Visiting Atlanta
Atlanta is the capital of Georgia and one of the biggest cities in the southeastern part of the United States. The city is famous historically for its civil war history and being the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. Atlanta is also where Coca Cola was invented, and is home to the second largest aquarium in the world as well as countless other attractions. The capitol building on the left was where I began my visit of Atlanta. This building in the photograph was built in 1889 and replaced the previous capitol building which was used until after the civil war. The capitol building also has its own museum which shares the history of the city.
During the Civil War, Atlanta was not as significant as it is today in terms of population. Regardless it was still an important and strategic city do to its location and infrastructure. Atlanta was completely destroyed by the civil war and had to be rebuilt from scratch. Today the city is a pretty diverse in regards to architecture. Some parts of the city are dense in population along with high rise buildings. Other parts have a more suburban feel despite being very close to the city center. The photo above shows the Bank of America skyscraper and probably one of the country’s largest city halls below.
My sister who moved from Virginia to a suburb in northern Atlanta warned me the traffic here was much worse than back home. I found this hard to believe, and for the most part I don’t think it’s true. There wasn’t too much traffic in this photo above, but another time I did get caught up in a mess. It seems the road designs are terrible rather than being a result of too many people. Atlanta is barely one of America’s top 50 largest cities. I mistakenly pulled into a shopping center for example and was trapped there for 20 minutes. Everyone was trying to make a left turn and the stop light would only allow two cars at a time. It was incredibly annoying.
Atlanta has a lot of history that is shared with historic sites and museums. Since I mostly enjoy being outside, I found a walk through Centennial Park to be one of the highlights of the city. I’d say Centennial Park is probably the most beautiful part of Atlanta.
Centennial Park held the Olympics way back in 1996. I even remember as a kid when they were being held in Atlanta. The park itself didn’t have much going on but has several signs proudly showing that the Olympics where once held here. It’s mostly a big open space with a large fountain in the center and international flags lining the perimeter.
I did happen to notice while I was walking through the park that the bricks had names and cities on them. I promise I looked down and the first one I saw was from Springfield, Virginia, my hometown!
One last place that I visited and found a bit disappointing was the Atlanta Underground. I had heard a lot of about this place before I came. I had expected some sprawling underground network of shops, restaurants and entertainment. Instead I felt like I was just in any other midsize shopping mall that didn’t have much going on.
This isn’t to say you shouldn’t go yourself, but I think my expectations where a little high. It’d be a great place to go on a rainy or cold day. About a year later I read that the Atlanta Underground is indeed not attracting as many people as it used to. The city had done some creative ideas to bring back locals, even delaying last call by 90 minutes compared to the rest of the city. Last I heard another developer had bought the Atlanta Underground, and they plan to modernize the place and add lots of hotels, apartments etc.
A must see in Atlanta is the famous Cyclorama & Civil War museum. It’s one of the best civil war museums in the country and shows artifacts, portraits, and other items from the civil war. There is also a video showing a reenactment of some of the civil war battles and campaigns that took place in Atlanta. The photograph above shows the entrance to the museum. Below is a photograph I took near the entrance that shows some of the important civil war soldiers who fought in Atlanta.
Until I came to the Cyclorama myself, I had forgotten all about Atlanta’s role in the Civil War and the battles that were fought here. Union troops had considered Atlanta the gateway to the south, and so the Confederate troops had heavily fortified the city. In the late summer of 1864, General Sherman launched an attack on Atlanta by firing thousands of cannons shells and other artillery. The siege lasted for several months until the Confederates decided to abandon the city. Above and below are some snapshots I took during the reenactment videos that I watched in the museum. The Union victory here was one of the most important of the Civil War. It is credited with boosting northern moral, and getting president Lincoln reelected to a second term.
This picture I took shows a portrait of a civil war soldier. You can see he is holding a trumpet, which was common back in the 18th and 19th centuries. Many times armies would play music to try to rally their soldiers while also intimidating their enemies.
The most famous part of the Atlanta Civil War Museum is the enormous Cyclorama. The Cyclorama at 42 feet by 358 feet was once the largest oil painting in the world until surpassed by another oil painting in the United States. The center of the Cyclorama has stadium style seats that rotate around repeatedly while you hear a narration of the Civil War. The painting was completed in 1885, about 20 years after the Civil War. At the time of its completion, Civil War veterans usually were the ones who provided the narration.
One of my bad vices in life is my love for coke, so it goes without saying that when I visited Atlanta I had to stop by the World of Coca Cola. This might sound like a random jump after the Cyclorama, but Coca Cola was actually created because of the American Civil War! The World of Coca Cola functions as the company’s headquarters and a museum. In my opinion this is a mandatory visit while in Atlanta; especially given the history of how coke began.
The museum is pretty large and features everything from items relating to Coke’s early history to the life of its inventor. The photograph above shows some of the vintage coke machines that have existed over the decades.
