Original subtitles

(whooshing)

(majestic music)

(upbeat orchestral music)

- Our journey begins at Augusta

on the Savannah River, before heading northwest

to the city of Athens and home to the University of Georgia.

From there, we head across the vast

Chattahoochee National Forest before turning south

towards Atlanta, the state capital of Georgia.

Burned down during the Civil War, in the last century,

it was home to Martin Luther King, Jr.

To the south is the Little White House

built by President Franklin D. Roosevelt

near Hot Springs to help ease the pain

caused by his polio.

At Andersonville Prison, the full horror

of the Civil War was exposed,

where Union soldiers were virtually starved to death

in appalling conditions.

Our final location is Providence Canyon,

a fabulous landscape where erosion has caused

deep gullies stained in a dazzling display of colors.

This is the Savannah River,

and for several hundred kilometers forms most of the border

between South Carolina and Georgia.

And to the north of Augusta a canal was constructed

in 1845 to provide water power to new mills,

as well as transportation for the city.

It's the only such canal in the United States

to be in continuous use for its original purpose.

It runs for over 20 kilometers, following the river

until it reaches the industrial mills north of Augusta.

One of them, Sibley Textile Mill, was completed

in 1882 and built over a Confederate

gunpowder works from the Civil War.

It used hydropower and was still in production until 2006.

In 1736, the British sent an expedition up the river

from the city of Savannah with the intention

of building a settlement at the point

where the river becomes navigable.

It was named Augusta, after Princess Augusta

of Saxe-Gotha, mother of King George III.

The town developed quickly as a center

for the cotton industry when the surround area of Georgia

was found to have the perfect conditions.

Unlike many other Southern Confederate cities,

it was left unscathed by the Civil War

due to its not being on the path of Union General

William Sherman when he marched across the state

destroying almost everything in his path.

This is the famous 12th hole at the world-renowned

Augusta National Golf Club which opened in 1933.

(tinkling piano music)

And since 1934, it has played host to the annual

Masters Tournament, one of the four major championships

in professional golf, and the only major

played each year at the same place.

It's considered one of the top classic courses in the world.

The exclusive club has about 300 members

at any given time, and membership is strictly

by invitation only, as there is no application process.

To join, it's believed to cost around $20,000,

and annual dues are estimated to be

in the region of $10,000 a year.

It was only 2012 that this rather old-fashioned club

admitted women for the first time.

Georgia was one of the Southern states that voted

for secession from the Union

which heralded the Civil War in 1861.

One of secession's most passionate advocates

was the politician and the senator Robert Toombs

who lived here in the town of Washington.

In 1973 his house was declared a national historic landmark.

It was acquired by Toombs in 1837.

He made a number of alterations, including the impressive

front colonnade and the west wing.

He became the secretary of state for the new

Confederate government, and later, a general in the Army.

When the war ended in 1865, he fled to Cuba and then Paris.

He returned to Georgia two years later,

but refused to request a pardon from the president,

and regained neither his right to vote

nor his political career.

The city of Athens came about as a result

of the first university in Georgia

named after the Greek city and home

to the academy of Plato and Aristotle.

There was a village here called Cedar Shoals

in the late 18th century until the area was bought up

as the best place to build the university in 1801.

As a result, the small village gave way

to the new town of Athens.

As the university grew, so too did the town.

In the 1870s the town became a city.

And in 1904, a new city hall was completed

in a Renaissance Classical style.

Rather fitting for a city named Athens.

The University of Georgia was the United States' first

to be state chartered, and was the birthplace

of the American system of public higher education.

Back in 1801, there were only a handful of students,

and they were taught in a log cabin.

During the Civil War, the university closed

and opened again in 1866 when it enrolled 78 students,

including many veterans, using an award of $300

to help pay their way.

Today the university has around 36,000 students,

offers over 140 degree courses, has 13 libraries

containing nearly five million books,

and a campus of grounds covering 170 square kilometers.

The whole campus is on the register of historic places.

Set in the northeast corner of the state

is the Traveler's Rest, a 19th century tavern

noted for its architecture and for its role

in the early settlement of the state.

In 1838, the original inn built in the 1820s

was sold to Devereaux Jarrett,

who added to the original structure, creating a 10-room inn.

Due to the growing population and increased

through traffic, the structure also served

as a trading post and post office.

One English guest noted in his diary that,

"Here I got an excellent breakfast of coffee, ham,

"chicken, good bread, butter, honey,

"and plenty of good new milk for a quarter of a dollar.

"What a charming country this would be to travel in

"if one was sure of meeting with such nice,

"clean quarters once a day."

The Traveler's Rest remained in the hands

of Jarrett's descendants until 1955,

when it was acquired by the state.

Today, visitors can tour the house

and see many of the original fixtures and fittings.

Surrounded by the Chattahoochee National Forest,

it's one of the most extraordinary

towns in the state, Helen.

Formerly a logging town that was in decline,

the city resurrected itself in 1969

by becoming a replica of a Bavarian Alpine town

in the Appalachians instead of the Alps.

By the 1960s, there was nothing good left of the town

except a dreary row on concrete block buildings.

Local businessmen approached a nearby artist

who had been stationed in Germany.

He sketched the buildings, added gingerbread trim details

and colors, giving an Alpine look to the entire town.

This design style is obligatory

so that it is present on every building,

even on the small number of national outlets

such as hamburger restaurants.

It's now a very popular tourist attraction

and brought new life back to Helen

as well as much-needed employment.

The town also hosts its own Oktoberfest

in true German style.

Our journey now takes us west as we climb

into the Chattahoochee National Forest,

which covers just over 3,000 square kilometers.

The name comes from the Cherokee and Creek Indians

and was adopted by the early English settlers.

As we climb higher, frost begins to decorate the trees.

The difference between a National Park

and a National Forest is that the parks are charged

with preservation, and forests are managed

for commercial purposes, including timber production

and recreation, as well as wildlife conservation.

Across the United States, there are 155 National Forests,

covering a staggering 780,000 square kilometers,

which is larger than the whole of France, Belgium,

and The Netherlands put together.

In the northwest of the state, not far from another

classically named city, Rome, is Berry College.

It was founded in 1902 by Martha Berry,

an American educator, as a school for enterprising

rural boys when few schools existed in Georgia.

A girl's school was added in 1909.

The college became one of the nation's most successful

educational experiments, combining academic study

with an ecumenical Christian religious emphasis.

With only just over 2,000 students,

the campus is the largest in the country at 10,000 hectares,

and includes a mountain as well as forests,

lakes, and open farmland.

One of Berry's most distinguishing features

is its vast array of deer.

They tend to live near the edge of the woods,

but have become over the years very used to human contact.

However, they are wild,

and too much interaction is discouraged.

On occasions, the college allows a certain amount

of hunting in order to control numbers.

These magnificent creatures contribute

to the beautiful surroundings of Berry College.

Our journey now heads south as we approach

the Etowah Indian Mounds.

They were built and occupied in three phases

from around 1,000 B.C. to the mid 17th century.

In the 19th century, settlers mistakenly believed

that the mounds had been built by the Cherokee

who then occupied the region.

However, they did not reach this part of Georgia

until the late 18th century,

and so could not have built them.

It was in the late 20th century that studies showed

the mounds were built and occupied by prehistoric

indigenous peoples of Eastern North America.

This 55-acre site protects six earthen mounds,

a plaza, a village site, and offensive ditch.

Artifacts found on the site show how the people

decorated themselves with shell beads, paint,

complicated hairdos, feathers, and copper ear ornaments.

Archaeologists have now determined the location

of temples made of log an thatch,

which were built on top of the mounds,

and perhaps home to the priests.

Etowah Indian Mounds Historic Site

is now a National Historic Landmark.

Ahead of us is the capital city of Georgia, Atlanta.

Atlanta is a city founded in 1837

at the intersection of two railroads.

But then came the Civil War between the North

and South, and Atlanta, with its railroads,

became a hub for military supplies.

The Union Army laid siege to the city,

and when it surrendered,

it was virtually burned to the ground.

But like the Phoenix from Greek mythology,

the city rose from the ashes to become today

one of the most important cities in the country

in terms of commerce, finance, technology,

media, art, and entertainment.

Atlanta is ringed by major roads and intersections

where the traffic never seems to stop.

It's a city on the move, and today,

has the eighth largest economy in the country,

encompassing over $300 billion.

The Georgia State Capitol is designed to resemble

the classical architectural style

of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.,

and was completed in 1889.

The dome was originally constructed from terracotta

and covered with tin from a 1958 renovation.

It's now gilded with native Georgia gold.

The statue known as Miss Freedom has adorned the Capitol

since the building's opening.

She once looked down over the city, though today,

she would have to look up, as she is dwarfed

by nearby skyscrapers.

(bright music)

The tallest building in the city

is the Bank of America Plaza,

and the 11th tallest in the country at 312 meters.

Designed in the Art Deco style, it was built

in only 14 months, one of the fastest construction schedules

for any 300-meter building.

It has 55 stories, and was completed in 1992.

Four years later in 1996, Atlanta hosted the Olympic Games,

and in the city's center, the Centennial Olympic Park

was created out of vacant lots

and rundown industrial buildings.

A key feature is the interactive Fountain of Rings

which features computer-controlled lights

and jets of water synchronized with music

played from speakers and light towers surrounding it.

Atlanta also plays host to a number

of worldwide corporations, including CNN.

Some of the station's newsrooms and studios

are located in this building.

This bottle is perhaps one of the most famous icons

in the world, and the city is the headquarters

of The Coca-Cola Company.

This is a museum dedicated to its history,

which began back in 1886.

(gentle music)

One of the city's best known residents

was Margaret Mitchell, who won a Pulitzer Prize

for her world-famous novel "Gone with the Wind."

She lived here in Crescent Apartments

on the ground floor in the 1920s.

Her book was published in 1936, and one month later,

the film rights were sold to Hollywood,

who turned it into a blockbuster movie

starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh.

It was nominated for 13 Oscars and won eight,

setting a new record.

Today, her apartment and house has been turned

into a museum dedicated to her book

as well as the making of the film.

