The historical reason for Atlanta, GA (USA)'s location?

Question

Atlanta is an OLD city.... and you'd think it would be located based on trade routes, rivers, etc.... WHY was Atlanta located where it was?

Answer 1

The region where Atlanta and its suburbs were built was originally Creek and Cherokee Native American territory. The Creek land in the eastern part of the metro area (including Decatur) was opened to white settlement in 1823. In 1835, leaders of the Cherokee nation ceded their land to the government in exchange for land out west under the Treaty of New Echota, an act that eventually led to the Trail of Tears. In 1836 the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western and Atlantic Railroad to provide a trade route to the Midwest, with the area around Atlanta--then called Terminus--serving as the terminal. The terminus was originally planned for Decatur, but its citizens did not want it. Besides Decatur, several other suburbs of Atlanta predate the city by several years, including Marietta and Lawrenceville, GA. Terminus grew as a railroad town; later it was renamed Marthasville after then-Governor Wilson Lumpkin's daughter Martha. Marthasville was renamed Atlanta in 1845 (a feminized version of Atlantic suggested by J. Edgar Thomson) and was incorporated as such in 1847.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta#History

Answer 2

So that Margaret Mitchell would move here and write
Gone With the Wind...and then she could be run over and killed
by a Taxi cab on Peachtree Street...

Answer 3

it was at the end of the railroad line. here's a website on the history
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=4942

Answer 4

it was at a railroad station, like many towns