Metro Atlanta
Encyclopedia
The Atlanta metropolitan area or metro Atlanta, officially designated by the US Census Bureau as the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metro area in the U.S. state of Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
and the ninth-largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In addition to Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, Georgia's capital and largest city, the Atlanta metropolitan area spans up to 28 counties in north Georgia
North Georgia
North Georgia is the hilly to mountainous northern region of the U.S. state of Georgia. At the time of the arrival of settlers from Europe, it was inhabited largely by the Cherokee. The counties of North Georgia were often scenes of important events in the history of Georgia...
and had a total 2010 population of 5,268,860.
Atlanta's larger combined statistical area
Combined Statistical Area
The United States Office of Management and Budget defines micropolitan and metropolitan statistical areas. Metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas consist of one or more counties...
(CSA) adds the Gainesville, GA MSA, and the LaGrange, GA, Thomaston GA, Cedartown, GA and Valley, AL micropolitan areas, for a total 2009 estimated population of 5,831,778. The CSA also abuts the Athens, Macon, and Columbus
Columbus, Georgia metropolitan area
The Columbus, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of four counties in Georgia and one county in Alabama, anchored by the city of Columbus...
MSAs. The region is the central metropolis of the Southeastern United States, and is the largest metropolitan area in the emerging megalopolis known as the Piedmont Atlantic MegaRegion
Piedmont Atlantic MegaRegion
The Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion is the name given to an area of the Southeastern United States that includes the Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, Birmingham, Upstate South Carolina, Piedmont Triad, and Raleigh-Durham metropolitan areas. The megaregion generally follows the Interstate 85/20 corridor...
along the I-85 Corridor
I-85 Corridor
The I-85 Corridor is a multi-state region that follows Interstate 85 across the Southeastern United States. It stretches from Montgomery, Alabama to Petersburg, Virginia...
.
For media in Atlanta
Media in Atlanta
, metro Atlanta is the ninth-largest media market in the United States. Due to apparent over-estimates of population growth in the 2000s by the U.S. Census Bureau, this rank is a decrease from two years prior as a result of the 2010 U.S. Census....
(which reaches most of north Georgia), the metro area became the eighth- or seventh-largest media market
Media market
A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area , Television Market Area , or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same television and radio station offerings, and may also include other types of media including newspapers and Internet content...
in the United States in 2008. According to the 2008 rankings of the ranking of world cities undertaken by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network and based on the level of presence of global corporate service organizations, Atlanta is considered a "Alpha- World City".
Definitions
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. Because Georgia contains more counties than any other state except Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
(explained in part by the now-defunct county-unit system of weighing votes in primary election
Primary election
A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....
s), area residents live under a heavily decentralized collection of governments. As of the 2000 census, fewer than one in ten residents of the metropolitan area lived inside Atlanta city limits.
A 2006 survey by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce
Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce
The Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce is the chamber of commerce for the Atlanta metropolitan area. It was founded in 1859....
counted 140 cities and towns in the 28-county Metropolitan Statistical Area in mid-2005. Four cities – Johns Creek
Johns Creek, Georgia
Johns Creek is a suburban city in Fulton County, Georgia, USA, which incorporated December 1, 2006. It is named for a tributary that runs through the area. The city was created out of the northeastern part of unincorporated Fulton County...
(2006), Milton
Milton, Georgia
Milton is a city in Fulton County, Georgia, United States. Incorporated on December 1, 2006, it was created out of the entire unincorporated northwestern part of northern Fulton County. It is a highly affluent community with an average household income within the zip code 30004 of $99,412...
(2006), Chattahoochee Hills (2007), and Dunwoody (2008) – have incorporated since then, following the lead of Sandy Springs in 2005.
Counties
Alphabetical:
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Haralson County, Georgia Haralson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on January 26, 1856 and was named for Hugh A. Haralson. As of 2000, the population was 25,690. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 28,718... (28,718) Heard County, Georgia Heard County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on December 22, 1830. As of 2000, the population was 11,012. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 11,387... (11,387) Henry County, Georgia Henry County is a growing suburban county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 119,341. As of 2010, the county's population swelled to 203,922, up 70.9% from the previous census and becoming Georgia's 8th most populous county and the 10th fastest growing... (201,343) Jasper County, Georgia Jasper County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 11,426. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 13,660... (13,660) Lamar County, Georgia Lamar County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 15,912. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 16,961... (16,961) Meriwether County, Georgia Meriwether County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on December 14, 1827. As of 2000, the population was 22,534. The 2009 Census Estimate reflects a population of 22,783... (22,748) Newton County, Georgia Newton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 62,001. The 2010 Census showed a population of 99,958. The county seat is Covington.... (96,019) Paulding County, Georgia Paulding County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 142,324. The county seat is Dallas.... (127,906) Pickens County, Georgia Pickens County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. The 2000 Census showed a population of 22,983. The 2007 Census Estimate showed a population of 30,488... (30,488) Pike County, Georgia Pike County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on December 9, 1822. As of 2000, the population was 13,688. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 17,204... (17,204) Polk County, Georgia Polk County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 38,127. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 41,460. The county seat is Cedartown.- History :... (41,460) Putnam County, Georgia Putnam County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 18,812. The 2007 Census Estimate showed a population of 21,251... (21,251) Rockdale County, Georgia Rockdale County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 70,111. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 82,052. Two years later, the population was 84,569. The county seat is Conyers.-Geography:... (82,052) Spalding County, Georgia Spalding County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created December 20, 1851. As of 2000, the population was 58,417. The 2007 Census Estimate showed a population of 62,826... (62,826) Upson County, Georgia Upson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is a part of the Atlanta Metropolitan Area . It was created on December 15, 1824. As of 2000, the population was 27,597. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 27,562... (27,562) Walton County, Georgia Walton County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2009, the population was 87,311. The county seat is Monroe.This county is a part of the Atlanta Metropolitan Area .... (83,144) |
By population:
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Rockdale County, Georgia Rockdale County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 70,111. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 82,052. Two years later, the population was 84,569. The county seat is Conyers.-Geography:... (85,215) Barrow County, Georgia Barrow County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 46,144. The 2007 Census Estimate placed the population at 67,139... (69,367) Spalding County, Georgia Spalding County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created December 20, 1851. As of 2000, the population was 58,417. The 2007 Census Estimate showed a population of 62,826... (64,073) Polk County, Georgia Polk County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 38,127. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 41,460. The county seat is Cedartown.- History :... (41,475) Chambers County, Alabama Chambers County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of Henry H. Chambers, who served as a United States Senator from Alabama. As of 2010 the population was 34,215. Its county seat is Lafayette... (36,583) Pickens County, Georgia Pickens County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. The 2000 Census showed a population of 22,983. The 2007 Census Estimate showed a population of 30,488... (30,488) Haralson County, Georgia Haralson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on January 26, 1856 and was named for Hugh A. Haralson. As of 2000, the population was 25,690. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 28,718... (28,718) Upson County, Georgia Upson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is a part of the Atlanta Metropolitan Area . It was created on December 15, 1824. As of 2000, the population was 27,597. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 27,562... (27,562) Butts County, Georgia Butts County is a county located in the northern half of the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on December 24, 1825. As of 2000, the population was 19,522. The 2007 Census Estimate showed a population of 23,759... (23,759) Meriwether County, Georgia Meriwether County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on December 14, 1827. As of 2000, the population was 22,534. The 2009 Census Estimate reflects a population of 22,783... (22,748) Dawson County, Georgia Dawson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on December 3, 1857 from Gilmer and Lumpkin counties. As of 2000, the population is 15,999. The 2007 Census Estimate showed a population of 21,484... (21,484) Putnam County, Georgia Putnam County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 18,812. The 2007 Census Estimate showed a population of 21,251... (21,251) Pike County, Georgia Pike County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on December 9, 1822. As of 2000, the population was 13,688. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 17,204... (17,204) Lamar County, Georgia Lamar County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 15,912. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 16,961... (16,961) Jasper County, Georgia Jasper County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of 2000, the population was 11,426. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 13,660... (13,660) Heard County, Georgia Heard County is a county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created on December 22, 1830. As of 2000, the population was 11,012. The 2007 Census Estimate shows a population of 11,387... (11,387) |
The above-listed counties are included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville CSA (Bold counties are also in the somewhat smaller Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta MSA
); however most other entities define a much smaller metropolitan area by including only the counties which have the densest suburban development. Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cobb, and Clayton are the five original counties, and continue to be the core of the metro area---and the five counties with MARTA board representation. Five more (Cherokee, Douglas, Fayette, Henry and Rockdale) are members of the Atlanta Regional Commission
Atlanta Regional Commission
The Atlanta Regional Commission is the regional planning and intergovernmental coordination agency for the metro Atlanta, Georgia region, as defined as a 10-county area including Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties, including the city of...
, a weak metropolitan government agency which also is a regional planning
Regional planning
Regional planning deals with the efficient placement of land use activities, infrastructure, and settlement growth across a larger area of land than an individual city or town. The related field of urban planning deals with the specific issues of city planning...
agency that includes ten more counties. Hall County was originally the Gainesville, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area, but with astronomical growth to over 180,000 residents, is now part of the Atlanta CSA. In addition to the ten core ARC counties, four more (Coweta, Paulding, Forsyth, Bartow) are part of the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District
Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District
The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District is a water district that covers all of metro Atlanta, and the nearby part of its headwaters in north Georgia...
, created in 2001. The 14 counties listed above with under 60,000 residents are usually not included in any other metropolitan definition except the OMB/Census Bureau's CSA.
Municipalities
Central city
- AtlantaAtlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
: pop. 420,003
----
- DowntownDowntown AtlantaDowntown Atlanta is the first and largest of the three financial districts in the city of Atlanta. Downtown Atlanta is the location of many corporate or regional headquarters, city, county, state and federal government facilities, sporting facilities, and is the central tourist attraction of the city...
- MidtownMidtown AtlantaMidtown is the second largest financial district in the city of Atlanta, Georgia, situated between the commercial and financial districts of Downtown and SoNo to the south and the affluent residential and commercial district of Buckhead to the north...
- BuckheadBuckhead (Atlanta)Buckhead is the uptown district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, comprising approximately the northern one-fifth of the city. Buckhead is a major commercial and financial center of the Southeast, and it is the third-largest business district in Atlanta, behind Downtown and Midtown...
Major edge cities (from Atlanta edge cities)
- CumberlandCumberland (Atlanta)Cumberland is a neighborhood and edge city in metro Atlanta, Georgia, United States. with approximately 122,000 workers and 103,000 residents. It is a major hub for business, convention, and retail in the region. Cumberland is situated ten miles northwest of downtown Atlanta at the junction of...
- Perimeter CenterPerimeter CenterPerimeter Center is a neighborhood and major edge city in metro Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is centered on Perimeter Mall, the nucleus around which it has formed. Perimeter Center is located north-northeast of Atlanta proper, and lies within two cities - Dunwoody and Sandy Springs...
- Hartsfield-JacksonHartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International AirportHartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport , known locally as Atlanta Airport, Hartsfield Airport, and Hartsfield–Jackson, is located seven miles south of the central business district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States...
area
More than one half of metro Atlanta's population is in unincorporated areas or areas not considered a census-designated-place (CDP) by the census bureau. Metro Atlanta includes the following incorporated and unincorporated suburbs (both inside and outside Atlanta), exurbs, and surrounding cities, sorted by population:
Surrounding cities and suburbs
Based on 2010 census. http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_PL_GCTPL2.ST13&prodType=table- Sandy SpringsSandy Springs, GeorgiaSandy Springs is a city in north Georgia, United States. It is a northern suburb of Atlanta. With a 2010 population of 93,853, Sandy Springs is the sixth-largest city in the state and the second-largest city in Metro Atlanta. Sandy Springs is located in north Fulton County, Georgia, just south of...
pop. 93,853 - RoswellRoswell, GeorgiaRoswell is a city located in northern Fulton County; it is a suburb of northern Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The 2010 Census population was 88,346. It is the eighth largest city in Georgia...
pop. 88,346 - Johns CreekJohns Creek, GeorgiaJohns Creek is a suburban city in Fulton County, Georgia, USA, which incorporated December 1, 2006. It is named for a tributary that runs through the area. The city was created out of the northeastern part of unincorporated Fulton County...
pop. 76,728 - AlpharettaAlpharetta, Georgia-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 34,854 people, 13,911 households, and 8,916 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,631.6 people per square mile . There were 14,670 housing units at an average density of 686.7 per square mile...
pop. 57,551 - MariettaMarietta, GeorgiaMarietta is a city located in central Cobb County, Georgia, United States, and is its county seat.As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 56,579, making it one of metro Atlanta's largest suburbs...
pop. 56,579 - SmyrnaSmyrna, Georgia-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 40,999 people, 18,372 households, and 9,498 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,949.9 people per square mile . There were 19,633 housing units at an average density of 1,412.6 per square mile...
pop. 51,271 - DunwoodyDunwoody, GeorgiaDunwoody is a city located in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. It is a northern suburb of Atlanta. Dunwoody became incorporated as a city on December 1, 2008...
pop. 46,267 - North Atlanta (CDP). Includes parts of BrookhavenBrookhaven, GeorgiaBrookhaven is an unincorporated community located on the western edge of DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, directly northeast of Atlanta. Most of the area was formerly incorporated as the city of North Atlanta, which disincorporated during the 1960s...
pop. 40,456 - MabletonMableton, GeorgiaMableton is a census-designated place in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the CDP had a population of 37,115.It was named for Robert Mable, who in 1843 bought 300 acres of land on September 11...
(CDP) pop. 37,115 - Peachtree CityPeachtree City, GeorgiaPeachtree City is a city in Fayette County, Georgia, United States.Census estimates in 2005 indicated a population of 34,524. In 2007, the city announced a plan to formally annex an unincorporated area between Georgia State Route 74 and the border with Coweta County that is commonly referred to as...
pop. 34,364 - Peachtree CornersPeachtree Corners, GeorgiaPeachtree Corners is a city in western Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. It is a northern suburb of Atlanta, located east of Dunwoody and south of Johns Creek. Out of all of Atlanta's northern suburbs, Peachtree Corners is the only one that was developed as a planned community...
pop. 34,274 - GainesvilleGainesville, Georgia-Severe Weather:Gainesville sits on the very fringe of Tornado Alley, a region of the United States where severe weather is common. Supercell thunderstorms can sweep through any time between March and November, but are concentrated most in the spring...
pop. 33,804 - East PointEast Point, GeorgiaThe city of East Point is southwest of the neighborhoods of Atlanta in Fulton County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 33,712...
pop. 33,712 - NewnanNewnan, GeorgiaNewnan is a city in Coweta County, Georgia, about 30 miles southwest of Atlanta. The population was 16,242 at the 2000 Census. Newnan is one of the fastest growing cities in Georgia, with an estimated population of 27,097 in 2006 and 33,293 in July 2008...
pop. 33,039 - RedanRedan, GeorgiaRedan is a census-designated place in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the CDP had a total population of 33,015. It is an affluent predominantly African American community in eastern DeKalb County....
(CDP) pop. 33,015 - MiltonMilton, GeorgiaMilton is a city in Fulton County, Georgia, United States. Incorporated on December 1, 2006, it was created out of the entire unincorporated northwestern part of northern Fulton County. It is a highly affluent community with an average household income within the zip code 30004 of $99,412...
pop. 32,661 - DouglasvilleDouglasville, GeorgiaThe city of Douglasville is the county seat of Douglas County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 30,961...
pop. 30,961 - KennesawKennesaw, GeorgiaKennesaw is a city in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. It had a population of 29,783 according to the 2010 census. It is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Founded in 1887, Kennesaw has a past surrounded with railroad history...
pop. 29,783 - LawrencevilleLawrenceville, GeorgiaLawrenceville is a city in and the county seat of Gwinnett County, Georgia, in the United States. The Census Bureau estimates the 2008 population at 29,258...
pop. 28,546 - TuckerTucker, GeorgiaTucker is a census-designated place in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 27,581 at the 2010 Census. Although central Tucker, also known as "Main Street Tucker", is laid out as a planned "railroad town," it has never been formally incorporated. Municipal services such as...
(CDP) pop. 27,581 - DuluthDuluth, GeorgiaDuluth is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia and an increasingly more affluent and developed suburb of Atlanta. Unincorporated portions of Forsyth County also have Duluth as a mailing address, though this area is outside city limits...
pop. 26,660 - StockbridgeStockbridge, GeorgiaStockbridge is a city in Henry County, Georgia, United States with a population of 25,636 as of the 2010 census. It is the hometown of the multi-platinum selling alternative rock/post-grunge band Collective Soul and home to one of the youngest starting pitchers ever to play for the Atlanta Braves,...
pop. 25,636 - CarrolltonCarrollton, GeorgiaCarrollton is a city in West Georgia, United States, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 24,388...
pop. 24,388 - WoodstockWoodstock, GeorgiaWoodstock is a city in Cherokee County, Georgia, United States. The population was 23,896 at the 2010 census.Originally a stop on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, Woodstock is now considered part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...
pop. 23,896 - GriffinGriffin, GeorgiaGriffin is a city in and the county seat of Spalding County in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 23,643.-Geography:Griffin is located at ....
pop. 23,643 - Candler-McAfeeCandler-McAfee, GeorgiaCandler-McAfee is a census-designated place in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 23,025 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Candler-McAfee is located at...
(CDP) pop. 23,025 - CantonCanton, GeorgiaCanton is a city in and the county seat of Cherokee County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 22,958.-Geography:Canton is located at ....
pop. 22,958 - McDonoughMcDonough, GeorgiaMcDonough is a city in Henry County, Georgia, United States. The population was 22084 at the 2010 census. Inclusion of the unincorporated neighborhoods surrounding McDonough, which are not part of a town/city, raises the population to approximately 30,000 from an estimate in 2008. The city is the...
pop. 22,084 - AcworthAcworth, GeorgiaAcworth is a city in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 20,425. Acworth is located in the foothills of the North Georgia mountains along the southeastern banks of Lake Acworth and Lake Allatoona on the Etowah River.Acworth's nickname is "The...
pop. 20,425
- CartersvilleCartersville, GeorgiaCartersville is a town in Bartow County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 19,7314. The city is the county seat of Bartow County.-Geography:Cartersville was named for Colonel Farish Carter....
pop. 19,731 - Union CityUnion City, GeorgiaUnion City is a city in Fulton County, Georgia, United States. The population was 19,456 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Union City is located at ....
pop. 19,456 - DecaturDecatur, GeorgiaDecatur is a city in, and county seat of, DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. With a population of 19,335 in the 2010 census, the city is sometimes assumed to be larger since multiple zip codes in unincorporated DeKalb County bear the Decatur name...
pop. 19,335 - North Druid HillsNorth Druid Hills, GeorgiaNorth Druid Hills, known alternatively as Briarcliff, is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 18,947 at the 2010 census. The center of the area is the intersection of Briarcliff and North Druid Hills roads...
(CDP) pop. 18,947 - Sugar HillSugar Hill, GeorgiaAs of 2010 Sugar Hill had a population of 18,522. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 72.4% white, 9.8% black or African American, 0.3% Native American, 1.3% Asian Indian, 5.0% other Asian, 0.1% PAcific Islander, 8.6% from some other race and 2.5% from two or more races...
pop. 18,522 - Forest ParkForest Park, GeorgiaForest Park is a city in Clayton County, Georgia, United States. It is located approximately nine miles south of Atlanta and is part of the Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Marietta Metropolitan Statistical Area...
pop. 18,468 - SnellvilleSnellville, GeorgiaSnellville is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States, east of Atlanta. The population was 15,351 at the 2000 census. The city's mayor, Jerry Oberholtzer, was elected to a 4-year term in 2007. The city's commercial and residential development has grown enormously in recent years...
pop. 18,242 - North DecaturNorth Decatur, GeorgiaNorth Decatur is a census-designated place in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 16,698 at the 2010 census.-Geography:North Decatur is located at ....
(CDP) pop. 16,698 - FayettevilleFayetteville, GeorgiaFayetteville is a town in Fayette County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 15,945. The city is the county seat of Fayette County. Fayetteville is located approximately 22 miles from the city of Atlanta....
pop. 15,945 - SuwaneeSuwanee, GeorgiaAs of 2010 Suwanee had a population of 15,355. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 67.4% white, 10.8% black or African American, 0.1% Native American, 18.0% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 1.3% reporting some other race and 2.3% reporting two or more races...
pop. 15,355 - ConyersConyers, GeorgiaConyers is the only city in Rockdale County, Georgia, USA. It is twenty-four miles east of Atlanta. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 10,689. Census estimates of 2005 indicate a population of 12,205. The city is the county seat of Rockdale County. By 2009, the reported population was...
pop. 15,195 - Belvedere ParkBelvedere Park, GeorgiaBelvedere Park is a census-designated place in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 15,152 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Belvedere Park is located at .It is bordered by:...
(CDP) pop. 15,152 - RiverdaleRiverdale, GeorgiaRiverdale is a city in Clayton County, Georgia, United States. The population was 12,478 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Riverdale is located at .-Demographics:...
pop. 15,134 - Druid HillsDruid Hills, GeorgiaDruid Hills is a community which includes both a census-designated place in unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, as well as a neighborhood of the city of Atlanta. The CDP's population was 14,568 at the 2010 census...
