What does it take to bring Atlantans out by the thousands?
Sometimes the answer is obvious. A famous face, a historic occasion, a celebration, or simply the chance to witness something you may never see again. Over the years, Atlanta has produced some remarkable crowds, gathering for reasons that ranged from the deeply emotional to the downright curious.
Presidents and celebrities drew them. History drew them. Celebration drew them. And on at least one occasion, something as ordinary as a new piece of city infrastructure reportedly brought out nearly the entire town.
But perhaps the most perplexing crowd of all gathered in the years following the Civil War, when thousands of Atlantans turned out to see someone whose relationship with the city was, to put it mildly, complicated. This week on Stories of Atlanta, we elbow our way through some of the crowds that made Atlanta history.
