Georgia

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. Named after King George II of Great Britain, Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 19, 1861, and was one of the original seven Confederate states. It was the last state to be restored to the Union, on July 15, 1870. Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States. From 2007 to 2008, 14 of Georgia’s counties ranked among the nation’s 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South. Atlanta is the state’s capital and its most populous city.

Georgia is bordered on the south by Florida, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean and South Carolina, on the west by Alabama, and on the north by Tennessee and North Carolina. The northern part of the state is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, part of the Appalachian Mountains system. The Piedmont extends through the central part of the state from the foothills of the Blue Ridge to the Fall Line, where the rivers cascade down in elevation to the coastal plain of the southern part of the state. The highest point in Georgia is Brass Town Bald at 4,784 feet (1,458 m) above sea level; the lowest point is the Atlantic Ocean. Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi River in land area, although it is the fourth largest (after Michigan, Florida, and Wisconsin) in total area, including expanses of water that are part of state territory.

Climate

The majority of the state is primarily a humid subtropical climate. Hot and humid summers are typical, except at the highest elevations. The entire state, including the North Georgia Mountains, receives moderate to heavy precipitation, which varies from 45 inches (1143 mm) in central Georgia to approximately 75 inches (1905 mm) around the northeast part of the state. The degree to which the weather of a certain region of Georgia is subtropical depends on the latitude, its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean or Gulf of Mexico, and the elevation. The latter factor is felt chiefly in the mountainous areas of the northern part of the state, which are farther away from the ocean and can be 4500 feet (1350 m) above sea level. The USDA Plant hardiness zones for Georgia range from zone 6b (no colder than −5 °F (−21 °C) in the Blue Ridge Mountains to zone 8b (no colder than 15 °F (−9 °C) along the Atlantic coast and Florida border.

The highest temperature ever recorded is 112 °F (44.4 °C) in Louisville on July 24, 1952, while the lowest is −17 °F (−27.2 °C) in northern Floyd County on January 27, 1940. Georgia is one of the leading states in frequency of tornadoes, though they are rarely stronger than F1. A tornado hit downtown Atlanta on March 14, 2008, causing moderate to severe damage. With a coastline on the Atlantic Ocean, Georgia is also vulnerable to hurricanes, although direct hurricane strikes were rare during the 20th century. Georgia often is affected by hurricanes that strike the Florida panhandle, weaken over land, and bring strong tropical storm winds and heavy rain to the interior, as well as hurricanes that come close to the Georgia coastline, brushing the coast on their way north.

Major Cities

Transportation

Transportation in Georgia is overseen by the Georgia Department of Transportation, a part of the executive branch of the state government. Georgia’s major Interstate Highways are I-20, I-75, I-85, and I-95. On March 18, 1998, the Georgia House of Representatives passed a resolution naming the portion of Interstate Highway 75, which runs from the Chattahoochee River northward to the Tennessee state line the Larry McDonald Memorial Highway. Larry McDonald, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, had been on Korean Air Lines Flight 007 when it was shot down by the Soviets on September 1, 1983.

Georgia’s primary commercial airport is Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), and is the world’s busiest passenger airport. In addition to Hartsfield-Jackson, there are eight other airports serving major commercial traffic in Georgia. Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport is the second-busiest airport in the state as measured by passengers served, and is the only additional international airport. Other commercial airports (ranked in order of passengers served) are located in Augusta, Columbus, Albany, Macon, Brunswick, Valdosta, and Athens.

The Georgia Ports Authority manages two deep water seaports, at Savannah and Brunswick, and two river ports, at Bainbridge and Columbus. The Port of Savannah is a major U.S. seaport on the Atlantic coast.

The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) is the principal rapid transit system in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Formed in 1971 as strictly a bus system, MARTA operates a network of bus routes linked to a rapid transit system consisting of 48 miles (77 km) of rail track with 38 train stations. MARTA operates almost exclusively in Fulton and DeKalb counties, with bus service to two destinations in Cobb county and the Cumberland Transfer Center next to the Cumberland Mall, and a single rail station in Clayton County at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. MARTA also operates a separate paratransit service for disabled customers. As of 2009, the average total daily ridership for the system (bus and rail) was 482,500 passengers.

