Atlanta Trivia Facts and Folklore

Atlanta Georgia

Folklore and Trivia

Ever wonder why no matter where you go in Atlanta, you always seem to be driving on Peachtree? There are more than 65 streets with the word Peachtree.
You can ride your bike from Atlanta to Alabama. The Silver Comet Trail is a recreational path that begins in Smyrna and runs all the way across the Alabama border.
Atlanta is one of only two cities in the world to be home to two Nobel Peace Prize winners. At the age of 35, Martin Luther King Jr. was the youngest man to receive the Noble Peace Prize in 1964. President Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 and became the third U.S. President to receive this honor. The Prizes are on display at the Martin Luther King National Historic Site and The Jimmy Carter Library and Museum, both located in downtown Atlanta.
Peachtree Street is not named for a peach tree of any sort. Many of Atlanta's corridors follow the paths created by the Creek and Cherokee Indian nations who inhabited the area until the early 19th Century. A large Creek settlement was called Standing Pitch Tree after a tall lone tree. Over time, the "pitch tree" became "peach tree."
Ask directions from locals and you may hear "ITP" and "OTP." These nicknames reference communities that are "Inside the Perimeter" or "Outside the Perimeter" created by Interstate 285, a nearly 63-mile stretch of highway that encircles much of the city of Atlanta.
Atlanta is the only city in North America destroyed by a fire as an act of war. Following the city's surrender to General Sherman in 1864, only 400 structures remained standing. Today, the city's symbol is the Phoenix, a legendary bird of Egyptian mythology that rose from its own ashes with renewed strength and beauty.
Buckhead, one of Atlanta's most affluent neighborhoods and shopping mecca of the South, owes its unusual name to 19th Century local general store owner Henry Irby. Irby killed a large deer and prominently mounted the buck head on the wall of his establishment, a popular outpost for locals and travelers. The name stuck, despite efforts to change it in the late 1800s.
Runners from around the world descend on Atlanta each Fourth of July for the Peachtree Road Race. Approximately 60,000 runners participate each year, making it one of the largest 10K foot races in the world.
View Atlanta from the tallest hotel in the Western Hemisphere and stay for dinner. The rotating Sun Dial Restaurant Bar and View atop the cylindrical Westin Peachtree Plaza in Downtown Atlanta provides a breathtaking 360-degree view of the city and surrounding area while enjoying delicious cuisine.
Pemberton Place, home to the New World of Coca-Cola, is named after Dr. John Stith Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist. On May 8, 1886, Pemberton produced the syrup for Coca-Cola®, and carried a jug of the new product down the street to Jacobs' Pharmacy, where it was sampled, pronounced "excellent" and placed on sale for five cents a glass as a soda fountain drink. (Source: The Coca-Cola Company)
The name for Six Flags Over Georgia was inspired by six different flags that have flown over the state during its history, including Spain, France, Great Britain, the United States of America, the Confederate States of America and the state of Georgia.
With a passenger terminal complex equivalent to more than 45 football fields, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the world's busiest passenger airport. Atlanta is an ideal location for carriers like hometown Delta Air Lines, as the city is a 2-hour flight away from 83 percent of U.S. cities.
The Druid Hills neighborhood of Atlanta was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of American landscape architecture and designer of New York City's Central Park.
Atlanta Brave Hank Aaron hit his 715th homerun on April 1974 over the left field wall at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, breaking Babe Ruth's career record. The stadium was demolished in 1997 following the Centennial Olympic Games. A parking lot for Turner Field now stands on the site, with an outline of the old stadium, and a plaque marking the spot where Aaron's historic home run landed in what was formerly the Braves bullpen.
The Eastern Continental Divide, a continental divide in the U.S. that separates the Gulf of Mexico drainage from the watersheds that flow directly into the Atlantic Ocean, runs right through downtown Atlanta and then east and through Decatur. Rainwater that falls on the south and east side of the divide runs eventually into the Atlantic Ocean while rainwater on the north and west side of the divide runs into the Gulf of Mexico.