Tour Audio a Atlanta

Atlanta was a railroad terminus before it was a city -- the Western and Atlantic line chose this inland Georgia location in 1837, the settlement followed, and the rest happened fast. General Sherman burned most of it in 1864 during his March to the Sea, which perhaps explains the city's consistent preference for demolition and new construction over preservation. What Atlanta kept, and what matters most, is the history of Sweet Auburn Avenue, where Martin Luther King Jr. was born in 1929, preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church, and is buried in the King Center memorial complex a few blocks from his childhood home.

The Atlanta BeltLine is the most significant urban infrastructure project the city has undertaken in decades -- a former railway corridor being converted into a 35-kilometre loop of walking and cycling trails connecting 45 neighbourhoods.

The Eastside Trail is the most complete section and has transformed the Inman Park, Ponce City Market and Old Fourth Ward neighbourhoods into a continuous walkable district. Piedmont Park anchors the north end of the trail, and on a Sunday morning it fills with runners, dog-walkers, food truck queues and the kind of easy social energy that a city this car-dependent rarely achieves on foot.