e speedway. Whitehall and Peachtree
Streets, connecting at the viaduct, form a continuous asphalt boulevard
three and one-half miles long. This is connected north of the city with a
macadam pike to Buckhead, and south of the city with a chert road to
College Park, six miles beyond the city limits. This forms a continuous
boulevard fifteen miles long in a north and south line, with a smooth
surface, which is well adapted to carriages, bicycles and automobiles.

[Illustration: GRAND OPERA HOUSE.]

Prominent Structures.

Atlanta has many handsome buildings, notable among which are the State
Capitol, the new Court-House, the Carnegie Library, of white marble, the
Grand Opera House, the nine great fire-proof office buildings, and the
beautiful Piedmont Hotel, which is also a fire-proof structure. The
Federal Prison, three miles out, is one of the most important in the
United States. There are several other large hotels, notably the Kimball,
the Aragon, the Majestic and the Marion.

The value of buildings erected in 1903 was reported by the City Building
Inspector as $3,161,445, and the number of permits issued was 3,441. A
marked increase in the average value of dwellings was noted. Following is
a list of the office-buildings for which Atlanta is famous. They make the
heart of Atlanta look like the lower part of Manhattan Island. Each has a
steel frame, with non-combustible partitions, every modern convenience,
and a costly interior finish of marble and hard-wood. The elevator and
janitor service is first-class, and lavatories, barber shops and
restaurants are well placed. The ground floor in a majority of these
buildings is occupied by banks, whose offices are superbly finished. The
population of these palatial hives of industry amounts to several
thousand, and the facilities they offer for doing business are unequalled
elsewhere in the Southern States.

List of Fire-Proof Office Buildings.

Equitable Building, eight stories.

English-American Building, eleven stories.

Austell Building, nine stories.

Prudential Building, ten stories.

Empire Building, fourteen stories.

Peters Building, eight stories.

Century Building, twelve stories.

[1]Fourth National Bank Building, sixteen stories.

[1]Candler Building, seventeen stories.

The aggregate cost of these nine structures, exclusive of the land on
which they rest, was $4,000,000. They are all occupied, except the two
under construction, in which spac