(CDP) pop. 14,568 - WinderWinder, GeorgiaWinder is a city in Barrow County, Georgia, United States. The population was 10,201 at the 2000 census. Census Estimates of 2005 indicate a population of 12,451...
pop. 14,099 - Villa RicaVilla Rica, GeorgiaVilla Rica is a city in Carroll and Douglas Counties in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population was 4,134 at the 2000 census. By the 2010 census, the population had grown to 13,956. The estimated growth was around 211.34%...
pop. 13,956 - College ParkCollege Park, GeorgiaCollege Park is a city located partly in Fulton County, Georgia and partially in Clayton County, Georgia, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 13,942...
pop. 13,942 - Powder SpringsPowder Springs, GeorgiaPowder Springs is a city in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 13,940 at the 2010 census.- History :The town of Powder Springs was incorporated as Springville in 1838 in the lands of two Cherokee Indian chiefs, Chief Nose and Chief Ana Kanasta . Gold had been discovered in...
pop. 13,940 - MonroeMonroe, GeorgiaMonroe is a city in Walton County, Georgia, United States. The population was 13,381 at the 2008 census. The city is the county seat of Walton County, Georgia.-Geography:Monroe is located at ....
pop. 13,234 - CovingtonCovington, GeorgiaCovington is a city in Newton County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 13,118. The city is the county seat of Newton County...
pop. 13,118 - FairburnFairburn, GeorgiaFairburn is a city in Fulton County, Georgia. The population was 12,950 at the 2010 census.- History :Fairburn is located along a railroad line and was once the county seat for Campbell County, Georgia, starting in 1870...
pop. 12,950 - BufordBuford, GeorgiaAs of 2010 Buford had a population of 12,225. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 65.8% white, 13.8% black or African American, 0.3% Native American, 2.9% Asian, 14.7% reporting some other race and 2.5% reproting two or more races...
pop. 12,225 - LilburnLilburn, GeorgiaAs of 2010 Lilburn had a population of 11,596. The median age was 36.3. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 52.7% white , 16.4% black or African American, 0.5% Native American, 4.8% Asian Indian, 10.4% other Asian, 12.3% from some other race and 2.8% from two or more races...
pop. 11,596 - Mountain Park (Gwinnett)Mountain Park, Gwinnett County, GeorgiaMountain Park is an unincorporated, census-designated place in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. The population was 11,753 at the 2000 census. The older name for the area is Trickum, which is reflected in Five Forks-Trickum Road which bisects the community...
(CDP) pop. 11,554 - LoganvilleLoganville, GeorgiaLoganville is a city located mostly in Walton County with a small portion of the city located in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. The population was 10,963 at the 2009 census.-Geography:...
pop. 10,458 - ChambleeChamblee, GeorgiaAs of the 2010 Census Chamblee had a population of 9,892. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 45.0% white , 7.0% black or African American , 2.1% Native American , 1.8% Vietnamese, 1.6% Asian Indian, 4.6% other Asian, 33.5% from some other race and...
pop. 9,892 - PanthersvillePanthersville, GeorgiaPanthersville is a census-designated place in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 9,749 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Panthersville is located at...
(CDP) pop. 9,749 - Vinings (CDP) pop. 9,734
- ThomastonThomaston, GeorgiaThomaston is a city in and the county seat of Upson County, Georgia, United States. The population was 9,638 at the 2006 census. It is the principal city of and is included in the Thomaston, Georgia Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is included in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville,...
pop. 9,170
- NorcrossNorcross, GeorgiaAs of 2010 Norcross had a population of 9,116. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 40.8% white , 19.8% black or African American , 0.7% Native American, 2.1% Asian Indian, 10.7% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 21.5% from some other race and 4.3% reporting two or more races...
pop. 9,116 - DoravilleDoraville, GeorgiaDoraville is a city in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, northeast of Atlanta. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 8,330.-History:Doraville was incorporated by an act of the Georgia General Assembly, approved December 15, 1871...
pop. 8,330 - ClarkstonClarkston, GeorgiaClarkston is a city in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 7,554 at the 2010 census. The city is home to the central campus of Georgia Perimeter College....
pop. 7,554 - BraseltonBraselton, GeorgiaBraselton is a town in Barrow, Gwinnett, Hall, and Jackson Counties in the U.S. state of Georgia, about 40 miles northeast of Atlanta. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 7,511....
pop. 7,511 - IrondaleIrondale, GeorgiaIrondale is a census-designated place in Clayton County, Georgia, United States. The population was 7,727 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Irondale is located at ....
(CDP) pop. 7,446 - CentervilleCenterville, Gwinnett County, GeorgiaCenterville is an unincorporated community in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. Centerville is located south of Snellville and is situated around the intersections of State Routes 124 and 264....
(CDP) pop. 7,148 - HamptonHampton, GeorgiaHampton is a city in southwestern Henry County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 6,987. Census Estimates for 2005 show a population of 4,743. Hampton mailing addresses also dip into eastern Clayton County and northern Spalding County.The Atlanta Motor...
pop. 6,987 - AuburnAuburn, GeorgiaAs of 2010 Auburn had a population of 6,887. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 85.3% white, 4.9% black or African American, 0.4% Native American, 4.1% Asian, 3.3% from some other race and 2.1% reporting two or more races...
(CDP) pop. 6,887 - TyroneTyrone, GeorgiaTyrone is a town in Fayette County, Georgia, United States. The population was 3,916 at the 2000 census. Census Estimates for 2005 show a population of 5,789.It was named after County Tyrone in Ireland.-Geography:...
(CDP) pop. 6,879 - BarnesvilleBarnesville, GeorgiaBarnesville is a city in Lamar County, Georgia, United States. The city is a part of the Atlanta Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 6,755. The city is the county seat of Lamar County....
pop. 6,775 - AustellAustell, GeorgiaAustell is a city in Cobb County in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 6,581.-History:Austell used to be known as Salt Springs, and was frequented by hunters who would trap and hunt game on their way to the salt licks. Some enterprising hunters claimed...
pop. 6,581 - MorrowMorrow, GeorgiaMorrow is a city in Clayton County, Georgia, United States. The population was 4,882 at the 2000 census. It is the home of Clayton State University.-Geography:Morrow is located at ....
pop. 6,445 - LovejoyLovejoy, GeorgiaLovejoy is a city in Clayton County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 2,495. During the American Civil War, it was named Lovejoy's Station, and was the site of the Battle of Lovejoy's Station during the Atlanta Campaign of 1864.During the 2000s,...
pop. 6,422 - HapevilleHapeville, GeorgiaHapeville is a city in Fulton County, Georgia, United States, located directly adjacent to the city of Atlanta. The population was 6,373 at the 2010 census. It is named for Dr...
pop. 6,373 - ConleyConley, GeorgiaConley is a census-designated place in DeKalb County and Clayton County, Georgia. The population was 6,188 at the 2000 census. The source of the name of the community is unknown. A pioneer settlement family of the surname "Conley" lived in DeKalb County...
(CDP) pop. 6,228 - Stone MountainStone Mountain, GeorgiaStone Mountain is a city in eastern DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 5,802 at the 2010 census. It is an outer suburb of the Atlanta Metropolitan Area.-Geography:...
pop. 5,802 - Flowery BranchFlowery Branch, GeorgiaFlowery Branch is a town in Hall County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 5,679. In 2010, the population was 5,679...
pop. 5,679 - CummingCumming, GeorgiaCumming is a city in Forsyth County, Georgia, United States. The population was 5,430 at the 2010 census. However, places with a Cumming mailing address have a population of around 100,000...
pop. 5,430 - JonesboroJonesboro, GeorgiaJonesboro is a city in Clayton County, Georgia, United States. The population was 4,724 as of the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Clayton County....
pop. 4,724 - PalmettoPalmetto, GeorgiaPalmetto is a city located mostly in Fulton County and now partly in Coweta County in the U.S. state of Georgia...
pop. 4,448 - DaculaDacula, GeorgiaAs of 2010 Dacula had a population of 4,442. the median age was 35.2. There were 1,472 households with 92.0% of housing units occupied. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 76.6% white , 11.3% black or African American, 0.3% Native American, 0.4% Asian Indian, 2.8% other...
pop. 4,442 - BonanzaBonanza, GeorgiaBonanza is a census-designated place in Clayton County, Georgia, United States. The population was 2,904 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Bonanza is located at ....
(CDP) pop. 3,135 - Lakeview Estates (CDP) pop. 2,695
- Lake CityLake City, GeorgiaLake City is a city in Clayton County, Georgia, United States. The population was 2,886 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Lake City is located at ....
pop. 2,612 - LithoniaLithonia, GeorgiaLithonia is a suburban town in eastern DeKalb County, Georgia, incorporated as a city. Lithonia's population was 1,924 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
pop. 1,924 - Berkeley LakeBerkeley Lake, GeorgiaBerkeley Lake is a city in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States. From its 1956 origins as a summer retreat, Berkeley Lake has grown into a thriving community centered on its namesake lake...
pop. 1,574
Community improvement districts
All of Georgia's community improvement districts are located in metro Atlanta.- Buckhead Community Improvement District, covering BuckheadBuckhead (Atlanta)Buckhead is the uptown district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, comprising approximately the northern one-fifth of the city. Buckhead is a major commercial and financial center of the Southeast, and it is the third-largest business district in Atlanta, behind Downtown and Midtown...
http://www.buckheadcid.com/ - Perimeter Center Community Improvement Districts, covering the Perimeter CenterPerimeter CenterPerimeter Center is a neighborhood and major edge city in metro Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is centered on Perimeter Mall, the nucleus around which it has formed. Perimeter Center is located north-northeast of Atlanta proper, and lies within two cities - Dunwoody and Sandy Springs...
area of Sandy Springs and Dunwoody http://www.perimetercid.org/ - Cumberland Community Improvement DistrictCumberland Community Improvement DistrictThe Cumberland Community Improvement District is a self-taxing district covering in southern Cobb County, Georgia that includes the intersections of I-75, I-285 and U.S. Highway 41...
, around Cumberland MallCumberland MallCumberland Mall, located in the Cumberland district of Metropolitan Atlanta near the suburbs of Smyrna and Vinings, opened on August 8, 1973 and was the largest mall in Georgia, United States, when it first opened.-Early years:...
http://www.cumberlandcid.org/ - Town Center Area Community Improvement District, around Town Center at Cobb mall http://www.cobbrides.com/cidpg.html
- Gwinnett Place Community Improvement District, around Gwinnett Place MallGwinnett Place MallGwinnett Place Mall is a super-regional shopping center located in Duluth, Georgia, in Gwinnett County. For the first 16 years, Gwinnett Place was the leading mall in the region, drawing shoppers from as far away as South Carolina and centering what was then one of the fastest growing counties in...
http://www.gwinnettplacecid.com/ - Gwinnett Village Community Improvement District, also in Gwinnett county southeast of Norcross http://www.gwinnettvillage.com/
- Evermore Community Improvement District, or Highway 78 Community Improvement District, covering part of the U.S. 78 corridor in Gwinnett near Snellville http://www.evermorecid.org/
- Lilburn Community Improvement District, established early 2010 in LilburnLilburn, GeorgiaAs of 2010 Lilburn had a population of 11,596. The median age was 36.3. The racial and ethnic composition of the population was 52.7% white , 16.4% black or African American, 0.5% Native American, 4.8% Asian Indian, 10.4% other Asian, 12.3% from some other race and 2.8% from two or more races...
Government and politics
The first significant intergovernmental agency in metro Atlanta was the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority or MARTA is the principal rapid-transit system in the Atlanta metropolitan area and the ninth-largest in the United States. Formed in 1971 as strictly a bus system, MARTA operates a network of bus routes linked to a rapid transit system consisting...
, which runs the MARTA public transportation system. Alongside other factors such as race
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
and class, as well as a lack of planning and perceived lack of need, problems associated with the inner city
Inner city
The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. In the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland, the term is often applied to the lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas...
of Atlanta (crime
Crime
Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...
, poverty
Poverty
Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...
, poor public school performance, etc.) influenced Cobb, Gwinnett, and Clayton county voters to refuse MARTA into their respective counties during the 1970s, which has permanently altered land development
Land development
Land development refers to altering the landscape in any number of ways such as:* changing landforms from a natural or semi-natural state for a purpose such as agriculture or housing...
in the region toward making automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
s even more of a necessity.
The Atlanta Regional Commission
Atlanta Regional Commission
The Atlanta Regional Commission is the regional planning and intergovernmental coordination agency for the metro Atlanta, Georgia region, as defined as a 10-county area including Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Douglas, Fayette, Fulton, Gwinnett, Henry and Rockdale counties, including the city of...
is so far the closest that the area has come to a metropolitan government. It only approves projects deemed to have an impact beyond the immediate area in which they are to be constructed. The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority
Georgia Regional Transportation Authority
The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority or GRTA is a government agency in the U.S. state of Georgia...
is somewhat of a cross between ARC and MARTA, searching mainly for alternative transportation such as buses and trains. GRTA also operates XPress buses from counties that have otherwise refused to join in public transport
Public transport
Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...
initiative
Initiative
In political science, an initiative is a means by which a petition signed by a certain minimum number of registered voters can force a public vote...
s, and could operate commuter rail service in the future. Currently, plans for commuter rail and eventual intercity rail (including the long-proposed but still unfunded Atlanta Multimodal Passenger Terminal) are the responsibility of the Georgia Rail Passenger Authority, which receives almost no funding.
Despite meeting in Atlanta, on land donated to it by the city for the Georgia State Capitol
Georgia State Capitol
The Georgia State Capitol, in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States, is an architecturally and historically significant building. It has been named a National Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the main office building of Georgia's government...
, the Georgia General Assembly
Georgia General Assembly
The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, being composed of the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate....
has often been at odds with the city. During the mid-2000s, the legislature voted to force Atlanta to abandon its living wage
Living wage
In public policy, a living wage is the minimum hourly income necessary for a worker to meet basic needs . These needs include shelter and other incidentals such as clothing and nutrition...
law. It also tried to vote against the city's tree-protection ordinance
Local ordinance
A local ordinance is a law usually found in a municipal code.-United States:In the United States, these laws are enforced locally in addition to state law and federal law.-Japan:...
, a move which would have allowed any tree in Georgia to be destroyed for any reason had it passed.
Funding formulas for roads have also been skewed toward rural legislators' political districts, particularly the Governor's Road Improvement Plan (GRIP), which encouraged divided highway
Divided Highway
Divided Highway is a compilation album by American rock band The Doobie Brothers, released in 2003. . All tracks are taken from the albums Cycles and Brotherhood .-Track listing:...
s even in places where they were not justified by actual or projected traffic. This, combined with a state constitution which prohibits motor fuel taxes from being used on anything other than roads (including on public transportation that eases traffic
Traffic
Traffic on roads may consist of pedestrians, ridden or herded animals, vehicles, streetcars and other conveyances, either singly or together, while using the public way for purposes of travel...
on those roads), has left the metro area in a very difficult situation when it comes to transportation.
There have been proposals since 2007 to allow new multi-county sales tax
Sales tax
A sales tax is a tax, usually paid by the consumer at the point of purchase, itemized separately from the base price, for certain goods and services. The tax amount is usually calculated by applying a percentage rate to the taxable price of a sale....
es, in addition to existing county sales taxes for roads, which would pay for regional transportation initiatives. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/legis07/stories/2007/01/05/transportation.html However, long-time powerful road lobbyists in the state have pushed for proposals heavily skewed toward more roads and little or no alternative transportation systems, like the ones which are being expanded in other major metro areas of the South like Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
, Charlotte
CHARLOTTE
- CHARLOTTE :CHARLOTTE is an American blues-based hard rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1986. Currently, they are signed to indie label, Eonian Records, under which they released their debut cd, Medusa Groove, in 2010. Notable Charlotte songs include 'Siren', 'Little Devils',...
, and Miami.
Utilities
The area is the world's largest toll-free calling zone spanning 7162 square miles (18,549 km²), has three active telephoneTelephone
The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...
area code
Telephone numbering plan
A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunications to allocate telephone numbers to subscribers and to route telephone calls in a telephone network. A closed numbering plan, such as found in North America, imposes a fixed total length to numbers...
s, and local calling extending into portions of two others. 404
Area code 404
Area code 404 covers Atlanta and its immediate neighbors, roughly within Interstate 285.Originally, it covered all of Georgia when the area code system was first created in the 1940s and implemented in 1951. On July 1, 1954, area code 912 was assigned to southern and middle Georgia...
, which originally covered all of northern Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
until 1992, now covers mostly the area inside the Perimeter (Interstate 285). In 1995, the suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
s were put into 770
Area code 770
Area code 770 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan , assigned to Metro Atlanta, Georgia's suburbs and exurbs. It was split from 404 in December 1995, just three years after the 706 split...
, requiring mandatory ten-digit dialing even for local calls under FCC
Federal Communications Commission
The Federal Communications Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, created, Congressional statute , and with the majority of its commissioners appointed by the current President. The FCC works towards six goals in the areas of broadband, competition, the spectrum, the...
rules. This made Atlanta one of the US's first cities to employ ten-digit dialing, which was begun by BellSouth
BellSouth
BellSouth Corporation is an American telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth was one of the seven original Regional Bell Operating Companies after the U.S...
the year before the Centennial 1996 Olympic Games. In 1998, 678
Area code 678
678 is a North American Numbering Plan area code assigned to metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, its suburbs and exurbs. The area code was first assigned to customers signing up for new telephone service on January 15, 1998. In local shorthand, 678 is usually written in shorthand for informal...
was overlaid onto both of the existing 404 and 770 area codes. Mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s, originally only assigned to 404, may now have any local area code regardless of where in the region they were issued. Area code 470 will be the next area code, overlaid as was 678, but very likely to cause confusion with 404, 770, and neighboring 478
Area code 478
Area code 478 is a telephone area code serving the state of Georgia, in the United States. It covers Macon and Middle Georgia . It was formerly part of Area code 912...
. The local calling area also includes portions of 706/762
Area code 706
In the NANP, area codes 706 and 762 cover parts of northern and west central Georgia outside of metro Atlanta. Until 1992 it was within area code 404, which was retained by the metro area....
and a small area of 256
Area code 256
Area codes 256 and 938 are telephone numbering plan codes in the state of Alabama with 256 created on March 23, 1998, as a split from area code 205...
in Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
on the Georgia border.
The city of Atlanta is the most wired city in the United States. Many residents access the internet on a high-speed broadband and/or WiFi connection. It is home to one of the world's largest fiber-optic bundles.
Major petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
and natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
pipeline
Pipeline transport
Pipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Most commonly, liquids and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes that transport solid capsules using compressed air are also used....
s cross the area, running from the Gulf
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
coast
Coast
A coastline or seashore is the area where land meets the sea or ocean. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the dynamic nature of tides. The term "coastal zone" can be used instead, which is a spatial zone where interaction of the sea and land processes occurs...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
to the population centers of the northeastern U.S. This includes Colonial Pipeline
Colonial Pipeline
Colonial Pipeline, headquartered in Alpharetta, Georgia, delivers a daily average of of gasoline, home heating oil, aviation fuel and other refined petroleum products to communities and businesses throughout the South and Eastern United States. Colonial consists of more than of pipeline,...
and Plantation Pipe Line, both based in Alpharetta.
Metro Atlanta primarily uses natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
for central heating
Central heating
A central heating system provides warmth to the whole interior of a building from one point to multiple rooms. When combined with other systems in order to control the building climate, the whole system may be a HVAC system.Central heating differs from local heating in that the heat generation...
and water heaters, with the major exception of heat pump
Heat pump
A heat pump is a machine or device that effectively "moves" thermal energy from one location called the "source," which is at a lower temperature, to another location called the "sink" or "heat sink", which is at a higher temperature. An air conditioner is a particular type of heat pump, but the...
s in apartment
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
s built during and since the 1980s. This is because winters are mild, and large apartment buildings usually require little energy to heat. Backup heat (also used during defrost
Defrost
Defrosting is a procedure, performed periodically on refrigerators and freezers to maintain their operating efficiency. Over time, as the door is opened and closed, letting in new air, water vapour from the air condenses on the cooling elements within the cabinet...
ing) is usually supplied by electric resistance heating, though some homes have hybrid heat
Hybrid heat
A Hybrid heat system reacts to changing temperatures and automatically adjusts to the most efficient energy saving method available to heat or cool a home. It is a fuel-saving alternative to traditional heating and cooling systems in that it combines a furnace with a heat pump, rather than an air...
ing units which use gas backup when it is cold. Exurban homes may also use all-electric instead of gas, if gas mains have not been extended to an area.
Cooktops and oven
Oven
An oven is a thermally insulated chamber used for the heating, baking or drying of a substance. It is most commonly used for cooking. Kilns, and furnaces are special-purpose ovens...
s are a mix of gas and electric, while gas clothes dryer
Clothes dryer
A clothes dryer or tumble dryer is a household appliance that is used to remove moisture from a load of clothing and other textiles, generally shortly after they are cleaned in a washing machine....
s are rather rare. Nearly all homes have a fireplace
Fireplace
A fireplace is an architectural structure to contain a fire for heating and, especially historically, for cooking. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or other flue allows gas and particulate exhaust to escape...
with a manual-valve
Valve
A valve is a device that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically pipe fittings, but are usually discussed as a separate category...
gas starter, and some are now equipped with permanent gas logs with electric switch start
Electric fireplace
An electric fireplace is an electric heater that mimics a fireplace burning coal, wood, or natural gas. Electric fireplaces are often placed in conventional fireplaces, which can then no longer be used for conventional fires...
