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| Atlanta in 1864. Establishment of slave trader | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Marietta Street, 1864 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City silhouette of the Midtown neighborhood | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Beath-Dickey House (1890) in the Inman Park neighborhood, Atlanta | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| World of Coca-Cola, near Downtown | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
According to ehuacom, Atlanta is the capital and largest city of the state of Georgia in the United States and has a population of 416,474 inhabitants (2000). The entire metropolitan area of Atlanta has 5,618,431 inhabitants (2010), the 10th largest in the US. It is the main industrial, traffic, trade, and financial center of the southeastern United States. Major tourist attractions include the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, the Georgia Aquarium, the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, and World of Coca-Cola. A major economic boost to the city is the Georgia World Congress Center.
History
The city was founded in 1837 as the terminus of a railroad, aptly named Terminus. In 1843 the place was renamed Marthasville and in 1845 it was given its current name Atlanta (short for “Atlanta-Pacifica”, because of the idea that the railroad connections passing through Atlanta would connect the west and east coasts of the US for one day). Between 1845 and 1854, railroads arrived from four different directions and Atlanta suddenly became the railroad hub of the entire southern US. Then in 1861 the American Civil Warerupted, the city already had 9,000 inhabitants. Atlanta was a prime target of the Unionists because of its importance as a trading hub. In 1864 the city was besieged for 107 days and largely reduced to ashes after the evacuation of the inhabitants. Atlanta was rebuilt in a short time and designated as the capital of the state of Georgia in 1868.
Coca-Cola was first manufactured in an Atlanta drugstore in 1886. In 1889 the city got electric trams. Many new residential areas were built between 1890 and 1920. The luxurious homes of that period can still be seen in neighborhoods like Virginia-Highland and Inman Park; an example is Beath-Dickey House from 1890. The city’s streetcar company was dissolved in 1949 and trolleybuses were used in its place, which had to make way for regular buses in 1963.
Martin Luther King
The slaves were released in 1865. The first black university was established in Atlanta, Atlanta University. Despite the fact that many rights were taken away from blacks in the last decades of the 19th century, and despite the Jim Crow laws from 1910 in particular, a black middle class and even an upper class emerged in Atlanta. In response, the Ku Klux Klan was re-established in Atlanta in 1915.
In the first half of the 20th century, Auburn Avenue was called the “richest black street in the world”. In the early 1950s, black residents began buying homes in previously off-limits neighborhoods, prompting many whites to move to the suburbs. Martin Luther King was from Atlanta and was a minister there; the city was a major center of the African American civil rights movement. Under the influence of the federal government, racial segregation in education, regulated by law, was gradually abolished. But the segregation in public places such as restaurants and department stores became increasingly difficult. In the 1960 election year, weekly sit-insplace in lunchrooms, where black students refused to use separate facilities. During that year, the city was at the forefront of the civil rights movement, with the students being arrested without resisting. Finally, on March 6, 1961, a covenant was concluded between entrepreneurs and action leaders, whereby segregation in the catering industry was abolished: a first in the south of the USA.
Atlanta, like many other American cities, did not have to deal with violent race riots. This was mainly due to clever action by white political leaders such as Mayor Ivan Allen Jr.
From 1965 to 1975, many new shopping centers were built in the suburbs, causing the city center to decline as a shopping area. In its place, a large office and conference area with a new conference center and several skyscrapers was built in its place. Many buildings were designed by John Portman, an Atlanta architect known for his atrium hotels.
From 1970, the city had a black majority, and in 1973 Atlanta received its first black mayor, Maynard Jackson. Black political leaders successfully partnered with the predominantly white large corporations to ensure economic growth for the city, while also caring for the interests of black small and medium-sized businesses. In the 1970s, most of the MARTA metro system was built.
Atlanta-based airline Delta Air Lines continued to grow, and since 1998, 1999, Atlanta airport has been the world’s busiest and most important hub for air traffic within the United States. Since the 1990s, urban renewal has breathed new life into many of the city’s oldest neighborhoods. Single-family homes from the early twentieth century were renovated, abandoned factories were converted into residential, retail and catering complexes, and new buildings were created with a combined residential, work, retail and catering function. In 2005 the city bought the BeltLine, a 35 kilometer long former railway line around the city center, which was turned into a tram line with a walking and cycling path.