Cities

Downtown Atlanta

Atlanta, located in north-central Georgia at the Eastern Continental Divide, has been Georgia’s capital city since 1868. It is the most populous city in Georgia, with just over 420,000 residents in 2010.

The Atlanta metropolitan area is the cultural and economic center of the Southeast, and its population in 2010 was 5,268,860, or 53.6% of Georgia’s total. Atlanta is the nation’s ninth largest metropolitan area.

The state has fourteen other cities with populations above 50,000 (based on 2012 census estimates). In descending order of size they are Columbus, Augusta, Macon, Savannah, Athens, Sandy Springs, Roswell, Albany, Johns Creek, Warner Robins, Alpharetta, Marietta, Valdosta and Smyrna.

Along with the rest of the Southeast, Georgia’s population continues to grow rapidly, with primary gains concentrated in urban areas. The population of the Atlanta metropolitan area added 1.23 million people (24 percent) between 2000 and 2010, and Atlanta rose in rank from the eleventh largest metropolitan area in the United States to the ninth largest.

TOURISM

In the Atlanta area, World of Coke, Georgia Aquarium, Zoo Atlanta and Stone Mountain are important tourist attractions. Stone Mountain is Georgia’s “most popular attraction”; receiving over four million tourists per year. The Georgia Aquarium, in Atlanta, was the largest aquarium in the world in 2010 according to Guinness World Records.

Callaway Gardens, in western Georgia, is a family resort. The area is also popular with golfers.

The Savannah Historic District attracts over eleven million tourists each year.

The Golden Isles are a string of barrier islands off the Atlantic coast of Georgia near Brunswick that include beaches, golf courses and the Cumberland Island National Seashore.

Several sites honor the lives and careers of noted American leaders: the Little White House in Warm Springs, which served as the summer residence of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt while he was being treated for polio; President Jimmy Carter’s hometown of Plains and the Carter Presidential Center in Atlanta; the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site in Atlanta, which is the final resting place of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King; and Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. King preached.

SPORTS

Main article: Sports in Georgia

Kickoff at Sanford Stadium of the Georgia-South Carolina college football game on September 8, 2007

Sports in Georgia include professional teams in all major sports, Olympic Games contenders and medalists, collegiate teams in major and small-school conferences and associations, and active amateur teams and individual sports. The state of Georgia has a team in three major professional leagues — Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball, Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League, Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association — and in 2017 is scheduled to land a fourth with an expansion franchise in Major League Soccer.

The Georgia Bulldogs (Southeastern Conference) and Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (Atlantic Coast Conference) are two major college football teams in the NCAA Division I FBS, where they have won multiple national championships.

The 1996 Summer Olympics took place in Atlanta. The stadium that was built to host various Olympic events was converted to Turner Field, the home of the Atlanta Braves.

The Masters Golf Tournament, the first of the PGA tour’s four “majors”, is held annually the second weekend of April at the Augusta National Golf Club. The Atlanta Motor Speedway hosts the Dixie 500 NASCAR Cup Series stock car race and Road Atlanta the Petit Le Mans endurance sports car race.

Atlanta’s Georgia Dome hosted Super Bowl XXVIII in 1994 and Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000. The Georgia Dome hosted the NCAA Final Four Men’s Basketball National Championship in 2002, 2007, and 2013. It hosted WWE’s WrestleMania XXVII in 2011, an event which set an attendance record of 71,617. The dome is also the venue of the annual Chick-fil-A Bowl post-season college football games. Since 2004 the FIRST World Championships have been held there.

Professional baseball’s Ty Cobb was the first player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was from Narrows and was nicknamed “The Georgia Peach.”

Outdoor recreational activities include hiking along the Appalachian Trail; Civil War Heritage Trails; rock climbing and whitewater paddling. Other outdoor activities include hunting and fishing.

CURTURAL

Main article: Culture of Georgia (U.S. state)

The Fox Theatre is a performing arts venue located in Midtown Atlanta, and is the centerpiece of the Fox Theatre Historic District.

Georgia’s major fine art museums include the High Museum of Art and the Michael C. Carlos Museum, both in Atlanta; the Georgia Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens; Telfair Museum of Art and the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah; and the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta.

The state theatre of Georgia is the Springer Opera House located in Columbus.

The Atlanta Opera brings opera to Georgia stages. The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra is the most widely recognized orchestra and largest arts organization in the southeastern United States.