. Some homes also have natural gas barbecue grill
Grill (cooking)
A barbecue grill is a device for cooking food by applying heat directly from below. There are several varieties of such grills, with most falling into one of two categories: gas-fueled and charcoal. There is a great debate over the merits of charcoal or gas for use as the cooking method between...
s, formerly sold at utility company stores.
Georgia Power
Georgia Power
Georgia Power is an electric utility headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It is the largest of the four electric utilities that are owned and operated by Southern Company....
is the main electric power
Electric power
Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.-Circuits:Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations...
company across the state and the metro area, beginning in 1902 as Georgia Railway and Power Company, Atlanta's streetcar (trolley
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
) company. Several electric membership corporations also serve the suburbs. These include the second-largest EMC in the nation in Jackson EMC
Jackson Electric Membership Corporation
Jackson Electric Membership Corporation is one of 39 not for profit membership-owned electric cooperatives located the State of Georgia with service in the North-East metropolitan Atlanta area...
, Cobb EMC,and Sawnee EMC. The city of Marietta operates its own electric utility, Marietta Power, under the Board of Lights & Water (BLW). It is also a member of the Municipal Electric Association of Georgia (MEAG).
Atlanta Gas Light
Atlanta Gas Light
Atlanta Gas Light Company , commonly still known as Atlanta Gas Light , is the largest natural gas wholesaler in the Southeast U.S., and is the "AGL" in parent company AGL Resources. It was founded in 1856 and is headquartered in Atlanta, as is AGL Resources...
is the natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
utility for the region, and has been so for over a century
Century
A century is one hundred consecutive years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages .-Start and end in the Gregorian Calendar:...
and a half, since it installed gas lamps in Atlanta in 1856. It operated as a regulated monopoly until November 1998, the after the state legislature voted in early 1997 to deregulate natural gas marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
, and make customers choose among nearly 20 different marketers still selling the same AGL-wholesale
Wholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
d gas. Most of the gas comes via pipeline
Pipeline transport
Pipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Most commonly, liquids and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes that transport solid capsules using compressed air are also used....
from Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
.
Water is provided by various county and a few city systems. Several of these systems actually serve parts of neighboring counties and cities as well. The Cobb-Marietta Water Authority serves not only Cobb, but also parts of neighboring Paulding and Cherokee counties, for example. During drought
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
or other emergency
Emergency
An emergency is a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property or environment. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening of the situation, although in some situations, mitigation may not be possible and agencies may only be able to offer palliative...
, cities and counties can enact outdoor water-use restriction
Outdoor water-use restriction
An outdoor water-use restriction is a ban or other lesser restrictions put into effect that restricts the outdoor use of water supplies. Often called a watering ban or hosepipe ban, it can affect:*irrigation of lawns*car washing...
s, however some cross-jurisdiction
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...
water systems have also acted to put bans in place. In late September 2007, the state Environmental Protection Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources
Georgia Department of Natural Resources
The Georgia Department of Natural Resources is an administrative agency of the U.S. state of Georgia. The agency has statewide responsibilities for managing and conserving Georgia’s natural, cultural, and historical resources, and is divided into six divisions:...
, stepped-in with its first-ever ban, covering most of the northern half of the state. While surface water
Surface water
Surface water is water collecting on the ground or in a stream, river, lake, wetland, or ocean; it is related to water collecting as groundwater or atmospheric water....
is by far the primary source of water for the region, the drought had many systems (and a few wealthy homeowners) drilling new well
Water well
A water well is an excavation or structure created in the ground by digging, driving, boring or drilling to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The well water is drawn by an electric submersible pump, a trash pump, a vertical turbine pump, a handpump or a mechanical pump...
s for ground water, though the local water table
Water table
The water table is the level at which the submarine pressure is far from atmospheric pressure. It may be conveniently visualized as the 'surface' of the subsurface materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity. However, saturated conditions may extend above the water table as...
is around 400 feet (121.9 m) deep, on average
Average
In mathematics, an average, or central tendency of a data set is a measure of the "middle" value of the data set. Average is one form of central tendency. Not all central tendencies should be considered definitions of average....
.
Sewerage
Sanitary sewer
A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...
is also handled by the water utilities, however the various water and sewer networks may not conform to the same boundaries, resulting in interbasin water transfers. This is for practical reasons, because the area is hilly and divided by several watersheds, because the area has developed irregularly and erratically, and because water treatment
Water treatment
Water treatment describes those processes used to make water more acceptable for a desired end-use. These can include use as drinking water, industrial processes, medical and many other uses. The goal of all water treatment process is to remove existing contaminants in the water, or reduce the...
plants are usually not near sewage treatment plants. Septic tank
Septic tank
A septic tank is a key component of the septic system, a small-scale sewage treatment system common in areas with no connection to main sewage pipes provided by local governments or private corporations...
s are still used in the older homes of some exurbs.
Retail
The major supermarketSupermarket
A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...
s in the area are long-time Kroger
Kroger
The Kroger Co. is an American supermarket chain founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cincinnati, Ohio. It reported US$ 76.7 billion in sales during fiscal year 2009. It is the country's largest grocery store chain and its second-largest grocery retailer by volume and second-place general retailer...
(including former Harris Teeter
Harris Teeter
Harris Teeter is a chain of supermarkets based in Matthews, North Carolina, just outside Charlotte. , the chain operates 207 stores in eight Southern states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Maryland, Delaware, and the District of Columbia.Harris Teeter is a...
locations), and since the 1990s, Publix
Publix
Publix Super Markets, Inc. is an American supermarket chain based in Lakeland, Florida.Founded in 1930 by George W. Jenkins, it is an employee-owned, privately held corporation. Publix is currently ranked No. 86 on Fortune magazine's list of 100 Best Companies to Work For 2010 and was ranked No...
. Previously, the list also included Winn-Dixie (some were later SaveRite), A&P, Big Star
Big Star Markets
Big Star was an American supermarket chain founded in 1937 as part of the David Pender Grocery Company.-History:The Big Star stores were self-service supermarket operations which began to replace the small full-service stores Pender's had operated up to that point. By the late 1940s the entire...
, Cub Foods
Cub Foods
Cub Foods is a supermarket chain with seventy-three stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based SuperValu...
, Bruno's, and Food Lion
Food Lion
Food Lion LLC is an American grocery store company headquartered in Salisbury, North Carolina that operates approximately 1,300 supermarkets in 11 Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states as well as Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia under the Food Lion, Harveys Supermarket, Bloom, Bottom Dollar...
. Food Depot and Aldi
ALDI
ALDI Einkauf GmbH & Co. oHG, doing business as ', short for "Albrecht Discount", is a discount supermarket chain based in Germany...
are recent startups, with only a few locations, and Food Lion is re-entering the market after an absence of neary two decades. Ingles
Ingles
Ingles Markets is an American regional supermarket chain based in Asheville, North Carolina. As of January 2011, The company operates 201 supermarkets in the Southeastern United States...
has closed several locations but still has a few in the far suburbs, mainly because suburban sprawl has come out to meet them, rather than actively trying to enter the market. Local chain Harry's Farmers Market is owned since 2001 by Whole Foods
Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market is a foods supermarket chain based in Austin, Texas which emphasizes "natural and organic products." The company has been ranked among the most socially responsible businesses and placed third on the U.S...
, and both names are retained locally. The "Harry's In a Hurry" locations were not acquired and closed soon after.
Drugstore
Pharmacy
Pharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
s include Rite-Aid (all converted from Eckerd Drug in 2008, with most locations in strip mall
Strip mall
A strip mall is an open-area shopping center where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front...
s closed in 2009, along with a few freestanding stores), CVS/pharmacy, and since the 2000s, Walgreens
Walgreens
Walgreen Co. , doing business as Walgreens , is the largest drugstore chain in the United States of America. As of August 31st, the company operates 8,210 locations across all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1901, and has since expanded...
. While all Walgreens are new, Eckerd was composed of several of its own stores, in addition to Treasury Drug and local chain Dunaway Drugs. CVS is composed of what was Reed Drug in the 1980s, later Big B Drugs
Big B Drugs
Big B, Inc. was a Birmingham, Alabama-based drugstore chain. The company began operation in 1968 as division of Birmingham based Bruno's Supermarkets. Most of its stores were located next to a Bruno's, Food World or FoodMax. Big B also operated a discount drugstore chain called Drugs For Less...
, and briefly Revco
Revco
Revco Discount Drug Stores , once based in Twinsburg, Ohio, was a major drug store chain operating through the Ohio Valley, the Mid-Atlantic states, and the Southeastern United States. The chain's stock was traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker RXR...
for just a year from 1996 to 1997. Drug Emporium
Drug Emporium
Drug Emporium is the name of a discount drug store corporation, founded in 1977 in Columbus, Ohio, that was sold to several different buyers during 2000 to 2001. Although several store locations continue to use the Drug Emporium name, these locations are no longer affiliated with the now-defunct...
was present for several years, while fellow superstore Phar-Mor
Phar-Mor
Phar-Mor was a United States chain of discount drug stores, based in Youngstown, Ohio, and founded by Michael "Mickey" Monus and David S. Shapira in 1982. Some of its stores used the names Pharmhouse and Rx Place...
had only a brief run.
Century-old Atlanta furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
store Rhodes Furniture
Rhodes Furniture
The Rhodes Furniture Company was a retail furniture company based in Atlanta, Georgia. Beginning with a single store in downtown Atlanta the company expanded throughout the United States.-History:...
(see Rhodes Hall
Rhodes Hall
Rhodes Memorial Hall, commonly known as Rhodes Hall, is a historic house museum located in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was built as the home of furniture magnate Amos Giles Rhodes, proprietor of Atlanta-based Rhodes Furniture...
and A. G. Rhodes) went bankrupt, with most stores later reopening as Broyhill Furniture. Havertys
Havertys
Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc. is a retail furniture company founded in 1885. Beginning with a single store in downtown Atlanta, Havertys has grown to become one of the top furniture retailers in the south and central United States...
, founded 1885, is another Atlanta institution (see Rhodes-Haverty Building
Rhodes-Haverty Building
The Residence Inn Atlanta Downtown is a 21-story hotel tower occupying the former Rhodes-Haverty Building at 134 Peachtree Street NW and Williams Street in the Fairlie-Poplar historic district of downtown Atlanta, Georgia. The building was designed by Atlanta architects Pringle and Smith...
). They compete against Ashley Furniture, Thomasville furniture, Bassett Furniture
Bassett Furniture
Bassett Furniture is a furniture manufacturer headquartered in Bassett, Virginia, United States.It was founded in 1902 by John David Bassett and C.C. Bassett...
, and Rooms To Go
Rooms To Go
Rooms To Go Incorporated is a chain of furniture stores based in the South Eastern United States and Puerto Rico. In September 2005, Cindy Crawford launched the "Cindy Crawford Home" furniture line exclusively with Rooms To Go....
. Roberds is another closed retail chain, which also sold home appliance
Home appliance
Home appliances are electrical/mechanical machines which accomplish some household functions, such as cooking or cleaning. Home appliances can be classified into:*Major appliances, or White goods*Small appliances, or Brown goods...
s.
Circuit City (which closed all 16 local stores in December 2008) stopped selling appliances years before, but Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
still does. Since the mid-2000s, hhgregg
Hhgregg
hhgregg Inc. or Gregg Appliances Inc. is a publicly owned and operated appliance and electronics retailer in the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast United States with over 3,100 employees operating stores in 16 states including Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky,...
has entered the market, selling appliances, electronics (but no computer
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
s, except notebooks), and bed
Bed
A bed is a large piece of furniture used as a place to sleep, relax, or engage in sexual relations.Most modern beds consist of a mattress on a bed frame, with the mattress resting either on a solid base, often wooden slats, or a sprung base...
s, similar to Roberds. Service Merchandise
Service Merchandise
Service Merchandise is an online retailer and former retailer chain of catalog showroom stores carrying fine jewelry, toys, sporting goods, and electronics that existed for 68 years...
also had stores in the area prior to their bankruptcy, and Lechmere
Lechmere
Lechmere was a retail store chain in New England, which closed in 1997.-History:Lechmere Inc. was a retailer of electronics, appliances, and other goods, with 24 stores located throughout New England and New York. The company was founded in the early twentieth century and expanded during the...
was around for only a few years. CompUSA
CompUSA
CompUSA is a retailer and reseller of consumer electronics, technology products and computer services. Its headquarters are in Miami, Florida.Until its reorganization, CompUSA, Inc. was a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Commercial Corp S.A.B...
closed its area locations in spring 2007. RadioShack
RadioShack
RadioShack Corporation is an American franchise of electronics retail stores in the United States, as well as parts of Europe, South America and Africa. As of 2008, RadioShack reported net sales and operating revenues of $4.81 billion. The headquarters of RadioShack is located in Downtown...
operates many in-mall and strip mall
Strip mall
A strip mall is an open-area shopping center where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front...
locations, though several were closed from 2006 to 2009.
The Home Depot
The Home Depot
The Home Depot is an American retailer of home improvement and construction products and services.The Home Depot operates 2,248 big-box format stores across the United States , Canada , Mexico and China, with a 12-store chain...
, started and based in metro Atlanta, has stores across the area. Lowe's
Lowe's
Lowe's Companies, Inc. is a U.S.-based chain of retail home improvement and appliance stores. Founded in 1946 in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, the chain now serves more than 14 million customers a week in its 1,710 stores in the United States and 20 in Canada. Expansion into Canada began in...
closed its mid-size stores, but returned a few years later with the superstores now located across the street from many Home Depots. Both sell appliances and landscaping
Landscaping
Landscaping refers to any activity that modifies the visible features of an area of land, including:# living elements, such as flora or fauna; or what is commonly referred to as gardening, the art and craft of growing plants with a goal of creating a beautiful environment within the landscape.#...
, while several Ace Hardware
Ace Hardware
Ace Hardware Corporation is a hardware cooperative based in Oak Brook, Illinois, United States. ACE Hardware Corporation, with 4,444 stores, does over $3 billion in retail hardware sales annually down from its peak of $12.5 billion in 2007.-History:...
stores hold their ground, concentrating on being traditional hardware store
Hardware store
Hardware stores, sometimes known as DIY stores, sell household hardware including: fasteners, hand tools, power tools, keys, locks, hinges, chains, plumbing supplies, electrical supplies, cleaning products, housewares, tools, utensils, paint, and lawn and garden products directly to consumers for...
s. Pike Family Nurseries (acquired from bankruptcy protection by Armstrong Garden Centers of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, after the severe drought in 2007 continued into 2008) is the major local plant nursery chain with several stores, the few Home Depot Landscape Supply
Home Depot Landscape Supply
Home Depot Landscape Supply was a small retail chain of plant nurseries and other landscaping supplies, begun in 2002 by Home Depot. There were only eleven stores, with just over half in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas, and the rest in Georgia in the northern suburbs of the Atlanta area, where...
stores ever opened having closed in mid-November 2007.
Founded during the Reconstruction Era of the late 1860s
1860s
The 1860s were an extremely turbulent decade with numerous cultural, social, and political upheavals in Europe and America. Revolutions were prevalent in Germany and the Ottoman Empire...
, Rich's
Rich's
Rich's was a department store retail chain, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, that operated in the southern U.S. from 1867 until March 6, 2005 when the nameplate was eliminated and replaced by Macy's...
and Davison's
Davison's
Davison's of Atlanta was the major competition to Rich's, once itself an Atlanta shopping institution. The chain took the Macy's name in 1986.-Founding:...
, both major names in Atlanta-area department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
s, succumbed to parent Macy's
Macy's
Macy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
after well over a century in business. JC Penney and Sears have been in Atlanta for decades. Parisian was around for a decade or so before being bought by Belk
Belk
Belk is a department store chain founded in 1888 in Monroe, North Carolina, today part of the Charlotte metropolitan area. After the founding of the first Belk store, the company grew in size and influence throughout the South via the chain in the USA, with its stores primarily located in the...
, which has a well-established name outside the metro area. Belk closed some of these locations, leaving them to Kohl's
Kohl's
Kohl's Corporation is an American department store chain headquartered in the Milwaukee suburb of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, operating , 1,089 stores in 49 states. In 1998, it entered the S&P 500 list, and is also listed in the Fortune 500...
, which previously had only several off-mall and strip-mall locations constructed in the 2000s. The Rich's Great Tree
Rich's Great Tree
The Rich's Great Tree, now the Macy's Great Tree , is a large tall cut pine Christmas tree that has been an Atlanta tradition since 1948. -History:...
has been a major local Christmas tradition since the 1940s, with its grand illumination
Grand Illumination
A Grand Illumination is an outdoor ceremony involving the simultaneous activation of lights. The most common form of the ceremony involves turning on Christmas lights....
ceremony
Ceremony
A ceremony is an event of ritual significance, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin.-Ceremonial occasions:A ceremony may mark a rite of passage in a human life, marking the significance of, for example:* birth...
every Thanksgiving.
Discount store
Discount store
A discount store is a type of department store, which sells products at prices lower than those asked by traditional retail outlets. Most discount department stores offer a wide assortment of goods; others specialize in such merchandise as jewelry, electronic equipment, or electrical appliances...
s include Target and Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. , branded as Walmart since 2008 and Wal-Mart before then, is an American public multinational corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The company is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000...
, and Kmart
Kmart
Kmart, sometimes styled as "K-Mart," is a chain of discount department stores. The chain acquired Sears in 2005, forming a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation. The company was founded in 1962 and is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and...
, which closed at least half of its metro-area stores before buying Sears. Since then, some have become Sears Outlet store
Outlet store
An outlet store or factory outlet is a brick and mortar or online retail store in which manufacturers sell their stock directly to the public. Traditionally, a factory outlet was a store attached to a factory or warehouse, sometimes allowing customers to watch the production process like in the...
s, with at least one becoming a hybrid Sears/Kmart under the Sears name. Former discount stores include local Richway (sold by Rich's to Target in 1988), and Zayre
Zayre
Zayre was a chain of discount stores that operated in the Northeastern, Southern and Midwestern United States from 1956 to 1990. The company's headquarters was in Framingham, Massachusetts. In 1988, the Zayre department stores were sold to the parent company of the competing Ames chain, and Zayre's...
, Treasure Island, McCrory's, and Woolworth
F. W. Woolworth Company
The F. W. Woolworth Company was a retail company that was one of the original American five-and-dime stores. The first successful Woolworth store was opened on July 18, 1879 by Frank Winfield Woolworth in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as "Woolworth's Great Five Cent Store"...
. Closeout stores include Big Lots
Big Lots
Big Lots, Inc. is a Fortune 500 retail corporation with annual revenues well over $4 billion.Its department stores focus mainly on selling closeout and overstock merchandise. The company is based in Columbus, Ohio, USA and currently operates over 1,400 stores in 47 states...
(including some former MacFrugal's), TJ Maxx, Marshalls
Marshalls
Marshalls, Inc., is a chain of American department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 750 conventional stores, as well as larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store, covering 42 states and Puerto Rico. Marshalls expanded into Canada in March 2011...
(some formerly Branden's), HomeGoods
HomeGoods
HomeGoods is a chain of home furnishing stores operated by TJX Companies and has 270 stores across the US as of February 2007.HomeGoods operates the home furnishings sections of T.J. Maxx 'n More and Marshalls Mega Store stores....
, Ross
Ross Dress For Less
Ross Stores, Inc. , is a chain of American off-price department stores headquartered in Pleasanton, California, operating under the name Ross Dress for Less. It is the third largest off-price retailer in the United States, behind T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, both of which are owned by TJX Companies.As...
, Burlington Coat Factory
Burlington Coat Factory
Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation is a national department store retailer focusing on clothing and shoes, with over 450 stores in 45 states and Puerto Rico.. In 2006, it was acquired by Bain Capital, LLC in a take-private transaction...
(the original Marietta store in a former Woolco
Woolco
Woolco was an American-based discount retail chain. It was founded in 1962 in the city of Columbus, Ohio, by the F.W. Woolworth Company. It was a full-line discount department store unlike the five-and-dime Woolworth stores which operated at the time. At its peak, Woolco had hundreds of stores in...
), and a new AJWright store.
Dollar store
Dollar store
A variety store or price-point retailer is a retail store that sells inexpensive items, often with a single price for all items in the store...
s include Dollar Tree
Dollar Tree
Dollar Tree, Inc. is an American chain of discount variety stores that sells every item for $1.00 or less. A Fortune 500 company, Dollar Tree is headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia and operates 4,010 stores throughout the 48 contiguous U.S. states. Its stores are supported by a nationwide...
and several independent stores which come and go. Around 2004, Little Bucks
Little Bucks
Around 2004, Little Bucks was a short-lived local retail chain of superstore-like dollar stores around metro Atlanta, and nearby areas of Georgia, United States...
was a local 99¢ chain which opened several large stores and then closed just over a year later. Super 88¢+ also had at least one location here. Other variety stores include Dollar General
Dollar General
Dollar General Corp. is a U.S. chain of variety stores headquartered in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. As of January 2011, Dollar General operated over 9,300 stores in 35 U.S. states....
and Family Dollar
Family Dollar
Family Dollar is a regional chain of variety stores in the United States. It opened in 1959 and operates approximately 6,617 stores in 44 states and the District of Columbia. It is headquartered in Matthews, North Carolina....
.
Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's hands and skill. These can be sub-divided into handicrafts or "traditional crafts" and "the rest"...
stores include Michael's, JoAnn, Hobby Lobby
Hobby Lobby
Hobby Lobby is a privately held retail chain of arts and crafts stores based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and is formally called Hobby Lobby Creative Centers.Founded by David Green on August 3, 1972, the chain has more than 456 stores in 39 states...
(often in former Kmart locations), Old Time Pottery
Old Time Pottery
Old Time Pottery is a expansive discount home décor retailer based in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. As of August 2010, it had 30 stores, including seven in Florida, three in Tennessee, four in Ohio and Alabama, one in Georgia two in Indiana, three in North Carolina, two in South Carolina, two in...
, Hancock Fabrics
Hancock Fabrics
Hancock Fabrics is a specialty retailer of crafts and fabrics based in Baldwyn, Mississippi, United States. Hancock Fabrics operates 266 stores in 37 states under the Hancock Fabrics name.-History:...
, and four Garden Ridge
Garden Ridge
Garden Ridge is an American privately held retail chain based in Houston, Texas. Starting with just one store, then known as Garden Ridge Pottery, in Schertz, Texas in 1979, the chain now sells mattresses, ready-to-assemble furniture, discount apparel and handbags, and books.The chain operates 47...
superstores. Hobby store
Hobby store
A hobby store sells recreational modelling and craft supplies and specialty magazines for model airplanes , train models, ship models, house and building models. Some hobby shops may also sell dolls, and collectible coins and stamps. A subtype of hobby store is a game store, which sells board...
s include four HobbyTown USA
HobbyTown USA
♦HobbyTown USA or HobbyTown is a franchised retail hobby and toy store, most stores offer a full line of radio control hobbies, models, games, toys, educational items, paints, tools and model railroad items. The franchise stores also carry seasonal items such as rockets, pinewood derby, educational...
stores (one superstore), Hobby Lobby, and a few independent hobby dealers.
Other local chains include Georgia Backyard and formerly Seasonal Concepts for patio
Patio
A patio is an outdoor space generally used for dining or recreation that adjoins a residence and is typically paved. It may refer to a roofless inner courtyard of the sort found in Spanish-style dwellings or a paved area between a residence and a garden....
furniture. The former sells fireplace
Fireplace
A fireplace is an architectural structure to contain a fire for heating and, especially historically, for cooking. A fire is contained in a firebox or firepit; a chimney or other flue allows gas and particulate exhaust to escape...
accessories in fall and winter, the latter sold Christmas decoration
Christmas decoration
A Christmas decoration is any of several types of decorations used at Christmastime. The traditional colours of Christmas are pine green , snow white, and heart red. Blue and white are often used to represent winter, or sometimes Hanukkah, which occurs around the same time. Gold and silver are...
s to make it through the off season. Georgia Backyard also sells hot tub
Hot tub
A hot tub is a large tub or small pool full of heated water and used for soaking, relaxation, massage, or hydrotherapy. In most cases, they have jets for massage purposes. Hot tubs are usually located outdoors, and are often sheltered for protection from the elements, as well as for privacy....
s, as does Recreational Factory Warehouse, which also sells billiards
Billiards
Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
. Games & Things sells billiards and other high-end game
Game
A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...
s as well.
Outdoor recreation
Recreation
Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. The "need to do something for recreation" is an essential element of human biology and psychology. Recreational activities are often done for enjoyment, amusement, or pleasure and are considered to be "fun"...
stores include recent arrival REI, Dick's Sporting Goods
Dick's Sporting Goods
Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. , or Dick's, is a Fortune 500 American corporation in the sporting goods and retail industries.The company's headquarters are on the grounds of Pittsburgh International Airport in Findlay Township near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dick's has 451 stores in 42 states as of...
(all former Galyan's locations), The Sports Authority, and formerly Oshman's. Shoe
Shoe
A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot while doing various activities. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture to culture, with appearance originally being tied to function...
-only stores include Payless Shoes, Foot Locker
Foot Locker
Foot Locker, Inc. is an American sportswear and footwear retailer, with its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and operating in approximately 20 countries worldwide. Formerly known as Venator Group, Inc., it is the successor corporation to the F.W. Woolworth Company , and many of...
, The Athlete's Foot
The Athlete's Foot
The Athlete's Foot is a franchisor of athletic footwear.In 1971, David Lando realized that athletic shoes were by far the highest selling product in his store. That year, he and his son, Michael Lando, opened the first Athlete's Foot store in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was the first athletic...
, more recent entry Designer Shoe Warehouse, and formerly Just For Feet
Just For Feet
Just For Feet Inc. was an athletic shoe and sportswear retailer headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama which became one of the largest and fastest growing athletic stores in the United States. In 2000 Footstar acquired Just For Feet...
, Kinney Shoes, and Thom McAn Shoes.
Music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
stores are mostly gone now, but included local Turtles Music and Video, which later became Blockbuster Music and then Sound Warehouse, before becoming Wherehouse Music. Camelot Music
Camelot Music
Camelot Music was a leading mall-based retailer of prerecorded music and accessories and was one of the largest music retailers in the United States based on store count....
was also common in indoor malls instead of the strip mall
Strip mall
A strip mall is an open-area shopping center where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front...
s where Turtles usually was. MARS Music
Mars Music
Mars Music, Inc. is a now defunct chain of music stores headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The company was founded in 1996 by guitarist and former Office Depot president Mark Begelman, who created the superstore store chain after experiencing dissatisfaction with his own music store...
sold musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
s, sheet music
Sheet music
Sheet music is a hand-written or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols; like its analogs—books, pamphlets, etc.—the medium of sheet music typically is paper , although the access to musical notation in recent years includes also presentation on computer screens...
, pro audio gear during the late 1990s, and Guitar Center
Guitar Center
Guitar Center is the largest chain of musical instrument retailers in the world with 223 locations throughout the United States. Its headquarters is in Westlake Village, California....
still does. Long-time local chain Ken Stanton Music repositioned itself from school band
School band
A school band is a group of student musicians who rehearse and perform instrumental music together. A concert band is usually under the direction of one or more conductors...
instruments to also include pro audio.
Best Buy closed its Media Play
Media Play
Media Play was a chain of retail stores founded in 1992 by Musicland that sold movies on video, DVDs, music, Electronics, video games, books, and games in the United States. Each store essentially contained a book store, a movie store, a music store, and a video game store under one roof. At...
chain, but Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest book retailer in the United States, operating mainly through its Barnes & Noble Booksellers chain of bookstores headquartered at 122 Fifth Avenue in the Flatiron District in Manhattan in New York City. Barnes & Noble also operated the chain of small B. Dalton...
and Borders Books continue. Borders' subsidiary
Subsidiary
A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...
Waldenbooks
Waldenbooks
Waldenbooks , operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., was an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain and a subsidiary of Borders Group. The chain also ran a video game and software chain under the name Waldensoftware as well as a children's edutainment chain under Walden Kids...
are found in most large malls. But for far as the competitor of Waldenbooks called B Dalton's Booksellers is now defunct as of 2010.
Second-hand stores include several Goodwill Industries
Goodwill Industries
Goodwill Industries International is a not-for-profit organization that provides job training, employment placement services and other community-based programs for people who have a disability, lack education or job experience, or face employment challenges...
of North Georgia and a few Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
thrift stores, three America's Thrift Stores, and some very limited-hours stores of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
The St Vincent de Paul Society is an international Roman Catholic voluntary organization dedicated to tackling poverty and disadvantage by providing direct practical assistance to anyone in need. Active in England & Wales since 1844, today it continues to address social and material need in all...
. For-profit local chains which buy and resell higher-quality goods include local chains Abbadabba's and Plato's Closet. It is unclear whether Value Village and Park Avenue Thrift are for-profit or non-profit thrift chains.
Atlanta is a city known in the South
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
for its abundant shopping. The Atlanta area is home to one of the South's largest shopping malls, the Mall of Georgia
Mall of Georgia
Mall of Georgia is a regional shopping mall located in the Mill Creek District of Gwinnett County, Georgia, near the city of Buford, northeast of Atlanta. Built in 1999, it is currently the largest shopping mall in the state of Georgia, consisting of more than two hundred stores on three levels...
, located in nearby Gwinnett County. Although it is the largest mall in the Atlanta metro area, in nearby Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
, SouthPark Mall
Southpark Mall
Southpark Mall may refer to:*South Park Mall *SouthPark Mall *Southpark Mall *SouthPark Mall *Southpark Mall *Southpark Mall...
is the largest in the south with around 2.o million square feet.
The largest shopping establishments in Metro Atlanta include:
- Mall of GeorgiaMall of GeorgiaMall of Georgia is a regional shopping mall located in the Mill Creek District of Gwinnett County, Georgia, near the city of Buford, northeast of Atlanta. Built in 1999, it is currently the largest shopping mall in the state of Georgia, consisting of more than two hundred stores on three levels...
, Buford. It is the largest mall in the state. Anchored by: BelkBelkBelk is a department store chain founded in 1888 in Monroe, North Carolina, today part of the Charlotte metropolitan area. After the founding of the first Belk store, the company grew in size and influence throughout the South via the chain in the USA, with its stores primarily located in the...
, Dillard'sDillard'sDillard's, Inc. is a department store chain in the United States, with 330 stores in 29 states. Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dillard's locations are concentrated in Texas and Florida; with a major presence in other states including Arizona, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri,...
, J.C. PenneyJ.C. PenneyJ. C. Penney Company, Inc. is a chain of American mid-range department stores based in Plano, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas. The company operates 1,107 department stores in all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. JCPenney also operates catalog sales merchant offices nationwide in many...
, Macy'sMacy'sMacy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
, and NordstromNordstromNordstrom, Inc. is an upscale department store chain in the United States, founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin. Initially a shoe retailer, the company today also sells clothing, accessories, handbags, jewelry, cosmetics, fragrances, and in some locations, home furnishings...
. And over 200 other stores. - Arbor Place MallArbor Place MallArbor Place Mall, the only regional mall directly serving the growing western suburbs of Atlanta, is located in Douglasville, Georgia, in Douglas County. Opened in October 1999, the mall was originally to be anchored by Dillard's, Parisian, Sears, and Upton's...
, Douglasville, the fourth-largest mall in the state of Georgia, and major retail hub in Atlanta's western suburbs. Home to anchor stores Macy'sMacy'sMacy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
, BelkBelkBelk is a department store chain founded in 1888 in Monroe, North Carolina, today part of the Charlotte metropolitan area. After the founding of the first Belk store, the company grew in size and influence throughout the South via the chain in the USA, with its stores primarily located in the...
, SearsSears, Roebuck and CompanySears, officially named Sears, Roebuck and Co., is an American chain of department stores which was founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in the late 19th century...
, J.C. PenneyJ.C. PenneyJ. C. Penney Company, Inc. is a chain of American mid-range department stores based in Plano, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas. The company operates 1,107 department stores in all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. JCPenney also operates catalog sales merchant offices nationwide in many...
, and Dillard'sDillard'sDillard's, Inc. is a department store chain in the United States, with 330 stores in 29 states. Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dillard's locations are concentrated in Texas and Florida; with a major presence in other states including Arizona, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri,...
. - Atlantic StationAtlantic StationAtlantic Station is a large brownfield redevelopment project at the northwestern edge of Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. Atlantic Station is being master developed by AIG Global Real Estate and local development partner Jacoby Development, Inc...
, midtown Atlanta, a massive redevelopmentRedevelopmentRedevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses.-Description:Variations on redevelopment include:* Urban infill on vacant parcels that have no existing activity but were previously developed, especially on Brownfield land, such as the redevelopment of an industrial site...
of a steel millSteel millA steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel.Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. It is produced in a two-stage process. First, iron ore is reduced or smelted with coke and limestone in a blast furnace, producing molten iron which is either cast into pig iron or...
site - Cumberland MallCumberland MallCumberland Mall, located in the Cumberland district of Metropolitan Atlanta near the suburbs of Smyrna and Vinings, opened on August 8, 1973 and was the largest mall in Georgia, United States, when it first opened.-Early years:...
, Cobb County, once the largest mall in Georgia, now anchored by CostcoCostcoCostco Wholesale Corporation is the largest membership warehouse club chain in the United States. it is the third largest retailer in the United States, where it originated, and the ninth largest in the world...
, Macy'sMacy'sMacy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
and Sears. - Discover MillsDiscover MillsDiscover Mills is a , single story shopping mall in Lawrenceville, Georgia with over 180 specialty retailers. The mall features 13 anchors as well as a variety of theme restaurants, casual dining and entertainment venues. Discover Mills is the first mall in the United States to have naming rights...
, Duluth, a large outlet shopping mall located in Gwinnett County - Greenbriar MallGreenbriar MallGreenbriar Mall is a shopping mall southwest of downtown Atlanta, United States..-Early years:Greenbriar Center opened in August/September 1965 as Atlanta's third totally enclosed mall, after Columbia Mall, in 1964, and North Dekalb Center, in July 1965. The design of the mall was like many of the...
, southwest Atlanta, a regional mall anchored Macy'sMacy'sMacy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
, and Burlington Coat FactoryBurlington Coat FactoryBurlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation is a national department store retailer focusing on clothing and shoes, with over 450 stores in 45 states and Puerto Rico.. In 2006, it was acquired by Bain Capital, LLC in a take-private transaction...
. - Gwinnett Place MallGwinnett Place MallGwinnett Place Mall is a super-regional shopping center located in Duluth, Georgia, in Gwinnett County. For the first 16 years, Gwinnett Place was the leading mall in the region, drawing shoppers from as far away as South Carolina and centering what was then one of the fastest growing counties in...
, Duluth. - Lenox SquareLenox SquareLenox Square is an upscale enclosed super regional shopping mall located in the Buckhead District of Atlanta, Georgia. Lenox Square comprises more than of retail space, with 250 stores on four levels, including a large food court. The mall is home to three anchor stores: Macy's, Bloomingdale's,...
, BuckheadBuckhead (Atlanta)Buckhead is the uptown district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, comprising approximately the northern one-fifth of the city. Buckhead is a major commercial and financial center of the Southeast, and it is the third-largest business district in Atlanta, behind Downtown and Midtown...
, a large three-storyStoreyA storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
shopping center that is home to some 250 retailers and restaurants. Anchors include Macy'sMacy'sMacy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
(formerly Rich'sRich'sRich's was a department store retail chain, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, that operated in the southern U.S. from 1867 until March 6, 2005 when the nameplate was eliminated and replaced by Macy's...
), Bloomingdales (formerly Macy's), and Neiman-Marcus. It was the first mall to open in the state of Georgia. http://www.lenoxsquare.com/ - Phipps PlazaPhipps PlazaPhipps Plaza, owned by Simon Property Group, is an upscale regional mall in Atlanta, Georgia anchored by Belk, Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue. Located adjacent to its sister-mall Lenox Square, in the Buckhead district, Phipps has more than 100 specialty shops, five full-service restaurants, a food...
, BuckheadBuckhead (Atlanta)Buckhead is the uptown district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, comprising approximately the northern one-fifth of the city. Buckhead is a major commercial and financial center of the Southeast, and it is the third-largest business district in Atlanta, behind Downtown and Midtown...
, located across Peachtree StreetPeachtree StreetPeachtree Street is the main street of Atlanta. The city grew up around the street, and many of its historical and municipal buildings are or were located along it...
from Lenox Square. This mall is considered Atlanta's most upscaleLuxury goodLuxury goods are products and services that are not considered essential and associated with affluence.The concept of luxury has been present in various forms since the beginning of civilization. Its role was just as important in ancient western and eastern empires as it is in modern societies...
shopping center, with 100+ stores along with NordstromNordstromNordstrom, Inc. is an upscale department store chain in the United States, founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin. Initially a shoe retailer, the company today also sells clothing, accessories, handbags, jewelry, cosmetics, fragrances, and in some locations, home furnishings...
, BelkBelkBelk is a department store chain founded in 1888 in Monroe, North Carolina, today part of the Charlotte metropolitan area. After the founding of the first Belk store, the company grew in size and influence throughout the South via the chain in the USA, with its stores primarily located in the...
and Saks Fifth AvenueSaks Fifth AvenueSaks Fifth Avenue is a luxury American specialty store owned and operated by Saks Fifth Avenue Enterprises , a subsidiary of Saks Incorporated. It competes in the high-end specialty store market in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, i.e. 'the 3 B's' Bergdorf, Barneys, Bloomingdale's and Lord & Taylor...
as anchor storeAnchor storeIn retail, an anchor store, draw tenant, anchor tenant, or key tenant is one of the larger stores in a shopping mall, usually a department store or a major retail chain....
s. http://www.phippsplaza.com/ - Streets of BuckheadStreets of BuckheadBuckhead Atlanta, until May 2011 called Streets of Buckhead is a planned mixed-use development in the Buckhead Community in Atlanta, Georgia. The project is a redevelopment of part of the Buckhead Village neighborhood bounded by Peachtree Rd., E. Paces Ferry Rd., Pharr Rd., and N. Fulton Drive...
, BuckheadBuckhead (Atlanta)Buckhead is the uptown district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, comprising approximately the northern one-fifth of the city. Buckhead is a major commercial and financial center of the Southeast, and it is the third-largest business district in Atlanta, behind Downtown and Midtown...
, an exclusive mixed-use development under construction in BuckheadBuckhead (Atlanta)Buckhead is the uptown district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, comprising approximately the northern one-fifth of the city. Buckhead is a major commercial and financial center of the Southeast, and it is the third-largest business district in Atlanta, behind Downtown and Midtown...
, but stalled in construction due to late-2000s recession. Some tenants coming include Loro PianaLoro PianaLoro Piana is an Italian clothing company specialising in high-end, luxury cashmere and wool products.-History:Originally from Trivero , the Loro Piana family started as merchants of wool fabrics at the beginning of the nineteenth century...
, Oscar de la RentaOscar de la RentaOscar de la Renta is one of the world's leading fashion designers. He was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1973.-Career:...
, and Bottega VenetaBottega VenetaBottega Veneta is an Italian luxury goods house best known for its leather goods. Founded in 1966, it was purchased in 2001 by Gucci Group, now a part of the French multinational group PPR. Bottega Veneta is headquartered in Vicenza, in the Veneto region of northeastern Italy.- History :Bottega...
. - Mall at StonecrestMall at StonecrestThe Mall at Stonecrest is an indoor shopping mall in Lithonia, Georgia, along Interstate 20 in eastern metro Atlanta...
, Lithonia. - North DeKalb MallNorth Dekalb MallNorth Dekalb Mall is an enclosed shopping mall located in Decatur, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Opened in 1965, the center currently comprises more than eighty-five stores on one level...
, Decatur. - North Point MallNorth Point MallNorth Point Mall, is a super-regional shopping mall, located in Alpharetta, Georgia .The mall opened on October 3, 1993 as one of the largest shopping malls in the country. The mall, originally a Homart property, is now owned and managed by General Growth Properties...
, Alpharetta. - Northlake MallNorthlake Mall (Atlanta)Northlake Mall is a major shopping mall in the Northlake area of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The mall is near Tucker, Georgia, northeast of Atlanta along Interstate 285 at 4800 Briarcliff Road. It is owned and managed by Simon Property Group.Northlake Mall opened in 1971...
, north DeKalb County. - Perimeter MallPerimeter MallPerimeter Mall is a super-regional shopping mall in Dunwoody, Georgia, just north of Atlanta, near the highway interchange of Interstate 285 and Georgia 400....
, Dunwoody, is the second-largest shopping mall in Georgia. 200+ stores. Anchored by: Bloomingdale'sBloomingdale'sBloomingdale's is an American department store owned by Macy's, Inc. .Bloomingdale's started in 1861 when brothers Joseph and Lyman G. Bloomingdale started selling hoop-skirts in their Ladies Notions' Shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side...
, Dillard'sDillard'sDillard's, Inc. is a department store chain in the United States, with 330 stores in 29 states. Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas, Dillard's locations are concentrated in Texas and Florida; with a major presence in other states including Arizona, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Missouri,...
, Macy'sMacy'sMacy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
, and NordstromNordstromNordstrom, Inc. is an upscale department store chain in the United States, founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin. Initially a shoe retailer, the company today also sells clothing, accessories, handbags, jewelry, cosmetics, fragrances, and in some locations, home furnishings...
. - Town Center at Cobb, Kennesaw.
- Union StationUnion Station (Shannon Mall)Union Station is a former shopping mall in Union City, Georgia, in southwest metro Atlanta adjacent to Interstate 85. After new ownership and renovations in 2006, the name was changed from Shannon Southpark Mall in 2007 to Union Station Mall . A previous renovation was done in the late 1990s...
, Union City, (formerly Shannon Mall) - Macy'sMacy'sMacy's is a U.S. chain of mid-to-high range department stores. In addition to its flagship Herald Square location in New York City, the company operates over 800 stores in the United States...
SearsSears, Roebuck and CompanySears, officially named Sears, Roebuck and Co., is an American chain of department stores which was founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in the late 19th century... - The Gallery at South DeKalb (South DeKalb Mall), southern DeKalb County.
- Southlake Mall (Atlanta)Southlake Mall (Atlanta)Southlake Mall is a shopping mall that is located in Morrow, Georgia, in Metropolitan Atlanta and south from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The mall is in Clayton County and its trade area includes Henry County, one of the fastest-growing areas in Georgia...
