Savannah is the
picture of antebellum hospitality, thanks to period architecture and
oak-lined streets. It’s tempting to spend your trip just relaxing on
vast verandas and sipping mint juleps, but there are plenty of
historical sites and museums to explore. Haunting (and possibly haunted)
Bonaventure Cemetery is one of the hallmarks of the city.
Savannah, a beautiful city to visit with amazing food, friendly people,
spectacular Live Oak trees with Spanish Moss, and the scene of 90
movies. The Historic District of Savannah is buzzing with creativity,
art, culture and live theatre and is the perfect place for a visit. Many
people who visit end up falling in love with Savannah and move here to
live in one of the oldest cities in America - a site of many famous
Revolutionary & Civil War Battles. Hundreds of interesting sites to see
away you including more than twenty city squares, monuments, parks,
Historic Homes, and churches.
Visit the 22 squares: Washington Square is one of the many
charming squares in Savannah, Georgia. Founder, James Edward Oglethorpe,
decided to design Savannah around a series of "town squares" where the
citizens could come together for social occasions and everyday
interaction.
Visit River Street:
Savannah's Waterfront Shopping & Dining Experience
One of the most popular Savannah attractions for tourists is River
Street. It's a place to enjoy views of the Savannah River while watching
the ships from all over the world sail into one of the busiest ports in
the USA plus enjoy the best restaurants and gift shops!
Savannah is the oldest city
in the U.S. state of Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County.
Established in 1733, the city of Savannah became the British colonial
capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of
Georgia. A strategic port city in the American Revolution and during the
American Civil War, Savannah is today an industrial center and an
important Atlantic seaport. It is Georgia's fifth-largest city and
third-largest metropolitan area.
Each year Savannah attracts millions of visitors to its cobblestone
streets, parks, and notable historic buildings: the birthplace of
Juliette Gordon Low (founder of the Girl Scouts of the United States of
America), the Georgia Historical Society (the oldest continually
operating historical society in the South), the Telfair Academy of Arts
and Sciences (one of the South's first public museums), the First
African Baptist Church (one of the oldest African-American Baptist
congregations in the United States), and Temple Mickve Israel (the third
oldest synagogue in America).
Savannah's downtown area, which includes the Savannah Historic District,
the Savannah Victorian Historic District, and 22 parklike squares, is
one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the United
States (designated by the U.S. government in 1966). Downtown Savannah
largely retains the original town plan prescribed by founder James
Oglethorpe (a design now known as the Oglethorpe Plan). Savannah was the
host city for the sailing competitions during the 1996 Summer Olympics
held in Atlanta.
General James Edward Oglethorpe, a philanthropist and a representative
of King George II to the American colonies, was sent to create a buffer
south of the Savannah River to protect the Carolinas from Spanish
Florida and French Louisiana.
On February 12, 1733, General James Oglethorpe and settlers from the
ship Anne landed at Yamacraw Bluff and were greeted by Tomochichi, the
Yamacraws, and Indian traders John and Mary Musgrove. Mary Musgrove
often served as a translator. The city of Savannah was founded on that
date, along with the colony of Georgia. In 1751, Savannah and the rest
of Georgia became a Royal Colony and Savannah was made the colonial
capital of Georgia. By the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War,
Savannah had become the southernmost commercial port of the Thirteen
Colonies. British troops took the city in 1778, and the following year a
combined force of American and French soldiers failed to rout the
British at the Siege of Savannah. The British did not leave the city
until July 1782. Savannah, a prosperous seaport throughout the
nineteenth century, was the Confederacy's sixth most populous city and
the prime objective of General William T. Sherman's March to the Sea.
Early on December 21, 1864, local authorities negotiated a peaceful
surrender to save Savannah from destruction, and Union troops marched
into the city at dawn.
Savannah was named for the Savannah River, which probably derives from
variant names for the Shawnee, a Native American people who migrated to
the river in the 1680s. The Shawnee destroyed another Native people, the
Westo, and occupied their lands at the head of the Savannah River's
navigation on the fall line, near present-day Augusta. These Shawnee
were known by several local variants, including Shawano, Savano, Savana
and Savannah. Another theory is that the name Savannah refers to the
extensive marshlands surrounding the river for miles inland, and is
derived from the English term "savanna", a kind of tropical grassland,
which was borrowed by the English from Spanish sabana and used in the
Southern Colonies. (The Spanish word comes from the Taino word zabana.)
Still other theories suggest that the name Savannah originates from
Algonquian terms meaning "southerner" or perhaps "salt".
