHL franchise, and the Atlanta Thrashers became the city's new ice hockey team. The Thrashers played at State Farm Arena. The team began play on September 18, 1999, losing to the New York Rangers 3-2 in overtime in a preseason game. The Thrashers' first home win came on October 26, 1999, defeating the Calgary Flames. In May 2011, the transfer of the Trashers to Winnipeg was announced, reviving the Winnipeg Jets franchise.

The State Farm Arena in an Atlanta Hawks game.

Atlanta was, and currently is, the home of the Atlanta Beat women's soccer team. The original Atlanta Beat of the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA, 2001–2003) were the only team to make the playoffs in each of the league's three seasons. The new Atlanta Beat compete in Women's Professional Soccer (WPS). Atlanta was also home to the Atlanta Silverbacks of the United Soccer Leagues First Division (men's) and W-League (women's). In 2007, the Silverbacks completed their best season by reaching the USL Finals against the Seattle Sounders. Since 2017, the city has hosted Atlanta United, an expansion team in Major League Soccer. Winning the MLS title in 2018. The Atlanta Chiefs won the now-defunct North American Soccer League championship in 1968.

The city is home to a professional cycling team, Team Type 1-Sanofi, which competes in the UCI Continental Professional category, and which works directly to inspire confidence and hope to all those cyclists who suffer from diabetes, helping them fulfill their dream. In fact, some of the team's professional staff members suffer from type 1 diabetes mellitus.

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, a native of Atlanta.

Atlanta has a long tradition of collegiate athletics. The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets participate in 17 intercollegiate sports, including football and basketball. The Yellows Jackets compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and play their home games at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The stadium was built in 1913 by students from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Atlanta also hosted the second intercollegiate football game in the South, played between Auburn University and the University of Georgia at Piedmont Park in 1892 (this game is known today as the Deep South' s Oldest Rivalry). The city hosts the Chick-fil-A Bowl, an annual NCAA college football game, and the Peachtree Road Race, the world's longest 10-kilometer race.

Atlanta was the host city for the Centennial Olympic Games in 1996. Built for the Olympic Games, Centennial Olympic Park is located next to the CNN Center and State Farm Arena.

Atlanta is home to two Gaelic football teams, the Na Fianna Ladies Gaelic Football Club and the Clan na Ngael Ladies Gaelic Football Club. Both are members of the North American County Board, a branch of the Gaelic Athletic Association.

Interior of Georgia Dome at Chick-fil-A College Kickoff in 2008.

Predecessor: Barcelona

Olympic City 1996

Successor: Sydney

Education

Colleges and Universities

Entrance to the Institute of Technology of Georgia.

Atlanta is home to more than 30 institutions of higher learning, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, a university specializing in engineering education that has been ranked among the top 10 public universities in the country since 1999 by U.S. News & World Report, and Georgia State University. The city is also home to the Atlanta University Center, the largest consortium of Historically black colleges and universities in the country (institutions of higher education born in the 60s to serve the black community). Its members include Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, and the Interdenominational Theological Center. Adjacent to the Atlanta University Center schools, but independent, is the Morehouse School of Medicine.

The metropolitan area of the city is also home to numerous schools and universities, such as Emory University, a private research university that has been listed among the top 20 schools in the United States by U.S. News & WorldReport; Oglethorpe University, a small liberal arts school named for Georgia's founder with a faculty ranked in the top 15 in the nation by the Princeton Review; Agnes Scott College, a women's college; and several state institutions such as Clayton State University, Georgia Perimeter College, Kennesaw State University, Southern Polytechnic State University, and Western Georgia University, as well as private colleges such as Reinhardt College, located just west of the city.

Elementary and secondary schools

The Atlanta Public Schools system is run by the Atlanta Board of Education. As of 2007, the system has 49,773 students, with a total of 106 schools, including 58 primary schools, 16 schools for children aged 12-14, 20 institutes and 7 public experimental schools. The school system also has two alternative schools for 12-14 and high school students, two single-sex academies, and an adult learning center. The school system owns the radio station WABE-FM 90.1, an affiliate of National Public Radio, and the television channel WPBA 30, of PBS (Public Broadcasting Service).

Transportation

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport

Retentions in traffic at the entrance of Atlanta.

Light train from MARTA.

Aerial

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is the busiest airport in the world, both in terms of passenger and flight traffic, and provides air service between Atlanta and many domestic and international destinations. Delta Air Lines and AirTran Airways have their hubs at the airport. Located 10 miles from downtown, the Hartsfield-Jackson covers most of the wedge-shaped terrain between Interstate 75, Interstate 85 and Interstate 285 The MARTA rail system has a station at the airport terminal and connects it to downtown, Midtown, Buckhead and Sandy Springs. Close to Atlanta are the DeKalb-Peachtree and Brown Field general aviation airports.

Roads

With a vast network of freeways radiating from the city, Atlantans rely on the car as the preferred method of transportation. Atlanta is surrounded by Interstate 285, a beltway known as "the Perimeter", which marks the limits of the city with the rest of the adjoining suburbs.

Three major interstate highways converge in Atlanta. Interstate 20, which runs east–west through the city; Interstate 75, from northwest to southeast; and Interstate 85, from northeast to southwest. The latter two combine to form the Downtown Connector through the city. Over 340,000 vehicles a day pass through this combined stretch, making it one of the most congested stretches of the United States interstate highway system. The intersection of Interstate 85 and 285 in Doraville, officially known as the Tom Moreland Interchange, it is known to residents as Spaghetti Junction.

Problems

The heavy reliance on the automobile, associated with North American culture, has led to heavy traffic congestion in Atlanta and increased levels of pollution, making Atlanta one of the most polluted cities in the country. The organization The Clean Air Campaign was created in 1996 to try to reduce pollution in the Atlanta metropolitan area. In 2008, the metropolitan area was at the top of a national list in terms of the most time spent traveling to the city for work reasons. It was also ranked among the top national positions in terms of traffic congestion.

Atlanta has one of the worst reputations for pedestrian safety, in fact its more universal neighbor (Gone with the Wind author Margaret Mitchell) was struck and killed in 1949 by a car while crossing Peachtree Street.

Railway and bus

However, the Atlanta subway system, operated by the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), is the seventh busiest in the country. MARTA also operates bus lines in Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, and Gwinnett. Clayton, Cobb and Gwinnett counties operate separately through autonomous authorities using buses instead of trains.

The Beltline project will create a 35-kilometre-long system of streetcars that surround Downtown and Midtown, taking advantage of abandoned train lines. This system would reuse existing routes and connect them with new parks. There is also a proposed streetcar project along Peachtree Street from downtown to Buckhead, as well as another possible east-west MARTA line.

The city began as a railroad town and is still a major railroad hub, with several freight lines belonging to the Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation crossing below street level in downtown. There is also a switchyard for Norfolk Southern's Inman Yard and CSX's Tilford Yard. Long-distance passenger service is covered by Amtrak's Crescent train line, which connects Atlanta with many cities between New Orleans and New York. The Amtrak station is located several kilometers north of Downtown, and also has no connection to the MARTA system. There is an ambitious project that would create a multimodal passenger terminal downtown, adjacent to the State Farm Arena and the MARTA Five Points Station, which would simultaneously connect the MARTA bus and light rail system, state rail lines, intercity bus services, and Amtrak.

Greyhound Lines provides urban intercity service between Atlanta and many locations in the United States, Canada, and the Mexican border.

Twinned cities

The City of Atlanta maintains twinning agreements with the following 22 cities: