Atlanta

Atlanta grew from a railroad junction — it was literally founded in 1837 as the end of a rail line and first called Terminus — into the economic capital of the American Southeast. It sits high on the rolling Piedmont in the north-central part of the state, near the southern end of the Appalachian foothills, at one of the highest elevations of any major U.S. city east of the Mississippi.

Lacking a major river or port, Atlanta is a city built by transportation: rebuilt after its Civil War destruction into a rail hub, and later home to the world's busiest airport, which made it a global center for business and logistics. The wooded Piedmont setting gives the metro its famous tree canopy. Today it anchors a sprawling Sun Belt metro of more than six million, by far the largest in the region.

• Georgia
  The largest state east of the Mississippi by area located in