Shipping.
The city started as a major railway hub. Delta Airlines kept the city on the cutting edge of transportation with flight as well. Every major corporation has gigantic storage warehouses there. There are lots of auxiliary businesses around cold storage, etc. Since goods don't move themselves, lots of people are needed to properly unload, store, retrieve, and load the stuff back up again. Most of these warehouses are staffed by temporary workers, so then that brings in staffing companies and their whole layer of employees, managers, etc. And the warehouses all use heavy machinery (forklifts, grabbers, clamps, etc.) so that's a whole other business that thrives right alongside it. All the background in mechanical engineering involved with shipping goods also evolved into a burgeoning computer engineering scene in/around Georgia Tech so now there are some pretty big software companies in Atlanta, too. Ironically, one of the big names is Mailchimp... which is sort of a "digital" shipping company (their software make it easier to send email in bulk).
Another really nice thing about Atlanta is that it is mostly immune from natural disasters. Hurricanes lose most of their gas before they can get there. Tornados are fairly rare. An earthquake ain't gonna happen. Unless General Sherman marches through again, they don't have to worry about much.
But all of the above also explains why it is boring. When the reason your city exists is to move somebody else's stuff from point A to point B... I guess you just never really develop much character of your own.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/27/2019 12:34PM by EternalHorns.
