Atlanta

Atlanta didn’t start as a city with a name so much as a survey stake. In 1837 it was simply Terminus — the literal zero milepost of a state-built rail line — then briefly Thrasherville, then Marthasville in 1842, named for the governor’s daughter. It wasn’t until the Georgia Railroad’s chief engineer, John Edgar Thomson, pushed for something closer to the point of the whole project that the town incorporated as Atlanta on December 29, 1847 — a feminine spin on “Atlantic,” for the Western and Atlantic line running through it. A city that started as a train stop still thinks like one: I-20, I-75 and I-85 all cross within a few miles of downtown, and a stretch of I-285, the ring road locals call the Perimeter, actually runs underneath a runway at Hartsfield-Jackson — one of only two U.S. interstates built that way.

The railroad town that grew fast also got targeted fast. Confederate forces evacuated in September 1864 and destroyed public buildings and military assets as General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union army closed in, with further destruction ordered that November ahead of Sherman’s March to the Sea. Atlanta rebuilt so completely that its motto became Resurgens — Latin for “rising again,” a nod to the phoenix — and by 1868 it had taken over as the state capital from Milledgeville. That rebuild is also why so little of the pre-1864 city survives; nearly everything downtown was built afterward.

What rose in its place became one of the country’s biggest corporate towns almost by accident. Delta, Home Depot and UPS are headquartered in the metro area, CNN was founded here in 1980, and Hartsfield-Jackson has been the world’s busiest airport by passenger traffic since 1998. Somehow, in the middle of all that concrete, Atlanta also carries the densest tree canopy of any major U.S. city, which is why the nickname that has stuck longest is simply the City in a Forest.

The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park covers about 35 acres of the Sweet Auburn district and centers on the house at 501 Auburn Avenue where King was born in 1929 and lived until 1941. It isn’t a staged version of his life — the birth home is furnished like a family still lives there, Ebenezer Baptist Church next door is where he and his father both preached, and the King Center a short walk away is where Dr. King and Coretta Scott King are laid to rest beside a reflecting pool. Admission to the whole park is free.

The Varsity opened in 1928 and bills itself as the largest drive-in restaurant in the world, with room for 600 cars and 800 people inside at its downtown flagship. Order the way regulars do — a chili dog, onion rings and a Frosted Orange — and you’ll still hear echoes of the counter staff’s old rally cry to keep the line moving.

For something that never closes, Waffle House started 30 minutes east in Avondale Estates in 1955 and is now headquartered just outside the city, in Norcross. FEMA informally tracks whether local Waffle Houses stay open during a hurricane as a gauge of how bad the damage is — people call it the Waffle House Index.

17 breweries within 10 miles of Atlanta, 7 of them brewpubs with a kitchen.

Brewpub locations from Open Brewery DB (MIT)

6 more Highway Heads places lie within about 180 miles of Atlanta in a straight line — far enough that most are a night away rather than an afternoon.

• AugustaGeorgiaabout 140 mi
• BirminghamAlabamaabout 140 mi
• Great Smoky MountainsTennesseeabout 140 mi
• HuntsvilleAlabamaabout 140 mi
• MontgomeryAlabamaabout 150 mi
• AshevilleNorth Carolinaabout 170 mi

Budget at least two full days for the MLK park, the BeltLine and one museum without racing the clock, and add a third for Stone Mountain or Athens. A lot of interstate traffic treats Atlanta as something to route around on I-285, which is exactly how you miss the park downtown.

Seasons: the National Park Service describes summers at the MLK park as long spells of warm, humid weather, with average afternoon highs in the lower 90s and readings of 90 or higher on 70 to 80 days a year, and describes spring and autumn as varying much from day to day and year to year. Part of the MLK park visit means standing outside.

Parking downtown and in Sweet Auburn is mostly metered lots and street spaces near the MLK park; the BeltLine itself is free to walk or bike once you’re on it. If Stone Mountain is on the list, budget the $25^* per-vehicle parking fee before you go.

Birth-home presentations at the MLK park are free and limited to 15 people, and the park says tickets are issued first come, first served, reserved in person at the visitor center on the day, with no advance reservations by phone, e-mail or in writing. The park also says the birth home itself is temporarily closed for renovation, so ranger-led presentations are held in the bookstore next door; check nps.gov/malu or the temporary visitor center at Fire Station No. 6 for current times.

*Fees subject to change, please check stonemountainpark.com for updated information.

*Fees subject to change, please check georgiaaquarium.org for updated information.

Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park

Address

450 Auburn Avenue NE, Atlanta, GA 30312

Hours

Grounds open daily; birth-home tours are free but timed and limited

Price

Free

Link

nps.gov/malu

We checked fees, reservations and closures on 2026-09-21. These change without notice — confirm with georgiaaquarium.org, stonemountainpark.com and nps.gov the week you travel.

Straight-line distance from Atlanta, not drive time.

• Fulton County Airport Brown Field (FTY) — 8 miles
• Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) — 8 miles
• DeKalb Peachtree (PDK) — 10 miles