Atlanta

Capital and largest city of Georgia, situated 300 m/984 ft above sea level in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains; seat of Fulton County; population (2000 est) 416,500. It is the headquarters of Coca-Cola and also since 1994 EarthLink, an Internet service provider second only to AOL in the USA. Ford and Lockheed motor-vehicle and aircraft assembly plants are located in the city. Atlanta hosted the 1996 Olympic Games. The area was named Marthasville in 1843, it was renamed Atlanta in 1843 and was incorporated as a city in 1847; it became state capital in 1868.

Originally named Terminus, the area was settled in 1837; the site was chosen as the southern terminus of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. During the American Civil War, Atlanta was the Confederate arsenal. It was captured and partly destroyed by Union General William Sherman in 1864. The city grew in importance after 1900 and became the financial, trade, and convention centre for the southeastern USA. Atlanta was the first large city in the South to elect a black mayor, Maynard Jackson, in 1973.

Atlanta has 154 entries on the National Register of Historic Places, including historic districts and the State Capitol (1889), with its dome gilded with gold leaf. Other sites of interest include Wren's Nest, the Victorian-era home of US author Joel Chandler Harris; the Georgia Governors' Mansion (1839); the Atlanta History Center, which includes Tullis Smith Farm plantation house (1845) and Palladian Swan House Mansion (1928); The High Museum of Art (1986), which has an important collection of American contemporary and decorative art; the Cyclorama Civil War Museum; and the Atlanta Botanic Gardens. Stone Mountain Memorial is located 26 km/16 mi east of Atlanta and is the world's largest sculpture memorial. It commemorates the Confederate war heroes Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee, and Stonewall Jackson. A number of sites from the earliest settlement are preserved in the Underground Atlanta complex (1969). Educational institutions include Atlanta University (1865) and Clark University (1869), which merged in 1988 to form the Clark Atlanta University, Emory University (1836), and the Georgia Institute of Technology (1885).

The Martin Luther King Jr National Historic District commemorates the civil-rights campaigner, whose Southern Christian Leadership Conference had its headquarters here; sites include his birthplace and his grave. The novelist Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone with the Wind (1936), was also born in Atlanta and the house where she lived in the 1920s is open to the public. The city also contains the Road to Tara Museum commemorating the book. The Carter Presidential Center has a library and museum commemorating the presidency of Jimmy Carter. Atlanta is home to a number of sports teams including: the Atlanta Braves baseball team, Atlanta Falcons, American football team, and the Atlanta Hawks basketball team.