A large majority of Atlantans attend church regularly and the city is a major center in the Southern Baptist conventions.
A large majority of Atlantans attend church regularly and the city is a major center in the Southern Baptist conventions.
==History==
==History==
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Atlanta began as a railroad town in 1837, when the Western and Atlantic Railroad selected an uninhabited site for its western terminus. Here, a small settlement, aptly named Terminus, was built; its name was changed to Marthasville in 1843 and finally to Atlanta in 1845. With the arrival of two other railroads, Atl;anta became a major crossroads and the center of a fast growing transportation network. Wholesalers and bankers located in Atlanta, making it pne of the the main inland commercial centers of the Southeast. By the eve of the Civil War, Atlanta, with a population of more than 9,000, was the fourth largest city in Georgia.