Excerpt from Atlanta, Greatest City of the Great South: The Recognized Business Center and Metropolis of the South, Facts and Official Figures There is no mystery about the growth of Atlanta. Its story can'be told in five words: location, railways, commerce, manufactures, pluck. It was the outcome of the necessities of a situation. The West and the Atlantic seaboard had to be brought into communication. Roads must be built and location selected as the entrepot for the roads coming from either di rection. No mistake was made as results have proved. Atlanta is the very spot which meets all the requirements. The road which the State it self constructed in furtherance. Of the plan, the Western and Atlantic from Chattanooga to Atlanta 138 miles, is still the property of the State and one of the most valuable railways in existence, paying an annual rental of almost a half million dollars. Those who would come from the North and Northwest to balmy Florida find that the direct great railway lines go through Atlanta, as the people of the East also find the most direct line to New Orleans and Texas passes through Atlanta.[ontinuous (brown). About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.