Come face to face with an African lion, sit and ponder a Monet, swim with creatures of the deep — this is the ATL where options for engaging in the world around you are limitless. Six counties comprise the Metro area, merging towering skyscrapers with quaint town squares. Past and present collide, bringing opportunity to dance with the dinosaurs, visit the final resting place of both Union and Confederate soldiers and celebrate the Centennial Olympic Games. Shop-ortunities range from enclaves for antiquing to brand name mega-malls. Interactions ooze with sweet Southern hospitality — you’ll soon see why the Atlanta Metro has guests returning again and again. One-of-a-kind attractions, top-tier eateries and events, from international to neighborhood-centric, and options for resting easy, from brand name to boutique hotels, make it possible to create your own story line when it comes to embarking on an Atlanta Metro adventure.
Fast Facts and Trivia
- In December of 2011 the Coca-Cola Company transferred the secret formula for Coca-Cola to the World of Coca-Cola from a vault at SunTrust Bank in downtown Atlanta where it had been housed since 1925. For the first time in history, the vault containing the secret formula is visible to the public in a permanent exhibit titled The Vault of the Secret Formula.
- In Atlanta, more than 70 streets have the name Peachtree in it.
- Two Nobel Peace Prize Winners call Atlanta home, President Jimmy Carter and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
- Atlanta’s Peachtree Road Race is the largest 10K in the world, with more than 60,000 runners in attendance.
- In 1888, the Sweetwater Park Hotel in Lithia Springs, Douglas County, was listed as the only hotel in the world with saunas.
- Alpharetta was named the 7th friendliest city in the nation, the number one place to move to and the 6th fasting growing city according by Forbes.
- Clayton County is known as the Official Home of Gone With the Wind because Margaret Mitchell set her fictional Tara here and grew up visiting her family here during the summers.
- Sandy Springs has one of the highest ratios of Fortune 500 companies per capita in the U.S., including the headquarters for UPS, Newell Rubbermaid and Mercedes Benz USA.
- Henry County is home to the only lion, tiger and bear family in the world known to co-habitat.
- Peachtree City has over 90 miles of cart paths that connect the town and provide a secondary means of access to almost any destination within city limits.
- The Georgia Aquarium is the largest aquarium in the United States and the second largest in the world.
- Arabia Mountain, a granite monadnock, is one of the most distinctive features of the Heritage Area. The Arabia Mountain monadnock, or an isolated and exposed rock hill, is one of the few found in Georgia besides Stone Mountain and Heritage Area sister, Panola Mountain.
- The Booth Western Art Museum is the only museum of its kind in the Southeast and is the second largest art museum in the state of Georgia.
- The historical carving on Stone Mountain is the only memorial of a trio of Southern generals and their horses: Jefferson Davis on Blackjack, Robert E. Lee on Traveler and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson on Little Sorrel.
- Marietta is one of few cities that has both a National Cemetery and a Confederate Cemetery located so close to each other.
- The first trolley that the Marietta Trolley Company purchased, Uncle Ruban, is named after the original streetcar that connected Marietta to Atlanta beginning in July 1905.
- Ansley Park, an Atlanta neighborhood, was inspired by the landscape architect Fredrick Law Olmstead’s principles of following the natural contours of the land but was also designed to be oriented around automobile driving. In 1905 construction began on the 275-acre tract to build a neighborhood for the elite of Atlanta to accommodate both motorcars and horse-drawn carriages.
Photo Gallery
The content and images on this site are for editorial purposes only and may not be used for any other purposes. Information and images are provided free of charge to journalists through Travel Media Press Room subscribers. Please register before downloading photos for publication. Right-click image to save.