, Morrow. - Cobb GalleriaCobb GalleriaCobb Galleria is a large office park with six skyscrapers located in the Cumberland/Vinings district of Cobb in the U.S. state of Georgia and sandwiched between Marietta, Smyrna, Sandy Springs, and Atlanta...
, Smyrna. - Underground AtlantaUnderground AtlantaUnderground Atlanta is a shopping and entertainment district in the Five Points neighborhood of downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States, near the intersection of the east and west MARTA rail lines. First opened in 1969, it takes advantage of the viaducts built over the city's many railroad tracks...
, downtown Atlanta. - The Mall at West End, westside Atlanta.
- The Mall at Peachtree CenterPeachtree CenterPeachtree Center is a multi-block neighborhood located in Downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Most of the buildings that make up the district were designed by Atlanta architect John C. Portman, Jr.. Many of the buildings are connected by a network of enclosed pedestrian sky bridges...
, downtown Atlanta. - The Forum at Ashley ParkThe Forum at Ashley ParkAshley Park is a regional lifestyle center in Newnan, Georgia. The development is anchored by Dillard's and Belk department stores along with a large cinema.Stores*Best Buy*Aéropostale*Dillard's*Belk*American Eagle Outfitters*rue21*Verizon Wireless...
, Newnan, a shopping mall under development just off I-85 in Coweta County.
Lenox Square hosts the largest fireworks display in the Southeast every Independence Day, and the Rich's (now Macy's) Great [Christmas] Tree, both major tradition
Tradition
A tradition is a ritual, belief or object passed down within a society, still maintained in the present, with origins in the past. Common examples include holidays or impractical but socially meaningful clothes , but the idea has also been applied to social norms such as greetings...
s in Atlanta, and seen on TV regionally.
Demographics
According to the 2008 American Community Survey, the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta Metropolitan Area had a population of 5,368,070. There were over 2,658,000 males in the Metro Area, and they made up 49.5% of the population. Females numbered at roughly 2,710,000, and they made up the majority (50.5%) of the population.According to the survey, White American
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
s made up 57.8% of the Atlanta Metro Area's population. Whites (both Hispanic and non-Hispanic) numbered at roughly 3,105,000 individuals, and non-Hispanic whites numbered over 2,857,000 individuals. The European American
European American
A European American is a citizen or resident of the United States who has origins in any of the original peoples of Europe...
community is predominantly of German
German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
(8.6%), English
English American
English Americans are citizens or residents of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England....
(8.6%), and Irish
Irish American
Irish Americans are citizens of the United States who can trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,278,332 Americans—estimated at 11.9% of the total population—reported Irish ancestry in the 2008 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau...
(8.7%) descent, but there are smaller populations of Italians
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
(2.7%), Scots
Scottish American
Scottish Americans or Scots Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland. Scottish Americans are closely related to Scots-Irish Americans, descendants of Ulster Scots, and communities emphasize and celebrate a common heritage...
(2.0%), French
French American
French Americans or Franco-Americans are Americans of French or French Canadian descent. About 11.8 million U.S. residents are of this descent, and about 1.6 million speak French at home.An additional 450,000 U.S...
(1.7%), Scotch-Irish (1.6%), Poles
Polish American
A Polish American , is a citizen of the United States of Polish descent. There are an estimated 10 million Polish Americans, representing about 3.2% of the population of the United States...
(1.4%), and Dutch (0.8%).
Black Americans are the largest racial minority in the metropolitan area. The metro's 1,700,000 African Americans make up 31.7% of its population. Blacks of non-Hispanic origin number over 1,675,000 individuals and make up 31.2% of the population. According to the survey, just over 182,000 people claimed Sub-Saharan African ancestry, making up 3.4% of the metro's black population.
Hispanic and Latino Americans
Hispanic and Latino Americans
Hispanic or Latino Americans are Americans with origins in the Hispanic countries of Latin America or in Spain, and in general all persons in the United States who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino.1990 Census of Population and Housing: A self-designated classification for people whose origins...
are the third largest ethnic group behind Non-Hispanic whites and African Americans. Metro Atlanta's 517,000 Hispanics and Latinos make up 9.6% of its population. There are more than 314,000 Mexicans
Mexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...
, and they make up just under 6% of the population. In the 1990s 2000s, Atlanta had the largest numerical and percentage growth of Mexicans out of any area in the United States. Much of the growth has been attributed to the 1996 Olympic Games and the impressive economic growth of the city. There are also roughly 40,000 Puerto Ricans and 17,000 Cubans
Cuban American
A Cuban American is a United States citizen who traces his or her "national origin" to Cuba. Cuban Americans are also considered native born Americans with Cuban parents or Cuban-born persons who were raised and educated in US...
. In addition, over 146,000 people are of other Hispanic/Latino ethnic groups, and they make up 2.7% of the population.
Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
s are rapidly growing minority in Metro Atlanta. The metro area is home to over 226,400 Asians, and this racial group forms 4.2% of the population. Indians
Indian American
Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestral roots lie in India. The U.S. Census Bureau popularized the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Indigenous peoples of the Americas who are commonly referred to as American Indians.-The term: Indian:...
and Koreans
Korean American
Korean Americans are Americans of Korean descent, mostly from South Korea, with a small minority from North Korea...
are the largest sub-groups. Nearly 70,000 Indians and over 44,000 Koreans live in the metro area. Indians and Koreans make up 1.3% and 0.8% of the population respectively. Metro Atlanta currently is home to the fastest-growing Korean population in the country, with the Korean population seeing a sharp increase from 42,000 in 2000 to 80,000 in 2006. Chinese
Chinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
and Vietnamese
Vietnamese American
A Vietnamese American is an American of Vietnamese descent. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American group....
individuals are smaller groups. Over 34,900 Chinese and 34,200 Vietnamese make up 0.7% and 0.6% of the population respectively. Nearly 9,800 Filipinos
Filipino American
Filipino Americans are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipino Americans, often shortened to "Fil-Ams", or "Pinoy",Filipinos in what is now the United States were first documented in the 16th century, with small settlements beginning in the 18th century...
live in the metro and make up just 0.2% of the population. People of Japanese
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...
descent are even smaller in number; just over 4,500 Japanese Americans reside in the area. In addition, over 29,400 people belong to other Asian ethnic groups, and they make up 0.5% of the population.
Multiracial American
Multiracial American
Multiracial Americans, US residents who identify themselves as of "two or more races", were numbered at around 9 million, or 2.9% of the population, in the census of 2010. However there is considerable evidence that the real number is far higher. Prior to the mid-20th century many people hid their...
s number 75,000 people and make up 1.4% of the population. Over 25,850 people are of mixed Caucasian and African American heritage; people of black and white ancestry represent 0.5% of the total population. Over 12,400 people claim mixed Caucasian and Native American heritage, and they make up 0.2% of the population. Over 11,100 people are of mixed Caucasian and Asian heritage, and they also represent 0.2% of the population. In addition, people of mixed African American and Native American heritage number just over 4,400 and make up 0.1% of the population.
Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
are a small minority in the Atlanta Metro Area. Roughly 11,700 Native Americans live in the metro area. They make up just 0.2% of the population. Native Americans of non-Hispanic origin number just over 9,400 individuals.
Pacific Islander American
Pacific Islander American
Pacific Islander Americans, also known as Oceanian Americans, are residents of the United States with original ancestry from Oceania. They represent the smallest racial group counted in the United States census of 2000. They numbered 874,000 people or 0.3 percent of the United States population...
s are, by far, the smallest racial minority group in the Atlanta Metro Area. Only 2,400 people of Pacific Islander descent reside in the area. The largest sub-group are the Guamanians; there are over 1,100 Guamanians. There are over 230 Native Hawaiians
Native Hawaiians
Native Hawaiians refers to the indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands or their descendants. Native Hawaiians trace their ancestry back to the original Polynesian settlers of Hawaii.According to the U.S...
in the metro area, and over 1,020 people of other Pacific Islander ethnic groups; however, there are no Samoans. The entire racial group forms less than 0.1% of the total population.
Approximately 83.3% of the population five years and older speak only English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
at home, which is roughly 4,125,000 people. Over 436,000 people speak Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
at home, equal to 8.8% of the population. Over 193,000 people speak other Indo-European languages at home, equal to 3.9% of the population. People who speak an Asian language
Languages of Asia
There is a wide variety of languages spoken throughout Asia, comprising a number of families and some unrelated isolates. Many languages have a long tradition of writing.-Central and North Asian languages:*Turkic**Azeri**Kazak**Kyrgyz**Tatar**Turkish...
at home number over 137,000 and make up 2.8% of the population. Just over 61,000 people speak other languages at home, equivalent to 1.2% of the population.
According to census estimates, Metropolitan Atlanta is the fastest growing area in the nation since 2000 by numerical increase. It was the fourth-fastest growing metro area from 2007 to 2008 in terms of numerical increase.
Topography
The area sprawls across the low foothillsFoothills
Foothills are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills to the adjacent topographically high mountains.-Examples:...
of the Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
to the north and the piedmont
Piedmont (United States)
The Piedmont is a plateau region located in the eastern United States between the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the main Appalachian Mountains, stretching from New Jersey in the north to central Alabama in the south. The Piedmont province is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division...
to the south. The northern and some western suburbs tend to be higher and significantly more hill
Hill
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills often have a distinct summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to a particular section of flat terrain without a massive summit A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills...
y than the southern and eastern suburbs. The average elevation is around 1000 feet (304.8 m).
The highest point in the immediate area is Kennesaw Mountain
Kennesaw Mountain
Kennesaw Mountain is a high-running ridge between Marietta and Kennesaw, Georgia in the United States with a summit elevation of . It is the highest point in the core metro Atlanta area, and fifth after further-north exurban counties are considered...
at 1808 ft (551 m), followed by Stone Mountain
Stone Mountain
Stone Mountain is a quartz monzonite dome monadnock in Stone Mountain, Georgia, United States. At its summit, the elevation is 1,686 feet amsl and 825 feet above the surrounding area. Stone Mountain granite extends underground at its longest point into Gwinnett County...
at 1686 ft (514 m), Sweat Mountain
Sweat Mountain
Sweat Mountain is a low mountain located in far northeastern Cobb County, Georgia, in the suburbs north of Atlanta. The exact GNIS location of its summit is , and it has an official elevation of above mean sea level...
at 1640 ft (500 m), and Little Kennesaw Mountain
Little Kennesaw Mountain
Little Kennesaw Mountain is a mountain in Cobb County, Georgia, northwest of Marietta and south of Kennesaw. It is subpeak of Kennesaw Mountain, the site of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in the 1864 Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War....
at 1600 ft (488 m). Others include Blackjack Mountain, Lost Mountain
Lost Mountain
Lost Mountain is a mountain in Pushmataha County, Oklahoma, located approximately 10 miles northwest of Antlers, Oklahoma. It is a part of the Kiamichi Mountains, a subrange of the Ouachita Mountains...
, Brushy Mountain, Pine Mountain, and Mount Wilkinson
Mount Wilkinson
Mount Wilkinson, commonly called Vinings Mountain, is a low mountain immediately north-northwest of and directly overlooking downtown Vinings, in southeast Cobb County, Georgia, USA...
(Vinings Mountain). Many of these play prominently in the various battle
Battle
Generally, a battle is a conceptual component in the hierarchy of combat in warfare between two or more armed forces, or combatants. In a battle, each combatant will seek to defeat the others, with defeat determined by the conditions of a military campaign...
s of the Atlanta Campaign
Atlanta Campaign
The Atlanta Campaign was a series of battles fought in the Western Theater of the American Civil War throughout northwest Georgia and the area around Atlanta during the summer of 1864. Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman invaded Georgia from the vicinity of Chattanooga, Tennessee, beginning in May...
during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. If the further-north counties are included, Bear Mountain
Bear Mountain (Georgia)
Bear Mountain is a mountain located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, southwest of Waleska, Georgia. Situated between the northwest and west-central part of Cherokee County, Georgia, it is the second highest point in Cherokee County at . The metro Atlanta area lies to the south and...
is highest, followed by Pine Log Mountain
Pine Log Mountain
Pine Log Mountain is located in the state of Georgia with a summit elevation of . The peak is three miles west of the town of Waleska separated only by the high end community of Lake Arrowhead. The summit falls within Cherokee County, although the majority of the mountain range trails into Bartow...
, Sawnee Mountain
Sawnee Mountain
Sawnee Mountain is a low mountain between the piedmont and Appalachian foothills of the U.S. state of Georgia, north of Atlanta. The name Sawnee Mountain actually refers to the entire ridge of approximately five miles in length. At its summit, the elevation is above mean sea level, and is...
, and Hanging Mountain, followed by the others listed above. Stone, Sweat, Bear, and Sawnee are all home to some of the area's broadcast stations.
An extinct fault line
Fault line
In geology, fault line refers to the surface trace of a fault.Fault line, Fault Line, or faultline may also refer to:* "Faultline", a song from the 2008 studio album Versus by The Haunted...
called the Brevard Fault runs roughly parallel to the Chattahoochee River
Chattahoochee River
The Chattahoochee River flows through or along the borders of the U.S. states of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers and emptying into Apalachicola Bay in the Gulf of...
, but as its last movements were apparently prehistoric, it is considered extinct and not a threat to the region. Still, minor earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
s do rattle the area occasionally, the last one in April 2003 (magnitude 4.6) coming from the northwest, its epicenter
Epicenter
The epicenter or epicentre is the point on the Earth's surface that is directly above the hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or underground explosion originates...
just across the state line in northeastern Alabama. While many people slept through the 5A.M. quake, it caused a minor panic in others completely unaware of what was happening. Similar quakes occur about every 30 to 40 years in this region, often felt much more widely across the stronger crust of eastern North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
as compared to the west. Thus the Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886 was also felt in Atlanta and across the Southeast. Two small earthquakes were also felt on the southeast side near Eatonton
Eatonton, Georgia
Eatonton is a city in Putnam County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 6,480. The city is the county seat of Putnam County. It was named after William Eaton, an officer and diplomat involved in the First Barbary War...
in early April 2009.
The area's subsoil
Subsoil
Subsoil, or substrata, is the layer of soil under the topsoil on the surface of the ground. The subsoil may include substances such as clay and/or sand that has only been partially broken down by air, sunlight, water, wind etc., to produce true soil...
is a dense clay soil, colored rust
Rust
Rust is a general term for a series of iron oxides. In colloquial usage, the term is applied to red oxides, formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the presence of water or air moisture...
y by the iron oxide
Iron oxide
Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. All together, there are sixteen known iron oxides and oxyhydroxides.Iron oxides and oxide-hydroxides are widespread in nature, play an important role in many geological and biological processes, and are widely utilized by humans, e.g.,...
present in it. It becomes very mud
Mud
Mud is a mixture of water and some combination of soil, silt, and clay. Ancient mud deposits harden over geological time to form sedimentary rock such as shale or mudstone . When geological deposits of mud are formed in estuaries the resultant layers are termed bay muds...
dy and sticky when wet, and hard when dry, and stain
Stain
A stain is a discoloration that can be clearly distinguished from the surface, material, or medium it is found upon. Stains are caused by the chemical or physical interaction of two dissimilar materials...
s light-colored carpet
Carpet
A carpet is a textile floor covering consisting of an upper layer of "pile" attached to a backing. The pile is generally either made from wool or a manmade fibre such as polypropylene,nylon or polyester and usually consists of twisted tufts which are often heat-treated to maintain their...
s and clothing
Clothing
Clothing refers to any covering for the human body that is worn. The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of nearly all human societies...
easily. It also tends to have a low pH
PH
In chemistry, pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution. Pure water is said to be neutral, with a pH close to 7.0 at . Solutions with a pH less than 7 are said to be acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic or alkaline...
, further aggravating gardeners. The fineness of it also means it is easily deposited into streams during heavy rains, creating silt
Silt
Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...
problems where it is exposed due to construction. This transported red soil can be seen downstream on the riverbank
Bank (geography)
A geographic bank has four definitions and applications:# Limnology: The shoreline of a pond, swamp, estuary, reservoir, or lake. The grade can vary from vertical to a shallow slope....
s of south Georgia (where the native clay is white), and down to the Florida panhandle
Florida Panhandle
The Florida Panhandle, an informal, unofficial term for the northwestern part of Florida, is a strip of land roughly 200 miles long and 50 to 100 miles wide , lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia also on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Its eastern boundary is...
(where the native sand
Sand
Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...
is also white). Topsoil
Topsoil
Topsoil is the upper, outermost layer of soil, usually the top to . It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs.-Importance:...
is present only in natural forest areas, created by the decomposition
Decomposition
Decomposition is the process by which organic material is broken down into simpler forms of matter. The process is essential for recycling the finite matter that occupies physical space in the biome. Bodies of living organisms begin to decompose shortly after death...
of leaf litter.
Climate
The Atlanta metro area has a humid subtropical climateHumid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a climate zone characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters...
with four season
Season
A season is a division of the year, marked by changes in weather, ecology, and hours of daylight.Seasons result from the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the tilt of the Earth's axis relative to the plane of revolution...
s, although summer is the longest. January daily lows average from 30-35°F north to south, and highs range from 48-54°F, but often reach well above or below this average. There is an average annual snowfall of about 6.5 inches (16.5 cm), falling mostly from December through March, though there was snow north of the city on April 3, 1987. Snow flurries are actually common during the winter months when there is an especially deep trough in the jet stream. These events usually do not amount to more than a slight dusting and therefore go unrecognized in most weather summaries. Summers, by contrast, are long and consistently hot and humid, with July mornings averaging 71 °F (21.7 °C) and afternoons averaging 89 °F (31.7 °C), slight breezes, and typically a 20–40% chance of afternoon thunderstorm
Thunderstorm
A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm, a lightning storm, thundershower or simply a storm is a form of weather characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere known as thunder. The meteorologically assigned cloud type associated with the...
s. During the summer afternoon thunderstorms, temperatures may suddenly drop to 70-77 degrees with locally heavy rainfall. Average annual rainfall is about 50.2 inches (1,275.1 mm), with late winter and early spring (as well as July) being the wettest and fall (especially October) being the driest. Despite having far fewer rainy days, average yearly rainfall is higher here than in the Seattle area, especially due to heavy thunderstorms and occasional tropical depressions.
Some palm trees and cacti can withstand the frigid nights, complementing pansies and other winter-friendly plants of the region. The growing season
Growing season
In botany, horticulture, and agriculture the growing season is the period of each year when native plants and ornamental plants grow; and when crops can be grown....
in the area lasts several months, hardy-plants being as early as mid-February, and others from mid-March to late October, when the last and first cold snap
Cold wave
A cold wave is a weather phenomenon that is distinguished by a cooling of the air. Specifically, as used by the U.S. National Weather Service, a cold wave is a rapid fall in temperature within a 24 hour period requiring substantially increased protection to agriculture, industry, commerce, and...
s usually occur. Spring weather is pleasant but variable, as cold fronts often bring strong or severe thunderstorms to almost all of the eastern and central U.S. Pollen count
Pollen count
Pollen count is the measurement of the number of grains of pollen in a cubic meter of air. The higher the number, the more people will suffer if they are allergic to a particular pollen. Usually, the counts are announced for specific plants such as grass, ash or olive...
s tend to be extraordinarily high in the spring, regularly exceeding 2000 particles per cubic meter in April and causing hay fever
Hay Fever
Hay Fever is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925 with Marie Tempest as the first Judith Bliss. Laura Hope Crews played the role in New York...
, sometimes even in people not normally prone to it. Pine pollen leaves a fine yellow-green film on everything for much of that month. The rain helps wash out Atlanta's abundant oak, pine, and grass pollens, and fuels beautiful blooms from native flowering dogwood
Flowering Dogwood
Cornus florida is a species of dogwood native to eastern North America, from southern Maine west to southern Ontario, Illinois, and eastern Kansas, and south to northern Florida and eastern Texas, with a disjunct population in Nuevo León and Veracruz in eastern Mexico.-Classification:The flowering...
trees, as well as azalea
Azalea
Azaleas are flowering shrubs comprising two of the eight subgenera of the genus Rhododendron, Pentanthera and Tsutsuji . Azaleas bloom in spring, their flowers often lasting several weeks...
s, forsythia
Forsythia
Forsythia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae . There are about 11 species, mostly native to eastern Asia, but one native to southeastern Europe. The common name is also Forsythia; the genus is named after William Forsyth.-Growth:They are deciduous shrubs typically growing to a...
s, magnolia
Magnolia
Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol....
s, and peach
Peach
The peach tree is a deciduous tree growing to tall and 6 in. in diameter, belonging to the subfamily Prunoideae of the family Rosaceae. It bears an edible juicy fruit called a peach...
trees (both flowering-only and fruiting). The city-wide floral display runs during March and April, and inspires the Atlanta Dogwood Festival
Atlanta Dogwood Festival
The Atlanta Dogwood Festival is an arts and crafts festival held each spring at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally held for nine days across two weekends and the weekdays between, it is now held only one weekend during early April, when the native dogwoods are in bloom.- External links :*...
, one of Atlanta's largest. Fall is also pleasant, with less rain and fewer storms, and leaves changing color from late October to mid-November, especially during drier years. A secondary peak in severe storms also occurs around the second week of November.
