Atlanta Travel
Atlanta
ATLANTA is a relatively young city: only incorporated in 1847, it was little more than a minor transportation center until the Civil War, when its accessibility made it a good site for the huge Confederacy munitions industry and consequently a major target for the Union army. In 1864 Sherman's army burned the city, an act immortalized in Gone with the Wind . Recovery after the war took just a few years: Atlanta was the archetype of the aggressive, urban, industrial ''New South,'' furiously championed by '' boosters '' newspaper owners, bankers, politicians and city leaders. Industrial giants who based themselves here included Coca-Cola , source of a string of philanthropic gifts to the city.
Very few of Atlanta's buildings predate 1915, and nothing at all survives from before 1868. Its characters, on the other hand politicians and newspaper people have changed little, and the ''booster'' tradition has continued to the present, peaking spectacularly when Atlanta won the right to host the 1996 Olympics . The bid to convince the world of the city's prosperity and sophistication was led by city leaders such as ex-mayor Andrew Young (the first Southern black congressman since Reconstruction, who became Carter's ambassador to the UN) and flamboyant former CNN magnate Ted Turner .
Today's Atlanta is at first glance a large American city. Its population has reached 3.5 million. The city is undeniably progressive, with little interest in lamenting a lost Southern past. Since voting in the nation's first black mayor, Maynard Jackson, in 1974, an estimated 200,000 black families streamed in from states further north in the 1980s alone. The Olympics may not have been the triumph Atlanta so eagerly anticipated even before the Centennial Park bombing tarnished the event itself, years of disruption and grandiose construction projects had left many Atlantans wondering whether the city had lost more than it gained but with its ever-increasing international profile, cosmopolitan blend of cultures and hip local neighborhoods, the spirit and dynamism of modern Atlanta is a far cry indeed from its much-mythologized Deep South roots.
Stone Mountain
Just half an hour's drive east of Atlanta, Stone Mountain State Park (park daily 6ammidnight; attractions daily spring & summer 10am9pm, rest of year 10am5pm; $6 per vehicle) centers around a huge dome of granite with a five-mile circumference. You can climb it in around 45 minutes, or take a cable car to the top, and there are various train rides and so on, but most visitors come to see the massive 90ft by 190ft relief of Confederates Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Work on the colossal sculpture was started in 1924 by Gutzon Borglum, who went on to carve Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, but was not completed until 1970. Concessions and giftshops down below supply endless souvenir kitsch, and the nightly lasershow in summer culminates with Elvis's gut-wrenching rendition of Dixie (9.30pm; free with entrance to park).
Grant Park
Directly south of downtown, Grant Park is home to the Cyclorama , a huge circular painting (50ft by 900ft) depicting the Battle of Atlanta, executed by a group of German and Polish artists in 188586. Cycloramas used to travel around the country as entertainment in the days before movies; you sit inside the circle of the painting and the whole auditorium slowly rotates twice. During the second rotation, a guide provides interesting details about the painting; look out in particular for the hole in the wagon, originally used as a fire escape. In the accompanying museum, treating the war from the point of view of the average soldier, banks of distressing statistics are interspersed with photos and memorabilia (daily: summer 9.20am5.30pm; rest of year 9.20am4.30pm; $5). Adjacent, Zoo Atlanta ( www.zooatlanta.org ) features giant pandas from Chengdu and re-creations of African rainforests and other habitats (daily: summer 9am6.30pm; rest of year 9.30am5.30pm; $15). In summer, a special zoo shuttle runs from Five Points MARTA station to the park.