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On The Road Again
Rock City, Lookout Mountain, Ga. By RAY BALOGH | The Municipal
It’s not for the faint of heart, but if the reviews are to be believed, it’s well worth the trip.
It is reportedly possible to see seven states from the outcropping known as Lovers Leap. (Photo by Frank Romeo/Shutterstock.com)
12 THE MUNICIPAL | MARCH 2022
Shutterstock.com
More than 90% of the thousands of online reviews give Rock City on Lookout Mountain, Ga., an enthusiastic thumbs-up. The tourist attraction’s centerpiece is Rock City Gardens, a 4,100-foot walking trail that showcases natural rock formations, caves and rock tunnels, lush gardens featuring more than 400 floral species, a 140-foot man-made waterfall, a 180-foot suspended bridge and an outcropping known as Lover’s Leap, from which one can allegedly see, from 1,700 feet above sea level, portions of seven states — or least could before air pollution encroached on the area. Located 6 miles from downtown Chattanooga, Tenn., one elevated vantage point allows a bird’s-eye vista of the city, especially stunning when its night lights pierce the emerging darkness. According to its vision statement at www.seerockcity.com, the attraction is “created by God and enhanced by man,” yielding a “unique geological and botanical wonder” that has caught the world’s attention. Rock City hosts more than half a million visitors from around the globe each year. Native Americans first occupied Lookout Mountain, and perhaps the first white men to visit the settlement were two missionaries who arrived in 1823. They noted the beauty of the area in their diaries, and by the time of the Civil War, “the Rock City” was becoming well known to the citizens of this nation. Throughout the latter half of the 1800s, the area was often frequented by hikers and geologists, but otherwise received few visitors. That all changed in 1924, when entrepreneur Garnet Carter founded a 700-acre residential community, which he named Fairyland after his wife Frieda’s penchant for European folklore. For the inhabitants’ and visitors’ recreation, Carter designed and built the nation’s first miniature