The area's geography affects the weather as well. An anticyclone
Anticyclone
An anticyclone is a weather phenomenon defined by the United States' National Weather Service's glossary as "[a] large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere"...
over the Northeastern U.S. will blow cold air over the warmer Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, forming a wedge or marine layer
Marine layer
A marine layer is an air mass which develops over the surface of a large body of water such as the ocean or large lake in the presence of a temperature inversion. The inversion itself is usually initiated by the cooling effect of the water on the surface layer of an otherwise warm air mass...
up against the mountains. This east or northeast wind
Wind
Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space...
will often blow down into the metro area in winter or even spring (sometimes fall and very rarely summer), dramatically lowering the temperature and bringing cloud
Cloud
A cloud is a visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen crystals made of water and/or various chemicals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of a planetary body. They are also known as aerosols. Clouds in Earth's atmosphere are studied in the cloud physics branch of meteorology...
s and often fog
Fog
Fog is a collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated...
or mist
Mist
Mist is a phenomenon of small droplets suspended in air. It can occur as part of natural weather or volcanic activity, and is common in cold air above warmer water, in exhaled air in the cold, and in a steam room of a sauna. It can also be created artificially with aerosol canisters if the...
, along with a swift breeze. The temperature gradient
Gradient
In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar field is a vector field that points in the direction of the greatest rate of increase of the scalar field, and whose magnitude is the greatest rate of change....
across the sprawling metro Atlanta can be as much as 20°F or 10°C, occasionally even more. In winter this can be a curse, bringing freezing rain
Freezing rain
Freezing rain is the name given to rain that falls when surface temperatures are below freezing. The raindrops become supercooled while passing through a sub-freezing layer of air, many hundred feet , just above the surface, and then freeze upon impact with any object they encounter. The resulting...
to exposed objects on the north and/or east sides of town, and occasionally very dangerously to the ground and roads. Later in the spring however, it can be a great blessing, as it often protects the area from severe thunderstorms and tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
es, with the cool air acting like a fire extinguisher
Fire extinguisher
A fire extinguisher or extinguisher, flame entinguisher is an active fire protection device used to extinguish or control small fires, often in emergency situations...
to the storms. The wedge may occasionally go the entire way through central Georgia and even into Alabama in the strongest conditions, while still leaving areas of northwest Georgia
Northwest Georgia
Northwest Georgia includes the counties of:*Dade County*Walker County*Catoosa County*Whitfield County*Murray County*Gordon County*Chattooga County*Floyd County*Bartow County*Paulding County*Polk County*Haralson County...
much warmer than the metro area. Conversely, shallow and heavy cold air from the northwest may be blocked by the mountains, preventing snow.
The local geography also plays a role in the day-to-day weather, with the shallow valley
Valley
In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...
s to the southwest (rather than the mountains to the northeast) cooling rapidly on clear and calm
Wind
Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space...
night
Night
Night or nighttime is the period of time when the sun is below the horizon. This occurs after dusk. The opposite of night is day...
s, particularly when the humidity
Humidity
Humidity is a term for the amount of water vapor in the air, and can refer to any one of several measurements of humidity. Formally, humid air is not "moist air" but a mixture of water vapor and other constituents of air, and humidity is defined in terms of the water content of this mixture,...
is low. Peachtree City and especially Newnan often report dramatically lower temperatures (by as much as 10 °C or nearly 20 °F) on the 10 pm and 11 pm news, and will not drop much further, while the city (built on a ridge
Ridge
A ridge is a geological feature consisting of a chain of mountains or hills that form a continuous elevated crest for some distance. Ridges are usually termed hills or mountains as well, depending on size. There are several main types of ridges:...
) will continue falling slowly but never reach that low. This type of dramatic difference in microclimate
Microclimate
A microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square feet or as large as many square miles...
is somewhat unusual for a place not near large mountains or bodies of water.
Official weather recordkeeping began in Atlanta in 1878, on the morning of October 3. Since then, the highest recorded temperatures at Atlanta were 105 °F (40.6 °C) on three days in the extraordinarily hot July 1980, followed by 104 °F (40 °C) that month and in August 2007, the hottest month ever for the area. The lowest recorded temperatures were -6 °F and -8 °F on January 20 and 21 of 1985, and -9 °F on February 13, 1899. There was also an official recording of -10 °F in 1985 in Marietta
Marietta, Georgia
Marietta is a city located in central Cobb County, Georgia, United States, and is its county seat.As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 56,579, making it one of metro Atlanta's largest suburbs...
. The rainiest month ever was July 1994, when Tropical Storm Alberto
Tropical Storm Alberto (1994)
Tropical Storm Alberto was the first storm of the 1994 Atlantic hurricane season. It hit Florida across the Southeast United States in July, causing a massive flooding disaster while stalling over Georgia and Alabama. Alberto caused $1 billion in damage and 30 deaths.-Meteorological history:A...
dumped massive amounts of rain on parts of the state and the south metro area, bringing 17.71 inches (449.8 mm) at Atlanta, over three times a normal July. Flooding was a major problem in those areas, and further down-state it was a major disaster.
Hurricane Opal
Hurricane Opal
Hurricane Opal was a Category 4 hurricane that formed in the Gulf of Mexico in September 1995.Opal was the ninth hurricane and the strongest of the abnormally active 1995 Atlantic hurricane season...
brought sustained tropical storm conditions to the area one night in early October 1995, uprooting hundreds of tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s and causing widespread power outage
Power outage
A power outage is a short- or long-term loss of the electric power to an area.There are many causes of power failures in an electricity network...
s, after soaking the area with rain for two days prior. The western metro area caught the worst of the storm, gusting to nearly 70 MPH (just over 110 km/h) officially at Marietta. Such events are very rare so far inland.
Since 1950, some metro counties have been hit more than 20 times by tornadoes, with Cobb (26) and Fulton (22) being two of the highest in the state. (Note that some tornadoes may have occurred at the same time, or in two different counties.) The Dunwoody tornado in early April 1998 was the worst tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
to have struck the area. Since then, many counties have reinstalled civil defense siren
Civil defense siren
A civil defense siren is a mechanical or electronic device for generating sound to...
s removed after the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
. A tornado struck downtown Atlanta in March 2008. Another struck the Georgia Governor's Mansion
Georgia Governor's Mansion
The Governor's Mansion is the official home of the governor of the U.S. state of Georgia. The mansion is located at 391 West Paces Ferry Road NW, in the affluent Buckhead district of Atlanta.-Construction:...
in 1975.
Winter storms
The area experiences a winter stormWinter storm
A winter storm is an event in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are formed that only occur at low temperatures, such as snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are low enough to allow ice to form...
with significant snow
Snow
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by...
fall about once each year, however this can be extremely irregular. During the 2000s, only four major snows occurred (December 2000, January 2002, January 2008, and March 2009), while three occurred in early 2010 (an El Niño year) alone, making it the snowiest winter since the 1970s. Despite predictions of a warm and dry winter due to La Niña
La Niña
La Niña is a coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that is the counterpart of El Niño as part of the broader El Niño-Southern Oscillation climate pattern. During a period of La Niña, the sea surface temperature across the equatorial Eastern Central Pacific Ocean will be lower than normal by 3–5 °C...
developing the following summer, additional 1.2 inches (3 cm) fell on December 25, giving the city (and its northern and western suburbs) its first true white Christmas
White Christmas
A white Christmas refers to the presence of snow on Christmas Day. This phenomenon is most common in the northern countries of the Northern Hemisphere...
in over a century. The only other measurable snows on that date were 1.6 inches (4.1 cm) in 1881, and 0.3 inch (0.762 cm) in 1882. A trace last fell on Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
in 1993, and a dozen other times before that.
A blizzard
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
(see: 1993 Storm of the Century) caught much of the Southeast off-guard in 1993, dumping 4.5 inches (11.4 cm) at the Atlanta airport on March 13, and much more than that in the suburbs to the north and west, as well as in the mountains. Dallas, a suburb about 30 miles to the west-northwest received 17.5 inches (44.5 cm) from the storm. Some people were awakened by thunder
Thunder
Thunder is the sound made by lightning. Depending on the nature of the lightning and distance of the listener, thunder can range from a sharp, loud crack to a long, low rumble . The sudden increase in pressure and temperature from lightning produces rapid expansion of the air surrounding and within...
and lightning
Lightning
Lightning is an atmospheric electrostatic discharge accompanied by thunder, which typically occurs during thunderstorms, and sometimes during volcanic eruptions or dust storms...
in a very rare thundersnow
Thundersnow
Thundersnow, also known as a winter thunderstorm or a thunder snowstorm, is a relatively rare kind of thunderstorm with snow falling as the primary precipitation instead of rain. It typically falls in regions of strong upward motion within the cold sector of an extratropical cyclone...
event. Several areas of northern Cobb County recorded over 15 inches (38.1 cm) in snowdrift
Snowdrift
A snowdrift is a deposit of snow sculpted by wind into a mound during a snowstorm. Snowdrifts resemble sand dunes and are formed in a similar manner, namely, by wind moving light snow and depositing it when the wind is slowed, usually against a stationary object. Snow normally crests and slopes...
s. It is widely regarded as the snow event of the century for Atlanta, and is referred to as the "Storm of the Century", placing fifth in the city's snowfall records. The only other recorded winter storm of comparable severity was the Great Blizzard of 1899
Great Blizzard of 1899
The Great Blizzard of 1899 was an unprecedented winter weather event that affected the southern United States. What made it historic was both the severity of winter weather and the extent of the U.S. it affected, especially in the South. The first reports indicated record-high barometric pressure...
, which struck in February. A blizzard
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
hit on January 9–15 crippling the city and leaving schools out for the whole week. Ice covered roads and over eight inches of snow fell in some places with over a foot in the far northern metropolitan area.
The heaviest snow, however, was in January 1940, when 8.3 inches (21.1 cm) buried the city during its coldest month on record. The second-heaviest was in 1983, when a very late storm dumped 7.9 inches (20.1 cm) on March 24. The latest snow and freeze ever were in 1910, when 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) and 32 °F (0 °C) were recorded on April 25. Since 1928, the earliest measurable snows were November 11 and 23.
Prior to March 2009, the most recent major snow occurred at the beginning of 2002, when up to 3 inches (7.6 cm) fell on January 2–3. As of 2007, the stretch of five nearly or entirely snowless winters made for an extremely long period compared to average. This streak was ended in January 2008 when 0.4 inches (1 cm) fell on January 16 and 1 inches (2.5 cm) fell three days later. The following year, the first widespread winter storm
Winter storm
A winter storm is an event in which the dominant varieties of precipitation are formed that only occur at low temperatures, such as snow or sleet, or a rainstorm where ground temperatures are low enough to allow ice to form...
since 2002 dumped 4.5 inches (11.4 cm) on March 1, with the heaviest to the southwest and east-northeast, and surprisingly little or nothing in the far northern suburbs and mountains. Much of it melted almost as fast as it was accumulating at mid-day, while eastern areas had thundersnow and cloud-to-ground strikes reported by lightning detection; it was an upper-level low from the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
, while most major storms in the area occur with a typical surface low-pressure area traveling along the Gulf
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
coast. The 2009 snow tied with the 1993 blizzard and another storm for fifth-heaviest official daily snow in the city's recorded weather history.
Areas to the due east and west often receive more snow than metro Atlanta, because the energy begins to transfer to a coastal low in the Atlantic, on its way to becoming a nor'easter
Nor'easter
A nor'easter is a type of macro-scale storm along the East Coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada, so named because the storm travels to the northeast from the south and the winds come from the northeast, especially in the coastal areas of the Northeastern United States and Atlantic Canada...
. Also the mountains to the northwest entrap shallow cold air. Average annual snowfall from 1971 to 2000 in Atlanta is 2.9 inches (7.4 cm)---the snowiest month is January with 0.9 inches (2.3 cm). Due to two record-breaking heavy storms during the averaged period, it is actually March that is statistically second with 0.5 inches (1.3 cm)---cut in half if the heaviest storm is removed. This is followed by February with 0.4 inches (1 cm) and December with 0.3 inch (0.762 cm), then November, April, and October averaging a trace each. The latest was April 25, when 1.5 inches (3.8 cm) fell in 1910, also the heaviest for the month, and the latest-ever freeze. Four other April snows have been recorded since 1879, the most recent significant one being April 3, 1987. Flurries occurred in 1993 on the afternoon of Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
, marking only the third recorded October snow. A mid-December 2000 snow (a record 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) for the month) was followed by very cold weather that left spots of it on the ground in shady areas until Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
.
Ice storms have also occurred in the area. Two hit the city a week apart in January 2000, the second one while Atlanta was hosting the Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
, which was felt to affect the city's future chances for hosting it again. The well-remembered 1973 ice storm was brutal. A January 1982 snowstorm, which came to be called "Snow Jam 82" by the media and those who lived through it, also crippled the city just as bad as ice can, striking in the afternoon while everyone was at work, several hours earlier than expected. Tens of Thousands of people were stranded in the city, abandoning cars on every road and freeway and booking hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
s to capacity, unable to get home to the suburbs.
Drought
The Southeastern U.S. drought of 2006–2008 began with dry weather in 2006, and left area lakeLake
A lake is a body of relatively still fresh or salt water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land. Lakes are inland and not part of the ocean and therefore are distinct from lagoons, and are larger and deeper than ponds. Lakes can be contrasted with rivers or streams,...
s very low. Most of the area's drinking water
Drinking water
Drinking water or potable water is water pure enough to be consumed or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard, even though only a very small proportion is actually...
is stored in Lake Lanier
Lake Lanier
Lake Lanier is a reservoir in the northern portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It was created by the completion of Buford Dam on the Chattahoochee River in 1956, and is also fed by the waters of the Chestatee River. The lake encompasses of water, and of shoreline at normal level, a "full...
and Lake Allatoona
Lake Allatoona
Lake Allatoona is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir in Georgia, located in northwestern metro Atlanta. The lake is mostly in southwestern Cherokee County, but a significant part is in southeastern Bartow County, and a small part in Cobb County near Acworth. Cartersville is the nearest...
, which reached record low levels in December 2007. Up through September 2007 was the driest year on record in over 75 years, second only to 1927 and 1931. On September 28, the state issued a total outdoor watering ban for the north and northwestern 40% or so of the state, affecting 61 counties generally north of the Fall Line
Fall line
A fall line is a geomorphologic unconformity between an upland region of relatively hard crystalline basement rock and a coastal plain of softer sedimentary rock. A fall line is typically prominent when crossed by a river, for there will often be rapids or waterfalls...
. (Some local authorities and water systems had already taken such measures.) It was the first time the state had enacted such a ban. Throughout the 3 year drought the Atlanta Metro occasionally experienced smoke from the wildfires in south Georgia, causing the local air to become dangerous for everyone. The severe record drought
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
which affected the region starting in late 2006 finally began to abate significantly after heavy fall rains in 2009, and had ended by 2010.
Flooding
The historic drought ended with historic flooding in 2009. The 2009 Atlanta floods affected the entire area on September 21, 2009 with parts of eastern Paulding, northern Douglas, and southwestern Cobb counties getting around 20 inches (508 mm) of rain in a week, with half of that falling in just 24 hours near the end of the period. Douglasville received the most rain in 24 hours than any other city in Metro Atlanta, the city received over 16.5 inches of rain on Sept 21, 2010. (The USGS calculated it to be a greater-than-500-year flood; the National Weather ServiceNational Weather Service
The National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government...
stated that chances of that much rain anywhere in the region is 0.01% per year, or once in 10,000 years.) Some freeways closed temporarily, and several small bridge
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
s and culvert
Culvert
A culvert is a device used to channel water. It may be used to allow water to pass underneath a road, railway, or embankment. Culverts can be made of many different materials; steel, polyvinyl chloride and concrete are the most common...
s were ruined and will take months to replace. Many homes in the area were completely destroyed. Occasional heavy rains and flood advisories continued through early February 2010.
Flood events are localized from nearly stationary thunderstorms, or more broadly impacting from slow-moving tropical storm remnants, or sometimes from unusually heavy and persistent winter rains during El Niño years. Other droughts have also ended in lesser floods, including in 1989. The flooding has also ended as of 2010.
Environment
The area's prolific rains are drained by many different streamStream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
s and creeks. The main basin
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
is that of the Chattahoochee River
Chattahoochee River
The Chattahoochee River flows through or along the borders of the U.S. states of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers and emptying into Apalachicola Bay in the Gulf of...
, running northeast to southwest. The further northwestern suburbs drain into the Etowah River
Etowah River
The Etowah River is a waterway that rises northwest of Dahlonega, Georgia, north of Atlanta. Its name is the Cherokee version of the original Muskogee word Etalwa, which means a "trail crossing". On Matthew Carey's 1795 map the river was labeled "High Town River"...
via the Little River
Little River (northern Georgia)
The Little River is a tributary of the Etowah River in the U.S. state of Georgia in the United States.The Little River is located mostly in Cherokee County, and forms the jagged part of the Cherokee/Fulton county line, and part of the more recent Milton city limit.The river flows generally from...
and Lake Allatoona
Lake Allatoona
Lake Allatoona is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir in Georgia, located in northwestern metro Atlanta. The lake is mostly in southwestern Cherokee County, but a significant part is in southeastern Bartow County, and a small part in Cobb County near Acworth. Cartersville is the nearest...
. The southern suburbs are drained by the Flint River
Flint River (Georgia)
The Flint River is a river in the U.S. state of Georgia. The river drains of western Georgia, flowing south from the upper Piedmont region south of Atlanta to the wetlands of the Gulf Coastal Plain in the southwestern corner of the state. Along with the Apalachicola and the Chattahoochee rivers,...
, and the east-southeastern ones by the Oconee River
Oconee River
The Oconee River is a river which has its origin in Hall County, Georgia, and terminates where it joins the Ocmulgee River to form the Altamaha River near Lumber City at the borders of Montgomery County, Wheeler County, and Jeff Davis County. South of Athens, two forks, known as the North Oconee...
and Yellow River
Yellow River (Georgia)
The Yellow River is a tributary of the Ocmulgee River in the U.S. state Georgia.The river rises north of Lawrenceville in Gwinnett County and flows south through the outer eastern suburbs of Atlanta, passing through the easternmost corner of DeKalb County before entering Rockdale County...
.
By 2005, the metro area was using 360 million USgals (1,362,748.3 m³) of water per day (about 80 gallons (302.8 l) per person per day) from these rivers. This usage was reduced by more than 10% during the drought, but soared back up after watering restrictions were eased (and before the flooding ensued). The need for water is seen as a barrier to further growth in the area, but permanent measures for non-emergency water conservation
Water conservation
Water conservation refers to reducing the usage of water and recycling of waste water for different purposes such as cleaning, manufacturing, and agricultural irrigation.- Water conservation :Water conservation can be defined as:...
have never been put in place. The state legislature has refused to pass a requirement for low-flow toilets to be installed in homes that are sold, bowing to pressure
Lobbying
Lobbying is the act of attempting to influence decisions made by officials in the government, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying is done by various people or groups, from private-sector individuals or corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or...
from the real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
sales industry.
At a rate of 50 acres (20 hectares) per day, the deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
brought by land development
Land development
Land development refers to altering the landscape in any number of ways such as:* changing landforms from a natural or semi-natural state for a purpose such as agriculture or housing...
has had a significant impact on area watersheds. They now flood
Flood
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
far more rapidly and to a much greater extent than prior to development. This has pushed many people into flood plains, something they often find out only when it is too late. As a result many area municipalities have imposed more rigorous development standards on storm water management. A few jurisdiction
Jurisdiction
Jurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility...
s have begun to implement a stormwater
Stormwater
Stormwater is water that originates during precipitation events. It may also be used to apply to water that originates with snowmelt that enters the stormwater system...
fee
Fee
A fee is the price one pays as remuneration for services. Fees usually allow for overhead, wages, costs, and markup.Traditionally, professionals in Great Britain received a fee in contradistinction to a payment, salary, or wage, and would often use guineas rather than pounds as units of account...
, though none of the fees are based on the actual amount of damaging runoff each property produces, mainly from pavement
Pavement (material)
Road surface or pavement is the durable surface material laid down on an area intended to sustain vehicular or foot traffic, such as a road or walkway. In the past cobblestones and granite setts were extensively used, but these surfaces have mostly been replaced by asphalt or concrete. Such...
and lack of tree cover and natural leaf litter.
The low-density residential subdivision development that dominates the metro Atlanta suburbs has historically not been required to replace lost tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
inventory. Because of larger lot sizes, and natural-looking architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
such as California contemporary, older neighborhoods typically have many mature forest trees, except in cases where they have been destroyed by homeowners, despite the decrease in property values this causes. Increasing density allowed by zoning
Zoning
Zoning is a device of land use planning used by local governments in most developed countries. The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another...
since the 1980s has meant fewer and fewer trees left, and by the 2000s it became common for developers to completely clear-cut dozens of acres of forest and bulldoze all hill
Hill
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills often have a distinct summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to a particular section of flat terrain without a massive summit A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. Hills...
s flat to build generic tract housing
Tract housing
Tract housing is a style of housing development in which multiple similar homes are built on a tract of land which is subdivided into individual small lots...
, often with tightly packed homes nearly touching each other and up against the street. However, over the past decade some area cities and counties have revised their tree ordinances to require tree recompense to be equal to or greater than the pre-development tree density, trying to ensure a future tree canopy. Rather than leaving trees on each home lot as before, this typically involves a set-aside of green space
Open space reserve
Open space reserve, open space preserve, and open space reservation, are planning and conservation ethics terms used to describe areas of protected or conserved land or water on which development is indefinitely set aside...
in each development, with most other areas still clear-cut. Even when some trees are replaced, it is with a single type
Monoculture
Monoculture is the agricultural practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area. It is also known as a way of farming practice of growing large stands of a single species. It is widely used in modern industrial agriculture and its implementation has allowed for large harvests from...
of trees planted the same distance from each other, rather than different trees at random placement and age as in the native forest.
