The road to Savannah, Georgia from Atlanta is a long one, laid out like a bent outstretched arm with Macon serving as the elbow. While chewing up miles on that long drive on the highway one can’t help but wonder why the state of Georgia didn’t simply use the direct path that General Sherman and his 70,000 troops so generously provided back in 1864.
They removed obstacles like railroad tracks and buildings, even helpfully leveling whole towns that lie in the path of the army. When Sherman got to Savannah itself, however, he was so impressed by the town’s beauty that he ordered the place to be largely left alone. And Savannah has been mostly left alone by developers and the modernizing tendencies of succeeding generations ever since.