Watching Atlanta Grow from the Outside In

Atlanta did not become the Big A all at once.

From the Little a to the Big A is a personal history of watching Atlanta grow from the outside in—from Griffin, Georgia, roughly forty miles south, and later from inside the work, the traffic, the ballparks, the warehouses, the roads, and the moments when the city suddenly seemed to be everywhere. ATL_15(2)

The story moves through childhood trips, the Braves, the Nancy Hanks, freight docks, changing highways, the Olympic years, Centennial Olympic Park, Atlanta’s rise as a major sports and media city, and the sprawl that pushed the city farther and farther beyond its old boundaries. It also follows the smaller places around Atlanta—especially Griffin—as they changed in the shadow of the city’s growth.

This is not a traditional city history. It is the view from just outside the center: the boy looking north, the worker listening to a Braves game on the radio, the man watching Atlanta win, expand, pave, rebuild, and reinvent itself.

The little a was a team and a town you could hold.

The Big A became something larger—a system, a region, a reputation, and a city that no longer needed anyone’s permission to be noticed.