WXIA-TV
WXIA-TV
WXIA-TV, virtual channel 11.1 , is the NBC-affiliated television station in Atlanta, Georgia. Popularly known by its 11 Alive moniker, WXIA is owned by the Gannett Company in a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate WATL...
reported that from 1990 to 2005, the amount of impermeable surface (pavement and building
Building
In architecture, construction, engineering, real estate development and technology the word building may refer to one of the following:...
s) in several metro counties increased dramatically, with Cobb doubling from 10% to 20% of its total land area, a rate even faster than its population increase. These numbers are in addition to the only marginally-permeable lawns. This reduced permeability also prevents the water table
Water table
The water table is the level at which the submarine pressure is far from atmospheric pressure. It may be conveniently visualized as the 'surface' of the subsurface materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity. However, saturated conditions may extend above the water table as...
from refilling as quickly as it should, as runoff is diverted into stormwater
Stormwater
Stormwater is water that originates during precipitation events. It may also be used to apply to water that originates with snowmelt that enters the stormwater system...
drainage systems.
Disputes over water are becoming increasingly common, with both Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
and Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
filing lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
s and threatening injunction
Injunction
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
s to prevent Georgia from taking too much water, mostly for metro Atlanta. South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
also threatened when a pipeline
Pipeline transport
Pipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Most commonly, liquids and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes that transport solid capsules using compressed air are also used....
east to the Savannah River
Savannah River
The Savannah River is a major river in the southeastern United States, forming most of the border between the states of South Carolina and Georgia. Two tributaries of the Savannah, the Tugaloo River and the Chattooga River, form the northernmost part of the border...
was mentioned even informally. The state has now been ordered by a judge to reduce withdrawals from the Chattahoochee south of Lanier to 1970s levels within three years (2012), something that would create an immediate emergency water shortage if it were actually enforced. This was done because it was ruled the U.S. Congress never authorized the use of the lake as a water supply
Water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...
.
Flora
The native forestForest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
canopy
Canopy (forest)
In biology, the canopy is the aboveground portion of a plant community or crop, formed by plant crowns.For forests, canopy also refers to the upper layer or habitat zone, formed by mature tree crowns and including other biological organisms .Sometimes the term canopy is used to refer to the extent...
is mainly oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
, redbud, hickory
Hickory
Trees in the genus Carya are commonly known as hickory, derived from the Powhatan language of Virginia. The genus includes 17–19 species of deciduous trees with pinnately compound leaves and big nuts...
, tuliptree, pine
Pine
Pines are trees in the genus Pinus ,in the family Pinaceae. They make up the monotypic subfamily Pinoideae. There are about 115 species of pine, although different authorities accept between 105 and 125 species.-Etymology:...
, and sweetgum, with chestnut
American Chestnut
The American Chestnut is a large, deciduous tree of the beech family native to eastern North America. Before the species was devastated by the chestnut blight, a fungal disease, it was one of the most important forest trees throughout its range...
having been common decades before in what is now considered oak-hickory forest
Oak-hickory forest
The oak-hickory forest is a general type of North American forest ecosystem with a range extending from southern New England and New York, west to Iowa, and south to Northern Georgia. Smaller, isolated Oak-Hickory communities can also be found as far west as North Dakota, south to Florida and...
. Traveling from the south, the metro area is generally the first area in which autumn leaf color
Autumn leaf color
Autumn leaf color is a phenomenon that affects the normally green leaves of many deciduous trees and shrubs by which they take on, during a few weeks in the autumn season, one or many colors that range from red to yellow...
can be seen, due to the different trees growing at the higher elevation and latitude
Latitude
In geography, the latitude of a location on the Earth is the angular distance of that location south or north of the Equator. The latitude is an angle, and is usually measured in degrees . The equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north , and the South pole has a...
. Underneath
Understory
Understory is the term for the area of a forest which grows at the lowest height level below the forest canopy. Plants in the understory consist of a mixture of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with understory shrubs and herbs...
, the flowering dogwood
Flowering Dogwood
Cornus florida is a species of dogwood native to eastern North America, from southern Maine west to southern Ontario, Illinois, and eastern Kansas, and south to northern Florida and eastern Texas, with a disjunct population in Nuevo León and Veracruz in eastern Mexico.-Classification:The flowering...
is very common, the black cherry
Black Cherry
Prunus serotina, commonly called black cherry, wild black cherry, rum cherry, or mountain black cherry, is a woody plant species belonging to the genus Prunus...
are quite prolific, with mulberry
Mulberry
Morus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae. The 10–16 species of deciduous trees it contains are commonly known as Mulberries....
popping up sometimes as well. Sourwood
Sourwood
Sourwood or sorrel tree is the sole species in the genus Oxydendrum, in the family Ericaceae. It is native to eastern North America, from southern Pennsylvania south to northwest Florida and west to southern Illinois; it is most common in the lower chain of the Appalachian Mountains...
is also in its native range, and is easily identified by the fact that it turns fiery red in early October, much brighter and weeks earlier than most other trees (which usually peak in early November).
Shrubby plants include blackberry
Blackberry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by any of several species in the Rubus genus of the Rosaceae family. The fruit is not a true berry; botanically it is termed an aggregate fruit, composed of small drupelets. The plants typically have biennial canes and perennial roots. Blackberries and...
, horsechestnut, sumac
Sumac
Sumac is any one of approximately 250 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus and related genera, in the family Anacardiaceae. Sumacs grow in subtropical and temperate regions throughout the world, especially in Africa and North America....
, and sometimes hawthorn
Crataegus
Crataegus , commonly called hawthorn or thornapple, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the rose family, Rosaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, Asia and North America. The name hawthorn was originally applied to the species native to northern Europe,...
. Virginia creeper
Parthenocissus quinquefolia
Virginia creeper, five-leaved ivy, or five-finger is a woody vine native to eastern and central North America, in southeastern Canada, the eastern and central United States, eastern Mexico, and Guatemala, west as far as Manitoba, South Dakota, Utah and Texas.-Growth:It is a prolific climber,...
, poison ivy, and briar are common vine
Vine
A vine in the narrowest sense is the grapevine , but more generally it can refer to any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent, that is to say climbing, stems or runners...
s. The Confederate Yellow Daisy is a wildflower
Wildflower
A wildflower is a flower that grows wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. Yet "wildflower" meadows of a few mixed species are sold in seed packets. The term "wildflower" has been made vague by commercial seedsmen who are interested in selling more flowers or seeds more...
native only to the area around Stone Mountain.
Common garden plants include dogwood, azalea
Azalea
Azaleas are flowering shrubs comprising two of the eight subgenera of the genus Rhododendron, Pentanthera and Tsutsuji . Azaleas bloom in spring, their flowers often lasting several weeks...
, hydrangea
Hydrangea
Hydrangea is a genus of about 70 to 75 species of flowering plants native to southern and eastern Asia and North and South America. By far the greatest species diversity is in eastern Asia, notably China, Japan, and Korea...
, flowering cherry, maple
Maple
Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...
s, pin oak
Pin oak
Quercus palustris, the Pin oak or Swamp Spanish oak, is an oak in the red oak section Quercus sect. Lobatae.-Distribution:...
, red-tip photinia, holly
Holly
Ilex) is a genus of 400 to 600 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. The species are evergreen and deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones world wide....
, juniper
Juniper
Junipers are coniferous plants in the genus Juniperus of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on taxonomic viewpoint, there are between 50-67 species of juniper, widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere, from the Arctic, south to tropical Africa in the Old World, and to the...
, white pine
Eastern White Pine
Pinus strobus, commonly known as the eastern white pine, is a large pine native to eastern North America, occurring from Newfoundland west to Minnesota and southeastern Manitoba, and south along the Appalachian Mountains to the northern edge of Georgia.It is occasionally known as simply white pine,...
, magnolia
Magnolia
Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol....
, Bradford pear, forsythia
Forsythia
Forsythia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Oleaceae . There are about 11 species, mostly native to eastern Asia, but one native to southeastern Europe. The common name is also Forsythia; the genus is named after William Forsyth.-Growth:They are deciduous shrubs typically growing to a...
, liriope (mondograss), and English ivy. Lawn
Lawn
A lawn is an area of aesthetic and recreational land planted with grasses or other durable plants, which usually are maintained at a low and consistent height. Low ornamental meadows in natural landscaping styles are a contemporary option of a lawn...
s can be either cool-season grass
Grass
Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...
es like fescue
Fescue
Festuce is a genus of about 300 species of perennial tufted grasses, belonging to the grass family Poaceae . The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, although the majority of the species are found in cool temperate areas...
and rye
Rye
Rye is a grass grown extensively as a grain and as a forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some whiskeys, some vodkas, and animal fodder...
, or warm-season like zoysia
Zoysia
Zoysia is a genus of creeping grasses native to southeast and east Asia and Australasia. These species, commonly called zoysia or zoysiagrass, are found in coastal areas or grasslands. The genus is named after the Austrian botanist Karl von Zois.-Species:*Zoysia japonica Steud.*Zoysia macrantha...
and bermudagrass which turn brown in late fall. A few homeowners association
Homeowners association
A homeowner association is a corporation formed by a real estate developer for the purpose of marketing, managing, and selling of homes and lots in a residential subdivision...
s actually prohibit green grass in the winter.
Native to the nearby mountains, maples are now one of the most common landscape trees for new homes and parking lots, giving their color in the fall instead of spring. When planted close to buildings (which provide shelter and radiate heat), they can retain some of their color into December, especially if November has been warm.
Common lawn
Lawn
A lawn is an area of aesthetic and recreational land planted with grasses or other durable plants, which usually are maintained at a low and consistent height. Low ornamental meadows in natural landscaping styles are a contemporary option of a lawn...
weeds are wild strawberry, violet
Violet (plant)
Viola is a genus of flowering plants in the violet family Violaceae, with around 400–500 species distributed around the world. Most species are found in the temperate Northern Hemisphere; however, viola species are also found in widely divergent areas such as Hawaii, Australasia, and the Andes in...
, wild onion
Wild onion
Wild onion can refer to* any uncultivated species in the genus Allium, especially:**Allium bisceptrum** Allium canadense** Allium validum** Allium vineale* Cyperus bulbosus* Bulbine semibarbata...
, and of course the ubiquitous dandelion, crabgrass, and plantain
Plantago
Plantago is a genus of about 200 species of small, inconspicuous plants commonly called plantains. They share this name with the very dissimilar plantain, a kind of banana. Most are herbaceous plants, though a few are subshrubs growing to 60 cm tall. The leaves are sessile, but have a narrow...
.
By far the most notorious introduced species
Introduced species
An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...
is kudzu
Kudzu
Kudzu is a plant in the genus Pueraria in the pea family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It is a climbing, coiling, and trailing vine native to southern Japan and southeast China. Its name comes from the Japanese name for the plant, . It is a weed that climbs over trees or shrubs and grows so...
, a highly invasive species
Invasive species
"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....
from Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
which climbs and smothers trees and shrubs. New effective herbicides as well as increased development of formerly rural areas has greatly reduced kudzu in the metro area (although still quite common elsewhere in Georgia). Wisteria planted decades ago by farmers in then-rural areas has become wild and is common in undeveloped forests. Some vines exceed 50 years of age and cover dozens of acres of forest, creating a dense, purple explosion each spring. Japanese honeysuckle is extremely common; its fragrance an early summer delight. A common garden plant, the Chinese privet, has escaped to become the state's most invasive non-native plant species.
Fauna
Among mammalMammal
Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...
s, the eastern gray squirrel
Eastern Gray Squirrel
The eastern gray squirrel is a tree squirrel in the genus Sciurus native to the eastern and midwestern United States, and to the southerly portions of the eastern provinces of Canada...
is by far the most ubiquitous, stealing birdseed from the bird feeder
Bird feeder
A birdfeeder, bird feeder, bird table, or tray feeder are devices placed outdoors to supply bird food to birds...
s which many locals maintain. Chipmunk
Chipmunk
Chipmunks are small striped squirrels native to North America and Asia. They are usually classed either as a single genus with three subgenera, or as three genera.-Etymology and taxonomy:...
s and small brown rabbit
Rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae of the order Lagomorpha, found in several parts of the world...
s are common, but it is relatively rare to hear of them doing any damage. Opossum, raccoon
Raccoon
Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are...
s, fox
Fox
Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...
es, and now even small coyote
Coyote
The coyote , also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States and Canada...
s and armadillos are frequently seen. Garden and meadow snakes are common; three poisonous snakes (Eastern Diamondback, Water Moccasin, Copperhead ) are indigenous, but reports of bites are rare. Many types of frogs, including tree frogs and bullfrogs,are easily heard in early summer, as are cicada
Cicada
A cicada is an insect of the order Hemiptera, suborder Auchenorrhyncha , in the superfamily Cicadoidea, with large eyes wide apart on the head and usually transparent, well-veined wings. There are about 2,500 species of cicada around the world, and many of them remain unclassified...
s in July and August. Black bear
American black bear
The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...
s occasionally wander down from the mountains, and white-tailed deer
White-tailed Deer
The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...
are abundant; overpopulated in some areas. Homeowners in the outer suburbs are prone to landscaping damage due to scaveging deer.
The most common bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s are the Brown Thrasher (the GA state bird), American crow
American Crow
The American Crow is a large passerine bird species of the family Corvidae. It is a common bird found throughout much of North America...
, European (or common) starling, American robin
American Robin
The American Robin or North American Robin is a migratory songbird of the thrush family. It is named after the European Robin because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not closely related, with the European robin belonging to the flycatcher family...
, mourning dove
Mourning Dove
The Mourning Dove is a member of the dove family . The bird is also called the Turtle Dove or the American Mourning Dove or Rain Dove, and formerly was known as the Carolina Pigeon or Carolina Turtledove. It is one of the most abundant and widespread of all North American birds...
, house sparrow
House Sparrow
The House Sparrow is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world. One of about 25 species in the genus Passer, the House Sparrow occurs naturally in most of Europe, the Mediterranean region, and much of Asia...
, northern cardinal
Northern Cardinal
The Northern Cardinal or Redbird or Common Cardinal is a North American bird in the genus Cardinalis. It can be found in southern Canada, through the eastern United States from Maine to Texas and south through Mexico...
, purple finch
Purple Finch
The Purple Finch, Carpodacus purpureus, is a bird in the finch family Fringillidae.-Taxonomy:The Purple Finch is one of 24 birds in the genus Carpodacus and is included in the finch...
, Carolina chickadee
Carolina Chickadee
The Carolina Chickadee, Poecile carolinensis, is a small passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. Often, it is still placed in the genus Parus with most other tits, but mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data and morphology suggest that separating Poecile more adequately expresses these birds'...
, tufted titmouse
Tufted Titmouse
The Tufted Titmouse, Baeolophus bicolor, is a small songbird from North America, a species in the tit and chickadee family . The Black-crested Titmouse, found from central and southern Texas southwards, was included as a subspecies but is now considered a separate species B...
, bluejay, white-breasted nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
The White-breasted Nuthatch is a small songbird of the nuthatch family which breeds in old-growth woodland across much of temperate North America. It is a stocky bird, with a large head, short tail, powerful bill and strong feet. The upperparts are pale blue-gray, and the face and underparts are...
, eastern bluebird, mockingbird, brown-headed nuthatch
Brown-headed Nuthatch
The Brown-headed Nuthatch, Sitta pusilla, is a small songbird found in pine forests throughout the Southeastern United States. An endangered population occurs in the pineyards of Grand Bahama; some authorities consider it to represent a separate species, S. insularis...
, and the Carolina wren
Carolina Wren
The Carolina Wren is a common species of wren, resident in the eastern half of the USA, the extreme south of Ontario, Canada, and the extreme northeast of Mexico...
. Birds of prey thrive in the area, with three varieties of hawks common near open fields in even the most populated areas. Falcons roost on skyscrapers in downtown Atlanta and can be regularly seen feasting on pigeons. The American kestrel is sometimes seen. Late in the year, three species of owls can be heard nightly in wooded areas. Various woodpecker
Woodpecker
Woodpeckers are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They are one subfamily in the family Picidae, which also includes the piculets and wrynecks. They are found worldwide and include about 180 species....
s can be seen in forested lots, including the red-bellied woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
The Red-bellied Woodpecker, Melanerpes carolinus, is a medium-sized woodpecker of the Picidae family. It breeds in southern Canada and the northeastern United States, ranging as far south as Florida and as far west as Texas...
, northern flicker
Northern Flicker
The Northern Flicker is a medium-sized member of the woodpecker family. It is native to most of North America, parts of Central America, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and is one of the few woodpecker species that migrate. There are over 100 common names for the Northern Flicker...
(also known as the "red-shafted flicker"), and the downy woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
The Downy Woodpecker is a species of woodpecker, the smallest in North America.- Description :Adult Downy Woodpeckers are mainly black on the upperparts and wings, with a white back, throat and belly and white spotting on the wings. There is a white bar above the eye and one below. They have a...
. The red-headed woodpecker is common in open fields and on golf courses. The American goldfinch
American Goldfinch
The American Goldfinch , also known as the Eastern Goldfinch and Wild Canary, is a small North American bird in the finch family...
is present mostly in winter, and the ruby-throated hummingbird
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
The Ruby-throated Hummingbird , is a small hummingbird. It is the only species of hummingbird that regularly nests east of the Mississippi River in North America.- Description :...
only in summer.
Major highways
Atlanta is served by three major interstate highways. Including tributaries, they are the following:(Note: The cities used below are also the control cities used for the Metro Atlanta Bypass/I-285 signs entering from the suburbs.)
Interstate 75
Interstate 75 in Georgia
In the U.S. state of Georgia, Interstate 75 runs north–south along the U.S. Route 41 corridor on the western side of the state, passing through the cities of Valdosta, Macon and Atlanta. It is also designated — but not signed — as State Route 401...
passes through from Macon and Tampa
Tâmpa
Tâmpa may refer to several villages in Romania:* Tâmpa, a village in Băcia Commune, Hunedoara County* Tâmpa, a village in Miercurea Nirajului, Mureş County* Tâmpa, a mountain in Braşov city...
to the south, and from Chattanooga to the north. Interstate 575
Interstate 575
Interstate 575 is an Interstate Highway spur route in the United States, which branches off Interstate 75 in Kennesaw and connects the metro Atlanta area with the north Georgia mountains. I-575 is also the unsigned State Route 417 and is cosigned as SR 5...
is a spur which merges with I-75 near Kennesaw. I-575 serves northeast portions of Cobb County and a large portion of Cherokee County. It ends in Ball Ground. Interstate 675
Interstate 675 (Georgia)
Interstate 675 was built in southeast metro Atlanta during the mid-1980s to alleviate Interstate 75 to the west, for traffic bound to Interstate 285 east. It is 11.04 miles in length, running from I-75 in the south from the city of Stockbridge to I-285 at its north end...
is a route which connects I-75 in Henry County to I-285 in southern Dekalb County. Most of the corridor is within Clayton County.
Interstate 85
Interstate 85 in Georgia
In the U.S. state of Georgia, the major Interstate Highway, Interstate 85, runs northeast-southwest from the Alabama border near West Point, and Lanett, Ala., running through Metropolitan Atlanta, and traveling to the border with South Carolina, where it crosses the Savannah River near Lake Hartwell...
passes through from Montgomery on the southwest and from Greenville on the northeast. I-75 merges with I-85 to form the Downtown Connector
Downtown Connector
In Atlanta, Georgia, the Downtown Connector or 75/85 is the concurrent section of Interstate 75 and Interstate 85 through the core of the city. Beginning at the I-85/Langford Parkway interchange, the Downtown Connector runs generally due north, meeting the east-west Interstate 20 in the middle....
from the Brookwood Interchange, just north of Midtown Atlanta, to just south of the Lakewood Freeway in south Atlanta. Interstate 185
Interstate 185 (Georgia)
Interstate 185 is a 49.30-mile secondary interstate in western Georgia. I-185 is also known as unsigned State Route 411, and is named the Chet Atkins Parkway for its entire length. It provides a freeway connection from Columbus and Fort Benning to Atlanta. Its southern terminus is at U.S. 27, U.S...
is a spur which merges with I-85 in LaGrange and stretches southward to Columbus. Interstate 985
Interstate 985
Interstate 985 is a long auxiliary Interstate Highway in Georgia. It begins at Interstate 85 near Suwanee and continues northward to the north Georgia city of Gainesville...
is a spur which merges with I-85 in Suwanee and serves the northern suburbs of Gwinnett and Hall Counties. It terminates just northeast of Gainesville.
Interstate 285
Interstate 285
Interstate 285 is an Interstate Highway loop encircling Atlanta, Georgia, for . I-285 is also known as unsigned State Route 407 and is colloquially referred to as the Perimeter. Suburban sprawl has made it one of the most heavily traveled roadways in the United States, and portions of the highway...
is the beltway which encircles the city and its immediate eastern suburbs. It is commonly known as the Perimeter. I-285 passes through Clayton, Cobb, Fulton and DeKalb Counties.
