A city that rose from ashes, chose a phoenix as its symbol, and gave the world Coca-Cola
Atlanta was burned to the ground by General Sherman's forces in 1864, an act of destruction so total that the city later adopted the phoenix, rising from flame, as its official symbol — it's still stamped into the city seal today. The drink that would become Coca-Cola was invented in 1886 by pharmacist John Pemberton, who sold the first glass at Jacob's Pharmacy for five cents, unaware he'd created the world's most recognized brand. Sweet Auburn, the historic Black business district just east of downtown, was once called one of the wealthiest Black commercial districts in the country, and it's also where Martin Luther King Jr. was born and later preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church. Underground Atlanta, a subterranean network of streets and storefronts, was created almost by accident when railroad viaducts were built over the original 19th-century street level, burying the old city in place rather than tearing it down. The Fox Theatre, an ornate 1929 movie palace built to look like a Moorish courtyard under a painted night sky, was slated for demolition in the 1970s before a grassroots campaign raised enough money to save it. And the Varsity, opened in 1928, grew into the world's largest drive-in restaurant, its curb staff still trained to shout orders back at customers the same way they did nearly a century ago.
