Tell Me About Atlanta

One way in which I see the US differently after experiencing Europe is by noticing how huge it is. It takes six hours to fly from coast to coast! Sure, it takes that long to cross Europe from Lisbon to Helsinki, too. But think of all the languages people speak along the way: Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, French, Italian, German, Danish...and I'm not even halfway done. To me, the size of European countries and the governance of a smaller area seems more practical, on a more human scale. It makes the US seem like a Super Size country, all speaking one language, all pledging allegiance to one flag, with all states submitting to federal rule. Personally, I wouldn't mind more differences among states...

I've had some questions about the city of Atlanta and the surrounding area from some German friends, and I thought I'd put our new home into European terms and provide some statistics:

The area of the State of Georgia is 59,441 square miles (153,951 square kilometers). That's bigger than Greece. Georgia is bigger than Austria or the Czech Republic. It's also bigger than the combined areas of Denmark, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium. It's a little under half the size of Germany. Georgia is pretty much average in size for US states, ranking 24th out of 50.

The summer Olympics were in Atlanta in 1996. Atlanta is the capital and largest city of Georgia. The metropolitan area of Atlanta has a population of 5.5 million spread through 28 counties - this is the same population as the industrial Ruhr area where we're living now, and more than the metropolitan area of Berlin, Germany's biggest city.

Atlanta's airport is the busiest airport in the world according to passenger traffic, followed by Chicago-O'Hare and London Heathrow.

Atlanta is a four-hour drive inland from the Atlantic Ocean. It takes 7.5 hours to drive to Disney World, in Orlando, or to New Orleans. It's 10.5 hours to Washington, D.C.

Famous Atlantans:
- Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in Atlanta and pastored a church there until his death in 1968.
- Jimmy Carter - there's a presidential library!
- Margaret Mitchell wrote "Gone with the Wind" from her apartment in Atlanta. It's still open for tours and writers' workshops, and she's buried in Atlanta.
- Athletic stars: Hank Aaron (baseball), Bobby Jones (golf), and John Heisman (coach at Georgia Tech, with namesake trophy), to name a few.
- Musicians: Ray Charles, Usher, Little Richard, The B-52's, Robert Shaw, Chris Tomlin, John Mayer, Indigo Girls, Third Day, Ciara...
-And I didn't yet mention rappers: Kanye West, T.I., OutKast, Ludacris, and maybe 40 more.
- Stars: Julia Roberts, Holly Hunter, Jane Fonda, Dakota Fanning, Ryan Seacrest, and more.
- The founders of Coca-Cola, Home Depot, and Chick-fil-A all founded and base their businesses in Atlanta.
- Chris Scarborough, professor of chemistry at Emory University