Atlanta

Creek and Cherokee peoples lived in the area for thousands of years; the nearest settlement was Standing Peachtree, a Creek village where Peachtree Creek meets the Chattahoochee River. The Creek were forced out by 1821. In 1836 Georgia voted to build the Western and Atlantic Railroad, and its "zero milepost" was driven into the ground at what is now Five Points. The settlement around it, first called Terminus and then Marthasville, was incorporated as Atlanta in December 1847, a name derived from the railway.

As the junction of several lines, Atlanta became a Confederate supply hub in the Civil War. After the Battle of Atlanta and a four-month siege, the city surrendered to General William T. Sherman in September 1864, and before his March to the Sea he ordered its military assets destroyed; most of the city burned. Rebuilt quickly, it became the state capital in 1868, and the newspaper editor Henry Grady promoted it as the capital of the "New South". The Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895 drew nearly 800,000 visitors. The early 20th century brought growth but also the race riot of 1906, the lynching of Leo Frank in 1915 and the Great Fire of 1917.

In the 1960s Atlanta was a centre of the civil rights movement, led by Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy and students from the city's historically Black colleges. By 1970 African Americans were the majority, and in 1973 Maynard Jackson became the first Black mayor. MARTA trains began running in 1979. The 1996 Summer Olympics, marred by the Centennial Olympic Park bombing, transformed the city, and since 2005 the Beltline has remade the inner neighbourhoods. In 2026 Atlanta was one of the host cities of the FIFA World Cup.

Since the 1970s Atlanta has been known as a "Black mecca", a centre of African American politics, education, business and culture, anchored by the colleges of the Atlanta University Center and by churches such as Ebenezer Baptist. In the 1960s the mayor called it "the city too busy to hate", and it has a diverse LGBT community, historically centred on Midtown and Cheshire Bridge.

Music has followed the city's growth: country music arrived with Appalachian migrants in the 1920s, the city was a centre of Southern rock in the 1970s, and Outkast and the Dungeon Family brought Atlanta hip hop to prominence; by the 2000s the city had become hip hop's centre of gravity. It is also a leading centre of film and television production, home to Tyler Perry Studios. The Woodruff Arts Center houses the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Tony-winning Alliance Theatre, the city has resident opera and ballet companies, and street art festivals have covered many walls with murals.

Sport is followed passionately. The Braves, the oldest continually operating professional franchise in the country, the Falcons, the Hawks and Atlanta United, MLS champions in 2018, all play here, and the city calls itself the capital of college football. Running is a local passion, crowned by the Peachtree Road Race on the Fourth of July. Festivals run from January to November, from the Dogwood Festival in Piedmont Park to Dragon Con on Labor Day weekend.

About 499,000 people lived in Atlanta at the 2020 census, and an estimated 529,000 in 2025, while the metropolitan area has over 6.4 million. The city is divided into 242 official neighbourhoods: high-rise Downtown, Midtown and Buckhead along Peachtree Street, surrounded by low-density streets of craftsman bungalows under the densest urban tree cover of any major American city, which earns it the name "City in a Forest".

The economy is broad. Coca-Cola, Home Depot, Delta Air Lines, UPS, Chick-fil-A and Norfolk Southern are among the companies with headquarters in the city or region, and Delta is the metro area's largest employer. CNN and other Turner networks were founded here, technology has earned the nickname "Silicon Peach", and film production has boomed on the back of state tax credits. Georgia Tech, Emory and the Atlanta University Center bring tens of thousands of students.

Change is the constant theme. Gentrification, accelerated by the Olympics and the Beltline, has reshaped many intown neighbourhoods, and the Black share of the city's population fell from 67 per cent in 1990 to 47 per cent in 2020. Traffic, commutes and air pollution rank among the worst in the country, yet one household in six has no car.

Atlanta is best known for barbecue, hamburgers, Southern fried chicken and lemon pepper wings. Coca-Cola was invented here in 1886, and Chick-fil-A, the chicken sandwich chain, has its headquarters in the city. The Varsity, on North Avenue, was once the world's largest drive-in, and Mary Mac's Tea Room and Paschal's are long-established names for traditional Southern cooking. Sweet iced tea is the everyday drink, and Georgia is known for its peaches and pecans.

Since the turn of the century Atlanta has become a serious restaurant city. Kitchens in the gentrifying neighbourhoods have drawn national attention, and The New York Times in 2011 described two of them, in West Midtown and Midtown, as reflecting a sophisticated Southern sensibility centred on the farm but experienced in the city. Several restaurants are now recognised by the Michelin Guide, among them the Indian restaurant Chai Pani.

For international food, locals head to Buford Highway, the multi-ethnic corridor north-east of the city, where Mexican and Asian restaurants serve the region's immigrant communities. Food halls in old industrial buildings, above all Ponce City Market and Krog Street Market on the Beltline, have become social hubs.