What you didn’t know about Atlanta, Georgia.
Atlanta is built on layers, geological, historical, cultural, that shape the city far more than most visitors realize.
The hills that roll beneath the entire metro area aren’t random; Atlanta is perched on the Piedmont Plateau, carved from ancient Appalachian rock, giving the city its distinct topography and canopy of deep green forest that makes it the most heavily wooded major city in the country. That tree cover fuels its humid, life-filled climate and creates micro-neighborhoods where birdsong and shade soften the urban core. Its civil rights legacy is woven into everyday streets, not confined to museums or memorials, but alive in neighborhoods where leaders lived, marched, and shaped the nation’s future. Atlanta is also a global production hub, with one of the world’s busiest airports acting as its heartbeat and a film industry so massive the city earned the nickname “Y’allywood.” Even the BeltLine has hidden roots: it was once an abandoned railroad loop, now transformed into one of the country’s most ambitious urban renewal projects connecting parks, markets, neighborhoods, and public art into a single living system. Beneath the sleek skyline, Atlanta is a city of reinvention, constantly shifting, expanding, and redefining itself.
Five fascinations about Atlanta.
5. Atlanta has more trees than any major U.S. city.
Often called the “City in a Forest,” nearly 48% of Atlanta is covered in trees, more than any other urban center in the nation.
4. Coca-Cola was invented here, and almost lost.
The original Coca-Cola formula was created in Atlanta in 1886. But in 1919, a banker accidentally left the formula as collateral for a loan, nearly giving it away.
3. There’s a secret zero-mile marker underground.
Beneath downtown’s Gulch area lies the Zero Mile Post, the exact point where Atlanta’s railroads, and eventually, the city itself, began.
2. Tyler Perry owns one of the largest film studios in the U.S.
Located on a former Confederate army base, Tyler Perry Studios now rivals Hollywood lots, and it’s 100% Black-owned.
1. Atlanta burned down… and came back stronger.
After being torched in the Civil War, the city adopted the Phoenix as its symbol, and it’s been rising ever since, in every possible way.
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