Monday, March 14, 2011

ATLANTApix: Cotton

Atlanta Visitor Center (Cotton Display)
The Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau's Visitor Center near Underground Atlanta does a lot more than pass out brochures for museums and attractions in Atlanta...a lot more! 

The Center is also a mini-museum featuring a cockpit of a Delta airplane, interactive stations (several with video) conveying information about Atlanta's top tourist attractions such as Stone Mountain, and informative displays telling of Georgia's rich history, including cotton production (photo).

On this day in Georgia history, March 14, 1794, Eli Whitney secured a patent for the cotton gin, which he invented the year before while living in Georgia. The cotton gin (short for cotton engine) significantly changed the production rate of cotton eventually making the South a global provider of the staple, which came with pros and cons. 

Today, Georgia continues to produce more cotton than any other state in the U.S., except for Texas.

ATLANTApix of the tourATLANTA blog features a "photo-of-the-day" of Atlanta. Come back tomorrow for a new one!

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