This statue above shows John Pemberton, the inventor of Coca Cola. He was a pharmacist who was later wounded in the civil war. Realizing the problems with morphine first hand from his own injuries, he was inspired to change the way soldiers were treated. In 1866 Pemberton attempted to invent a new drug similar to morphine but without the addicting properties. His work led the invention of Coca Cola.
Although the he was never able to make the drug perform the way he wanted, he realized it did have a great taste and some benefits. He began to manufacture the drink and it was advertised as a refreshing drink that helped to treat headaches, exhaustion, and anxiety. The writings above show some of Pemberton’s original documents where he took notes as he worked to create the Coca Cola recipe.
Sadly John Pemberton’s invention never served its purpose. He died poor at the age of 57 while still addicted to morphine. At the time he could never imagine that his invention would become one of the most popular drinks in the entire planet and remain strong even after a hundred years. The World of Coca Cola museum details the life of John Pemberton and shows all types of coke products over the years. Above are vintage coke machines and advertisements from the 20th century. On the left is a manufacturing area where coke is being bottled.
My final two photos show one of the most interesting parts of the tour. This is where the actual original Coca Cola recipe is held, in the famous “vault”. Apparently Coca Cola is so secretive about their recipe that they only keep a single physical copy which is stored in this vault. Furthermore, only a hand full of people can access the vault, and it’s one of the most guarded and high tech secrets in the world!
While the World of Coca Cola and the Cyclorama bring in many visitors, the Georgia Aquarium is by far the state’s largest attraction. I’ve long heard stories about this being the biggest aquarium in the world until it was surpassed by one in Singapore. I kind of assumed this had been here for decades and didn’t realize it opened in 2007. Because of its enormous size, the aquarium can accommodate lots of large animals, such as these Beluga whales.
Normally when I go to aquariums I used to be focused on the large or active wildlife. Sometimes I forget to take notice of some things like this large jelly fish or giant Alaskan crab below. I found the idea of the large Alaska crab scavenging the dark ocean floor in the arctic for food a bit creepy. It really is amazing how life has adapted in so many harsh environments around the world. While it’s extremely difficult, you can spot a tiger in the wild, but some deep living ocean species you’ll never have a chance to see except for here.
I could easily put up a 100 photos I took of the Georgia Aquarium but I decided to limit it to just five. I’ll say that my favorite spot was the fresh water exhibit. I would never have suspected that, but for some reason the simplicity in it all made it feel more like home than seeing something like tropical or arctic waters. Instead of posting those pictures I decided to share these from the Ocean Voyager. This is the largest exhibit and remains the largest actual ocean exhibit in the world. It’s large enough that the aquarium houses not one but four whale sharks! There are many different ways to experience this exhibit, such as the tunnel above or the giant window below.
These simple homes above actually belong to one of the most important places in Atlanta. In the north eastern parts of the city you’ll find the Martin Luther King Historic Site. These shotgun houses as they were called, were popular in the south immediately after the civil war. The majority of the homes in Martin Luther King’s neighborhood are shotgun homes.
There were a few cool murals in this neighborhood that I came across. This one above was alongside a random building. The mural below shows Martin Luther King and his peaceful protests during the 1960’s. This mural is part the Martin Luther King site.
Martin Luther King’s protests were largely compared to Gandhi’s protests in India. He rallies his supports which included people from all classes and races. The protests were always peaceful and he was always against violence in any way. The photo above was part of the museum at the Martin Luther King site. This shows some of the protesters peacefully marching for racially equality. I have more information on Martin Luther King on my Memphis page, where he was assassinated.
The first time I went to the Martin Luther King site, I was depressed to learn that somehow I hadn’t visited his tomb. I had no idea it was located in Atlanta. Luckily for me, I visited Atlanta a few years later and made up for this loss. His tomb is part of the site, but is actually across a small street so I could see why I missed it. Martin Luther King Jr and his wife are buried in the center of a beautiful fountain, facing an eternal flame.
Another interesting place to visit is the CNN Center. This opened up in the 1987 and since has been the headquarters for CNN; one of the largest news networks in the world. The massive building has several floors of journalists and newscasters, many of them who are on live TV as you pass by. Other parts sort of act as a museum, such as this hummer on display that was used by CNN during the Iraq war.
Part of the CNN center tour takes you up this escalator which is actually the longest free standing escalator in the world, a title backed by the Guinness Book of World of Records. Before this was the CNN center, the building was used as an indoor amusement park, known as The World of Sid and Marty Krofft.
On one of the upper floors of the CNN center we got to pass by live broadcasts and see journalists at work. CNN was America’s first news channel to cover 24 hour coverage, and was for a long time the highest rating news source in the country. They have since fallen to third place behind MSNBC and Fox News. In the photo below you can see all the workers behind the scenes who help run the new network. I tried to find someone playing solitaire or some other video game. I guess they don’t have that luxury when they constantly have an audience behind them.
