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Boomerang Box Jr. has had a busy fall traveling between California and Texas. But now it's traveled all the way across the U.S. to Atlanta, Georgia. So we're going to take the opportunity to learn more about a city that has become one of the major metropolitan areas in the American South.
You know by now that nearly all major cities got their start around some form of transportation and trade: a river, an ocean port, a major trade route, or a railroad. In Atlanta's case, it was not a port that helped the city get started. In fact, Atlanta is located in the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains, hundreds of miles from the Atlantic Ocean. Instead, it was railroads that shaped this city. In 1837, surveyors planning the Western and Atlantic Railroad's new line into Georgia picked a spot just a few miles from the Chattahoochee River as the place their train line would end. You can probably guess the rest of this story, because we've seen it with other cities that Boomerang Box and Jr. have visited. Yes, of course, the end of the rail line became our city! A small settlement—called Terminus at first—was created near the end of the rail line. Terminus changed its name to Marthasville a few years later and then, in 1845, changed its name to Atlanta in honor of the name of the railroad line. Atlanta quickly became a major trading center, and soon had two more railroad lines in addition to the first one. By the middle of the 1800s, Atlanta had over 9,000 people, a major city for that time. Like most of the other cities we've visited, Atlanta has had a complicated history. It was almost completely burned down during the United States' Civil War in the 1860s. But its residents rebuilt, making Atlanta Georgia's biggest city, and its capital as well, by the end of the 1800s. During the early 1900s, Atlanta became the headquarters for groups that did not want African Americans and other minorities to be part of the city. But that had completely changed by the middle of the 1940s. Atlanta became the first major city in the American South to "segregate," that is, to allow people of different races to go to the same schools, live in the same neighborhoods, and work at the same types of jobs. That may sound surprising to you now, but not too long ago people of different races had to live completely different lives. Today, Atlanta is the center of a huge metropolitan area that covers 10 counties. The city hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1996, and is home to many national and multinational businesses. And it has one of the busiest airports in the country. It's sure a lot different from that little settlement called Terminus! Assignments:
What should you expect from a Boomerang Box Jr. visit? |
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