But perhaps the most important person

to have come from Atlanta was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

During less than 13 years of his leadership,

African Americans achieved more genuine progress

towards racial equality in America

than in the previous 350 years.

And here to the north of the city

is the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site,

consisting of several buildings,

including the Ebenezer Baptist Church,

where he and his father were pastors,

and where he preached until his assassination in 1968.

His wife, Coretta Scott King,

began the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change.

And in 1977, his body was moved

to a memorial tomb at the Center.

His grave site and a reflecting pool

are located next to Freedom Hall,

which displays many exhibits from his life,

as well as other Civil Rights activists.

After her death in 2006, Coretta Scott King

was interred alongside her husband.

Today, thousands of visitors come to pay their respects

and learn about his life, which began here

at 501 Auburn Avenue, where he was born

on January the 15th, 1929.

He spent his first 12 years here.

The house is now part of the National Historic Site

with limited availability for visitors

due to its small size.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is widely regarded

as one of the greatest nonviolent leaders in world history.

20 kilometers east of Atlanta is a prominent

quartz monzonite dome, Stone Mountain.

It stands around 250 meters high and dominates the area.

The dome of Stone Mountain was fashioned

during the formation of the nearby Blue Ridge Mountains

around 350 million years ago.

The top of the mountain is a landscape of bare rock

and rock pools, and it provides stunning views of Atlanta.

(lively music)

Stone Mountain is also well known

for the largest bas-relief sculpture in the world

depicting three Confederate leaders of the Civil War,

President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee

and Thomas J. Stonewall Jackson.

The entire carved surface measures near

6 1/2 thousand square meters, and it is recessed

13 meters into the mountain.

It was begun by Gutzon Borglum in 1916

who abandoned the project in 1925.

He later went on to create the monumental

presidents' faces at Mount Rushmore.

This memorial was supposed to take 12 years to complete,

but actually took well over 50.

In 1924, Franklin D. Roosevelt, a future U.S. president,

bought an old ramshackle house here on Pine Mountain

near the old spa town of Warm Springs.

He came here to treat his polio,

as one of the few things that seemed to ease his pain

was immersion in warm water.

After he became president in 1932,

he ordered a six-room house to be built on the property.

This house was his retreat throughout his presidency

and became known as the Little White House.

It's a colonial revival structure made of Georgia pine.

The servants' quarters were built in 1932,

followed a year later by the single-story frame cottage

that served as a guest house.

He stayed here as much as he could during

the Second World War, and the only change

was that soldiers from the nearby Army camp

patrolled the woods around the estate.

His last trip to Little White House

was on March the 30th, 1945.

Two weeks later, as he was sitting for a portrait,

he suffered a stroke and died two hours later.

Both John F. Kennedy in 1960

and Jimmy Carter in 1976 used the Little White House

for their campaigns to become president.

Today, the house is open to visitors,

and has been preserved as it was on the day Roosevelt died.

The Civil War of the 1860s cost Georgia dearly,

and in particular, General Sherman's March to the Sea.

When he left, it destroyed Atlanta and laid waste

to all in front of it as his Union Army

swept across the state to the coast

and the city of Savannah.

Sherman's scorched-earth policies

have always been highly controversial,

and Sherman's memory has long been reviled

by many Southerners.

Houses of the period were built of wood,

and after the Army's campaign of burning plantations,

destroying crops, pillaging stores,

the landscape became littered with brick chimneys.

They have become known as Sherman's sentinels

and a stark reminder of the impact of war.

It was the beginning of the end for the Confederacy.

Five months later, the war ended when the Southern Army

surrendered to the Union Army's general, Ulysses S. Grant.

And the full horrors of the human suffering

during the Civil War came to light

at Andersonville Prisoner of War Camp.

There is no better description than this diary entry

from a Union soldier.

"As we entered the place, a spectacle met our eyes

"that almost froze our blood with horror

"and made our hearts fail within us.

"Before us were forms that had once been active

"and erect stolid men, now nothing but mere

"walking skeletons covered with filth and vermin.

"In the center of the whole was a swamp,

"and part of this marshy place had been used

"by the prisoners as a sink,

"and excrement covered the ground,

"the scent rising from which was suffocating."

Towards the end of the war in 1864,

there were over 31,000 Union prisoners,

and the cemetery is the final resting place

for the 3,714 who died.

921 graves are just marked unknown.

Close to the border with Alabama

on the Chattahoochee River is Providence Canyon,

a network of gorges often called

Georgia's Little Grand Canyon.

Although the appearance of the canyon has a similar look

to the American Southwest, its history is much more modern,

as the gullies were not sculpted by a river

over millions of years, but by rainwater

running off from the fields

due to poor farming practices in the early 19th century.

As a result, erosion has exposed the geologic record

of several million years within its walls,

and minerals have stained the sediments,

creating a dazzling display of colors.

The canyon continues to erode and change

due to surface water runoff

and the undercutting force of groundwater.

Gorges grow larger and pinnacles gradually decrease in size

and can even disappear overnight in heavy rains.

This dramatic, ever-changing landscape

is a perfect place to end this journey.

(majestic orchestral music)

(pulsating music)