There are a number of performing arts venues in the state, among the largest are the Fox Theatre, and the Thea Treat the Woodruff Arts Center, both on Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta as well as the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, located in Northwest Atlanta.

Literature

The rich heritage and southern antebellum atmosphere of Georgia has given rise to a great number of works such as Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind, Olive Ann Burns’ Cold Sassy Tree, and Alice Walker’s The Color Purple.

A number of noted authors, poets and playwrights have lived in Georgia such as James Dickey, Flannery O’Connor, Sidney Lanier, Frank Yerby and Lewis Grizzard.

Television

Well-known television shows set in Atlanta include, from Tyler Perry Studios, House of Payne and Tyler Perry’s Meet the Browns, The Real Housewives of Atlanta, the CBS sitcom Designing Women, Matlock, the popular AMC series The Walking Dead, Lifetime Drop Dead Diva, Rectify and numerous HGTV original productions.

The Dukes of Hazzard, a 1980s TV show that spun off several films, was set in the fictional Hazzard County, Georgia. The show was filmed at Warner Bros. back lot in Burbank, California and on location in Conyers and Covington, Georgia as well as some locations in Atlanta.

Also filmed in Georgia is The Vampire Diaries, using Covington as the setting for the fictional Mystic Falls.

Music

Main article: Music of Georgia (U.S. state)

See also: List of hip hop musicians from Atlanta

A number of notable musicians in various genres of popular music are from Georgia. Included is Ray Charles (whose many hits include “Georgia on My Mind”, now the official state song), and Gladys Knight (known for her Georgia-themed song, “Midnight Train to Georgia”).

Rock groups from Georgia include the Atlanta Rhythm Section, The Black Crowes, and The Allman Brothers.

The university city of Athens sparked an influential rock music scene in the 1980s and 1990s. Among the groups achieving their initial prominence in that city were R.E.M., Widespread Panic, and the B-52’s.

Since the 1990s, various hip-hop and R&B musicians have included top-selling artists such as Outkast, Usher, Ludacris, TLC, B.o.B., and Ciara. Atlanta is mentioned in a number of these artists’ tracks, such as Usher’s “A-Town Down” reference in his 2004 hit Yeah! (which also features Atlanta artists Lil Jon and Ludacris), Ludacris’ “Welcome to Atlanta”, Outkast’s album “ATLiens”, and B.o.B.’s multiple references to Decatur, such as in his hit song “Strange Clouds”

Film

Main article: Film industry in Georgia (U.S. state)

The Georgia Film, Music and Digital Entertainment Office promotes filming in the state. Since 1972, seven hundred film and television projects have been filmed on location in Georgia. In 2008–2009, Georgia’s film and television industry created a $1.15 billion economic impact on the state’s economy.

Films set in Georgia include two pictures both set in Atlanta that were awarded the Oscar for Best Picture:, Gone with the Wind (1939) and Driving Miss Daisy(1989). Other films set in Georgia include Deliverance (1972), which was based on the novel of the same name by James Dickey, and Parental Guidance (2012).

The CNN Center in Atlanta.

The Atlanta metropolitan area is the ninth largest media market in the United States as ranked by Nielsen Media Research. The state’s other top markets are Savannah (95th largest), Augusta (115th largest), and Columbus (127th largest).

There are 48 television broadcast stations in Georgia including TBS, TNT, TCM, Cartoon Network, CNN and Headline News, all founded by Notable Georgia Resident Ted Turner.

By far, the largest daily newspaper in Georgia is the Atlanta Journal-Constitution with a daily readership of 195,592 and a Sunday readership of 397,925. Other large dailies include The Augusta Chronicle, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, The Telegraph (formerly The Macon Telegraph) and the Savannah Morning News.

WSB-AM in Atlanta was the first licensed radio station in the southeastern United States, signing on in 1922. Georgia Public Radio has been in service since 1984 and, with the exception of Atlanta, it broadcasts daily on several FM (and one AM) stations across the state. Georgia Public Radio reaches nearly all of Georgia (with the exception of the Atlanta area, which is served by WABE).

WSB-TV in Atlanta is the state’s oldest television station, having begun operations in 1948. WSB was only the second such operation founded in the Southern U.S., trailing only WTVR in Richmond, Virginia.

Also the main headquarters of The Weather Channel is in Atlanta.