Geography
Atlanta has three major commercial centers within the city limits: Downtown, as well as neighborhoods that emerged as suburbs: Midtown and Buckhead. Commercial centers and clusters of office buildings also exist in the suburbs, most notably the Cumberland/Galleria area (in Cobb County) and Perimeter (just outside the Atlanta city limits in the city of Sandy Springs), as well as dozens of miles further along highways I- 75 in Cobb County, Georgia 400, and I-85 in Gwinnett County. These areas contain major suburbs such as Marietta, Kennesaw, Sandy Springs, Alpharetta and Duluth.
Economy
The Downtown Connector in Midtown
Downtown Atlanta
Atlanta is home to the headquarters of various large and small companies. In 2016, Delta Air Lines was the city’s largest employer with over 30,000 FTEs.
Dutch companies
The Dutch-American Chamber of Commerce for the Southeastern US is located in Atlanta. There is also an Atlanta Holland Club. Both hold monthly drinks and celebrate King’s Day. Air France-KLM has relocated management personnel to Atlanta as part of its transatlantic joint venture with Delta Air Lines.
Dutch investment financed the construction of the skyscraper 191 Peachtree. In 1989, 85 Dutch companies were present in Atlanta, including ABN, ING and Nationale Nederlanden. Noro, a John Fentener van Vlissingen company, opened an Atlanta office in the 1980s and owned several buildings and complexes in the city. Grand Cypress Resort, Inc., a PGGM investment firm, was located in Atlanta.
Culture
Music
In 2009, The New York Times called Atlanta “the center of gravity of hip-hop”. Many hip -hop, R&B and neo-soul artists are based in Atlanta. The city was a center of country music from the development of that genre in the 1920s through the 1950s; then Nashville took over for good. Moreover, Atlanta was and is a center of gravity for black and white gospel music. The Gospel Music Association ‘s annual Dove Awards have been presented there since 2011.
Climate
In January the average temperature is 5.0 °C, in July it is 26.0 °C. Annual average precipitation is 1290 mm (data based on the measurement period 1961-1990).
Public transport
MARTA, metro of Atlanta
The City of Atlanta and the metropolitan area’s core areas, Fulton County and DeKalb County, jointly operate a public transportation service, MARTA (Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority). MARTA provides bus transportation and services the Atlanta metro, which consists of a north-south and an east-west line. The subway serves the airport, downtown Atlanta and three of the other four major commercial districts, Midtown, Buckheadand Perimiter. A major problem is that employers and commercial centers are scattered across various areas in the metropolitan area, especially the so-called “suburbs” in the north (north of Fulton County, Cobb County and Gwinnett County). These areas have no metro or rail connections, there are heavy traffic on the few highways that exist and because of the great distances it can take hours to get there by bus from other parts of Greater Atlanta. Talks are underway to establish a regional rail system to connect major suburban commercial centers to the rest of the metropolitan area, as well as a streetcar line along Cobb Parkway in Cobb County, linking Kennesaw, Marietta and the Cumberland/Galleria area.
Sports
Atlanta has three sports clubs competing in one of the top four American professional sports. It’s about:
- Atlanta Hawks (basketball)
- Atlanta Braves (baseball)
- Atlanta Falcons (American football)
In addition, football club Atlanta United FC plays in Major League Soccer.
In 1996 the city hosted the Summer Olympics and was nicknamed Hotlanta because of the heat.
Town twinning
- Bucharest (Romania), since 1994
- Brussels (Belgium), since 1983
- Cotonou (Benin), since 1995
- Daegu (South Korea), since 1981
- Fukuoka (Japan), since 2005
- Lagos (Nigeria), since 1974
- Montego Bay (Jamaica), since 1972
- Nuremberg (Germany), since 1998
- Newcastle upon Tyne (England, United Kingdom), since 1977
- Olympia (Greece), since 1994
- Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago), since 1987
- Raanana (Israel), since 2000
- Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), since 1972
- Salcedo (Dominican Republic), since 1996
- Salzburg (Austria), since 1967
- Taipei (Taiwan), since 1974
- Tbilisi (Georgia), since 1988
- Toulouse (France), since 1974
Nearby places
The figure below shows nearby places within a 12 km radius of Atlanta.
Atlanta
Candler McAfee (12 km)
Decatur (10 km)
Druid Hills (5 miles)
East Point (10 km)
Gresham Park (10 km)
Hapeville (11 km)
North Decatur (12 km)
North Druid Hills (10 km)