Interstate 20
Interstate 20 in Georgia
In Georgia, Interstate 20 runs from the Alabama border to the Savannah River, which the Georgia-South Carolina border straddles. It passes through the heavily congested Atlanta metropolitan area and exits the state at Augusta...
passes through from Birmingham to the west and from Augusta to the east. It serves Douglasville, the major suburb west of Atlanta. It serves Lithonia and Conyers to the east.
Atlanta is also served by several other freeways, in addition to the interstate highways. They are the following:
Georgia 400 is the main corridor serving the north-central suburbs, and the only toll road in the metropolitan Atlanta area. It reaches into the northern portion of Fulton County and gradually turns northeast before entering Forsyth County. The controlled-access portion terminates just northeast of the city of Cumming. To the south, it terminates and merges into southbound I-85 just south of the Buckhead business district. Cumming/Dahlonega is used on I-285 as the northbound sign, and Atlanta/Buckhead as the southbound. From I-85 northbound, it uses Buckhead/Cumming.
Stone Mountain Freeway
Stone Mountain Freeway
The Stone Mountain Freeway is a limited-access highway that connects Interstate 285 on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, with the suburbs of Stone Mountain and Snellville before transitioning into an arterial road that continues to Athens. The freeway is signed as U.S...
, or U.S. 78, is an 8-mile corridor east of Downtown Atlanta and the neighboring suburb of Decatur. It serves northeast portions of Dekalb County, including the city of Stone Mountain. It continues east as a divided highway into south Gwinnett County, including the suburb of Snellville. US 78 also stretches east to Athens.
Lakewood Freeway, or Georgia 166
Georgia State Route 166
State Route 166 starts at the Alabama line west of Carrollton in Carroll County. It goes around Carrollton on a by-pass route constructed in the mid-1900s. From there, S.R. 166 enters Douglas County where it remains mostly rural. After a short north–south concurrency with State Route 92, it...
, extends between Lakewood Park in south Atlanta and Campbellton Road, just west of I-285.
Peachtree Industrial Blvd, or Georgia 141
Georgia State Route 141
State Route 141 is a north–south route which begins where Roswell Road and Peachtree Road split in Buckhead....
, is a route north-northeast of Atlanta which begins on the north side of I-285 and runs parallel to I-85 for about four miles until it terminates when it splits into GA-141 and Peachtree Industrial (continuing as a normal divided highway).
Georgia State Route 316
Georgia State Route 316
State Route 316 links Metro Atlanta with Athens, Georgia, home of the University of Georgia. The state route is in length. Georgia 316 begins at I-85 exit 106, near Lawrenceville, passing through Bethlehem, Georgia and Statham, Georgia and ending at SR 10 Loop near Athens...
is a four-mile-long route that branches from I-85 and stretches eastward into Gwinnett County. It continues east as a normal divided highway through the suburb of Lawrenceville and on to Athens.
Mass transit
Atlanta has always been a railroad town, and the city once had an extensive streetcarStreetcars in Atlanta
Streetcars operated in Atlanta starting with horsecars in 1871; electric streetcar service started in the 1880s. The last streetcar service ended in 1949; the streetcar system was quickly replaced by a trolleybus system and with buses...
system around the city, and which also provided interurban
Interurban
An interurban, also called a radial railway in parts of Canada, is a type of electric passenger railroad; in short a hybrid between tram and train. Interurbans enjoyed widespread popularity in the first three decades of the twentieth century in North America. Until the early 1920s, most roads were...
service as far out as Marietta, 15 miles to the northwest. The streetcars were replaced by an extensive trolleybus system
Trolleybuses in Atlanta
In Atlanta, Georgia, trolleybuses were a major component of the public transportation system in the middle decades of the 20th century, carrying some 80 percent of all transit riders during the period when the system was at its maximum size...
, supplemented by buses, in the 1940s and 1950–52, and then converted to all buses in the 1950s and 1960-62. However, building out a modern rapid transit system proved a difficult and drawn-out process and, compared to the original plans for a regional system, has only partially been accomplished.
MARTA
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority
The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority or MARTA is the principal rapid-transit system in the Atlanta metropolitan area and the ninth-largest in the United States. Formed in 1971 as strictly a bus system, MARTA operates a network of bus routes linked to a rapid transit system consisting...
operates rapid transit
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
in Fulton and Dekalb counties, while Cobb
Cobb Community Transit
Cobb Community Transit or CCT is the bus public transit system in Cobb County, Georgia, one of metro Atlanta's three most populous suburban counties...
, Gwinnett
Gwinnett County Transit
Gwinnett County Transit or GCT is the bus public transit system in Gwinnett County, Georgia, USA, one of metro Atlanta's three most populous suburban counties...
, and Clayton counties operate their own bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...
es with no current rail transit. This is a result of those counties' refusal to join the MARTA system, a situation which was originally closely related to white flight
White flight
White flight has been a term that originated in the United States, starting in the mid-20th century, and applied to the large-scale migration of whites of various European ancestries from racially mixed urban regions to more racially homogeneous suburban or exurban regions. It was first seen as...
from the city. It is the only U.S. system in which the state does not provide any funds for operation or expansion, instead relying entirely on a 1% sales tax
Sales tax
A sales tax is a tax, usually paid by the consumer at the point of purchase, itemized separately from the base price, for certain goods and services. The tax amount is usually calculated by applying a percentage rate to the taxable price of a sale....
in its two counties.
Plans are underway for commuter rail and bus rapid transit
Bus rapid transit
Bus rapid transit is a term applied to a variety of public transportation systems using buses to provide faster, more efficient service than an ordinary bus line. Often this is achieved by making improvements to existing infrastructure, vehicles and scheduling...
(BRT), though these are some years away. The $20 billion Northwest Corridor HOV/BRT
Northwest Corridor HOV/BRT
The Northwest Corridor HOV/BRT is a Georgia Department of Transportation plan to put HOV lanes and bus rapid transit along Interstate 75 and Interstate 575 in the northwestern suburbs of metro Atlanta...
project appears to conflict with other plans, such as the metro-wide Concept 3 approved by the Transit Planning Board
Transit Planning Board
The Transit Planning Board is a joint commission of the Atlanta Regional Commission , Georgia Regional Transportation Authority , and Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority ....
, and the no-barrier
Jersey barrier
A Jersey barrier or Jersey wall is a modular concrete barrier employed to separate lanes of traffic. It is designed to both minimize vehicle damage in cases of incidental contact while still preventing crossover in the case of head-on accidents....
HOT lanes on I-85 in Gwinnett. MARTA is also considering a BRT line of its own to the east.
The first commuter rail line would run south of the city, eventually extended to Lovejoy
Lovejoy, Georgia
Lovejoy is a city in Clayton County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 2,495. During the American Civil War, it was named Lovejoy's Station, and was the site of the Battle of Lovejoy's Station during the Atlanta Campaign of 1864.During the 2000s,...
and possibly Hampton
Hampton, Georgia
Hampton is a city in southwestern Henry County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 6,987. Census Estimates for 2005 show a population of 4,743. Hampton mailing addresses also dip into eastern Clayton County and northern Spalding County.The Atlanta Motor...
near Atlanta Motor Speedway
Atlanta Motor Speedway
Atlanta Motor Speedway is a track just outside Hampton, Georgia, twenty miles south of Atlanta. It is a quad-oval track with a seating capacity of over 125,000. It opened in 1960 as a standard oval. In 1994, 46 condominiums were built over the northeastern side of the track...
. This project took two decades under Democrats, and has now been threatened by some Republicans in the Georgia General Assembly
Georgia General Assembly
The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, being composed of the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate....
as being "wasteful", despite being successful in every other U.S. city that has it. The "Brain Train" would likely be the second route, connecting the University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
in Athens to Emory University
Emory University
Emory University is a private research university in metropolitan Atlanta, located in the Druid Hills section of unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, United States. The university was founded as Emory College in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia by a small group of Methodists and was named in honor of...
and Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
As planned, all commuter trains would arrive at the Atlanta Multimodal Passenger Terminal (MMPT), the long-delayed facility just across Peachtree Street
Peachtree Street
Peachtree Street is the main street of Atlanta. The city grew up around the street, and many of its historical and municipal buildings are or were located along it...
from the Five Points MARTA station
Five Points (MARTA station)
Five Points is a tri-level underground multi-platform metro station of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority rail system. It is the transfer point between the Red and Gold Lines and the Blue and Green Lines and serves as MARTA's transportation hub. It provides access to the Five Points...
, where all of its lines meet. The planning for the system, and its extension as intercity rail across the state, is the responsibility of the Georgia Rail Passenger Authority.
Another proposed plan that has received very strong grassroots
Grassroots
A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...
support in recent years is the BeltLine
Beltline
The Beltline is a region of central Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The area is located immediately to the south of Calgary's downtown , and is sometimes considered part of downtown...
, a greenbelt and transit system that takes advantage of existing and unused rail tracks to set up a 22-mile light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
or streetcar circuit around the core of Atlanta, as well as establishing more green space
Open space reserve
Open space reserve, open space preserve, and open space reservation, are planning and conservation ethics terms used to describe areas of protected or conserved land or water on which development is indefinitely set aside...
and foot paths for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Commercial railways
Before Atlanta was even a city, it was a railroad hub. From this came the joke, popular among other Southerners, that "regardless of whether one goes to heavenHeaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
or hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
, everyone must go through Atlanta first". Many of its suburbs pre-date it as depots or train station
Train station
A train station, also called a railroad station or railway station and often shortened to just station,"Station" is commonly understood to mean "train station" unless otherwise qualified. This is evident from dictionary entries e.g...
s along the major lines in and out of town.
Unfortunately, many of these historic stations, including Atlanta's Union Station
Union Station (Atlanta)
The Union Station built in 1930 in Atlanta was the smaller of two principal train stations in downtown, Terminal Station being the other. It was the third "union station" or "union depot" , succeeding the the 1853 station, burned in the Battle of Atlanta, and the the 1871 station.The station was...
and Terminal Station
Terminal Station (Atlanta)
Terminal Station in Atlanta was the larger of two principal train stations in downtown, Union Station being the other. Opening in 1905, Terminal Station served Southern Railway, Seaboard Air Line, Central of Georgia , and the Atlanta and West Point. The architect was P...
, were deliberately destroyed by demolition
Demolition
Demolition is the tearing-down of buildings and other structures, the opposite of construction. Demolition contrasts with deconstruction, which involves taking a building apart while carefully preserving valuable elements for re-use....
like many county courthouse
Courthouse
A courthouse is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English speaking countries, buildings which house courts of law are simply...
s and other historic buildings. Many have been saved however, including the L&N station in Woodstock, and the stations along the main W&A line in Marietta and Smyrna.
Through mergers, the main railroads in the area are now Norfolk Southern and CSX. The Georgia Northeastern Railroad
Georgia Northeastern Railroad
The Georgia Northeastern Railroad is a short line freight railroad which runs from the town of Elizabeth, Georgia to the city of Blue Ridge, Georgia. Goods hauled are mostly timber, grain, poultry, and marble products. The GNRR's subsidiary, the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway, also operates on this...
is a short line that also services part of the area. There are also several railyards of Atlanta and vicinity, as well as the Southeastern Railway Museum
Southeastern Railway Museum
The Southeastern Railway Museum is a railroad museum located in Duluth, Georgia in suburban Atlanta.The museum was founded in 1970 by the Atlanta Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society. It is recognized by the IRS as a 501 non-profit organization for historical and educational purposes...
and the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History
Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History
The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History is a museum in Kennesaw, Georgia, that contains a collection of artifacts and relics from the American Civil War, as well as from railroads of the state of Georgia and surrounding regions...
.
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, more commonly known as Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
, runs the intercity rail line Crescent
Crescent (Amtrak)
The Crescent is a passenger train operated by Amtrak in the eastern part of the United States. It runs daily from Pennsylvania Station in New York City to New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal in New Orleans, Louisiana as train 19 and returns, on the same route, as train 20. Most of the route of...
through metro Atlanta twice daily, with one train heading towards New Orleans and the other headed towards New York. All trains make a scheduled stop at Peachtree Station in northern midtown Atlanta, but it is also possible for arrange for trains to stop in Gainesville
Gainesville, Georgia
-Severe Weather:Gainesville sits on the very fringe of Tornado Alley, a region of the United States where severe weather is common. Supercell thunderstorms can sweep through any time between March and November, but are concentrated most in the spring...
, Georgia as well.
Air
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International AirportHartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport , known locally as Atlanta Airport, Hartsfield Airport, and Hartsfield–Jackson, is located seven miles south of the central business district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States...
is the only international airport
International airport
An international airport is any airport that can accommodate flights from other countries and are typically equipped with customs and immigration facilities to handle these flights to and from other countries...
for the region (and only major international airport for the state), and as with rail travel, it became the ubiquitous place through which everyone must travel at some point. Atlanta's second airport
Atlanta's second airport
Atlanta's second airport is an idea being studied by the city of Atlanta, Georgia. In May 2007, the Federal Aviation Administration released the report, "Capacity Needs in the National Airspace System, 2007–2025" as part of its Future Airport Capacity Task...
is in the very preliminary discussion and study phase.
Other airports (maintained by local counties) include Charlie Brown Field (Fulton), McCollum Field (Cobb), Cartersville Airport
Cartersville Airport
Cartersville Airport is a public use airport located three nautical miles southwest of the central business district of Cartersville, in Bartow County, Georgia, United States. It is owned by the Cartersville Bartow Airport Authority.Although many U.S...
, DeKalb Peachtree Airport, Briscoe Field (Gwinnett), Coweta County Airport, Cherokee County Airport
Cherokee County Airport (Georgia)
Cherokee County Airport is a county owned, public-use airport in Cherokee County, Georgia, United States. It is located six nautical miles northeast of the central business district of Canton, Georgia. The airport is adjacent to Interstate 575, about halfway between the city of Canton and the...
, and Tara Field
Clayton County Airport - Tara Field
Henry County Airport - Tara Field , formerly known as Clayton County Airport. Morris Field, or Bear Creek Airport is a municipal airport located about three miles west of the central business district of Hampton, Georgia, on the far south side of metro Atlanta in western Henry County, Georgia, USA...
(Henry). Former local airports were Stone Mountain Airport
Stone Mountain Airport
The Stone Mountain Airport , later also known as Stone Mountain Britt Memorial Airport , was a small privately-run public-use airport located in Stone Mountain, Georgia from around 1963 until 1996. Used for general aviation, it had a paved runway of either or , and a "crosswind" grass runway of...
and Parkaire Field, among others.
Local roads
There are many historic roads across the area, named after its millsHistoric mills of the Atlanta area
There were several historic mills around the metro Atlanta area, for which many of its current-day roads are still named. Most of the mills date back to the 1820s and 1830s, and were built along the area's many streams.-Autrey Mill:...
and early ferries
Historic ferries of the Atlanta area
There were several historic ferries around the metro Atlanta, Georgia area, for which many of its current-day roads are named. Most of the ferries date back to the 1820s and 1830s, to carry travelers across the Chattahoochee River or several other smaller rivers...
, and the bridges
Historic bridges of the Atlanta area
There were several historic bridges around the metro Atlanta, Georgia area, for which many of its current-day roads are named. Many of them originated as ferries, dating back to the 1820s and 1830s, and carrying travelers across the Chattahoochee River and several other smaller rivers...
later built to replace the ferries. Pace's Ferry
Pace's Ferry
Through much of the 19th century, Pace's Ferry was an important ferry across the Chattahoochee River near Atlanta. Started in the early 1830s near Peachtree Creek, it was run by Hardy Pace, one of the city's founders...
is perhaps the best known.
Owing to the area's long history of settlement and uneven terrain, most arterial road
Arterial road
An arterial road, or arterial thoroughfare, is a high-capacity urban road. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector roads to freeways, and between urban centres at the highest level of service possible. As such, many arteries are limited-access roads, or feature...
s are not straight but meander instead, which can be confusing as much as the famed proliferation of Atlanta streets with "Peachtree" in the name. It is also often joked that half the streets are named Peachtree, while the other half have several names to make up for it.
Partly, confusion is because the region maintains the historic nomenclature of each county naming its roads for the towns they connect with in surrounding counties. Thus, from Dallas to Roswell, Georgia 120
Georgia State Route 120
State Route 120 begins at SR 100 near Tallapoosa and ends at West Crogan Street in Lawrenceville.In Marietta, SR 120 has a spur route , which acts as a perimeter for the northern part city. In Paulding County, the highway cosigns with the following highways . Then it cosigns with through Dallas...
is Marietta Highway to the Paulding/Cobb county line, is Dallas Highway to the city of Marietta, Whitlock Avenue to the town square
Town square
A town square is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town used for community gatherings. Other names for town square are civic center, city square, urban square, market square, public square, and town green.Most town squares are hardscapes suitable for open markets,...
, South Park Square for just one city block
City block
A city block, urban block or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. A city block is the smallest area that is surrounded by streets. City blocks are the space for buildings within the street pattern of a city, they form the basic unit of a city's urban fabric...
, Roswell Street to Cobb Parkway
Cobb Parkway
Cobb Parkway is a major arterial road which runs northwest and southeast through Cobb County, Georgia. It concurrently carries both U.S. 41, and the much less-recognized Georgia 3...
(at the Big Chicken
Big Chicken
The Big Chicken is a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Marietta, Georgia, which features a 56-foot-tall steel-sided structure designed in the appearance of a chicken rising up from the top of the building. It is located at the city's biggest intersection of Cobb Parkway and Roswell Road and...
), Roswell Road to the Cobb/Fulton county line, and finally Marietta Street to the town square in Roswell. Further confusion is from the arbitrary location of state routes by GDOT, so that they travel an erratic path requiring several turns by drivers instead of traveling the original straight route; and the renaming of roads by state legislators to honor their friends.
There are many roads like this throughout the area, leading to duplication of names in different counties. In Fulton, "Roswell Road" refers to Georgia 9 through northern Atlanta and across Sandy Springs, in addition to the above-mentioned use in Cobb, for example. Numeric street addressing is done by county as well, with the origin usually being at one corner of the town square in the county seat. The U.S. Postal Service ignores these actual and logical boundaries however, overlapping ZIP code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
s and their associated place names across counties. The Cumberland/Galleria area has Cobb's numbers and an "SE" suffix, but is called "Atlanta" by the USPS (despite being Vinings, which the USPS ironically calls "unacceptable"), which can confuse visitors to think it is far away in southeast Atlanta.
Where more than one town in the same county has a road to the same place, the smaller towns have their own name prefixed to it, while the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
does not. The road need not go directly to the other place, but may connect through other roads. Examples include Due West Road west from Marietta, Kennesaw Due West Road southwest from Kennesaw, and Acworth Due West Road south from Acworth. Some are usually hyphen
Hyphen
The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen should not be confused with dashes , which are longer and have different uses, or with the minus sign which is also longer...
ated, like Peachtree-Dunwoody Road, Ashford-Dunwoody Road, Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, and Chamblee-Tucker Road.
There are also several roads named for communities which have been overwhelmed by the urban and suburban sprawl, and so are somewhat odd to newcomers. These include Sandy Plains, Crabapple
Crabapple, Georgia
Centered today at the crossroads of Georgia Highways 140 and 372 , Crabapple, Georgia, is one of the oldest parts of Fulton County, Georgia. Originally part of Cherokee County, Georgia, , Crabapple was part of the land contributed in 1857 to form Milton County, Georgia...
, Toonigh
Toonigh, Georgia
Toonigh, located between Holly Springs and Woodstock, is also known as Lebanon. According to Georgia Place-Names by Kenneth Krakow, the name Toonigh is probably derived from the Cherokee Indian word "Tooantuh," which means "spring frog" and...
, Luxomni
Luxomni, Georgia
Luxomni was a small community between central and southwestern Gwinnett County, Georgia, on a railroad line just east-northeast of Lilburn. It was founded in 1891 around a rail depot, on the line to Lawrenceville, the county seat...
, and Due West. Some of these communities are in the middle of the road, while some are at or very near one end. Some areas are renamed, either over time (Sandy Plains gradually became "Sprayberry" when Sprayberry High School
Sprayberry High School
Sprayberry High School is a public high school located in eastern Cobb County in Georgia. Middle schools feeding upcoming students into Sprayberry are McCleskey, Daniell, and Simpson Middle School...
moved there and similarly named shopping centers popped up around it); by the USPS (Toonigh is identified as "Lebanon"), or after rapid development. (Hog Mountain is now "Hamilton Mill"). In such cases, the roads usually maintain their historic names even if the neighborhoods do not.
Several of these roads have become arterials, while others remain pleasant two-lane drives. Many are state roads as well, though GDOT has the habit of moving numbered routes onto other roads, without public input, and occasionally sending them through an entirely different town. State highway numbers also tend to curve around arbitrarily while their directional signs do not, rendering them useless where they indicate "north" and "south" in places the road goes east and west. There are also a few U.S. highways that cross the area, including 19, 23, 29, 41, and 78.
Other arterials are completely new, like much of Barrett Parkway
Barrett Parkway
Ernest W. Barrett Parkway is a major thoroughfare in northwest metro Atlanta between western and northern Cobb County, Georgia. It runs from southwest of Marietta, to the north and then northeast near Kennesaw, and continues on in both directions under other names. The portion of Barrett Parkway...
and South Fulton Parkway, both constructed by their counties but partly covered with a state route number. Occasionally, roads are realigned or extended to meet each other directly at a cross-road, leading to odd curves and name changes.