What is the capital of Georgia?

Atlanta is the capital of Georgia, located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in northern Georgia about 90 miles south of Chattanooga, Tennessee and 220 miles east of Birmingham, Alabama. Atlanta has been the state capital since 1868, when Reconstruction-era authorities moved the capital from Milledgeville (1804 to 1868), which had replaced Louisville (1796 to 1807), which had replaced Augusta (1786 to 1796), which had replaced Savannah (1733 to 1786).

Atlanta was originally founded in 1837 as a railroad town named Terminus because it was the planned southern terminus of the Western and Atlantic Railroad. It was renamed Marthasville in 1843 and then Atlanta in 1845. By 1860 it was a major rail hub of about 9,500 residents.

During the Civil War, Atlanta was a critical Confederate manufacturing and supply center. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman captured the city after a four month campaign on September 2, 1864 and burned much of it on November 11 to 16, 1864 before beginning his March to the Sea to Savannah. Atlanta rebuilt rapidly after the war, branding itself as the Phoenix City rising from its ashes.

The Georgia State Capitol, completed in 1889, is topped by a gold leaf dome made from gold mined in nearby Dahlonega, the site of the country's first gold rush in 1828. Atlanta's population is about 510,000, with a metropolitan area of about 6.1 million people, the ninth largest in the country. The city is the major commercial, transportation, and cultural center of the Southeast. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is the busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic. Major employers include Coca-Cola (founded in Atlanta in 1886), Delta Air Lines, Home Depot, UPS, CNN, and many others.

Atlanta played a central role in the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta on January 15, 1929, lived and preached there, and is buried there. The Atlanta University Center includes Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark Atlanta universities, historically Black institutions of national importance. The 1996 Summer Olympics were held in Atlanta.

Georgia's state government includes the Governor, the bicameral General Assembly (56 senators and 180 representatives), and the Georgia Supreme Court. Atlanta is the cultural capital of the modern South, with major sectors in entertainment (the Atlanta film industry has earned the nickname Hollywood of the South), music (especially hip-hop and R&B), and sports (Atlanta Falcons, Hawks, Braves, and United FC).