Explore the real-world places that appear in Charlie's Requiem by Walt Browning. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Downtown Connector at Peachtree Center, Georgia State Capitol, Grady Memorial Hospital, Emory University Hospital, Piedmont Atlanta Hospital and 4 more.
I-75/85 through downtown — The road that traps millions
Charlie is caught on the road when the lights go out, and the stalled vehicles on Atlanta's major interstates make the way out of the city almost impossible by car. Dead cars, no traffic signals, and desperate people turn the commute into a gauntlet. This is where Charlie must begin to move on foot and find the two companions who join her fight toward safety.
The Downtown Connector merges I-75 and I-85 through the center of Atlanta and was completed in the 1960s. It is among the most congested highway stretches in the country.
The Connector carries well over 300,000 vehicles on some days. Peachtree Center nearby is a hub of offices, hotels, and a MARTA station.
206 Washington St SW — Seat of state government
In the blackout, the seat of government stands as a gold-domed reminder of authority that no longer functions. Civil order breaks down quickly across the urban core, and gangs and criminals fill the vacuum that Charlie and her companions have to navigate. The area represents the society's collapse into lawlessness.
The Capitol was completed in 1889 in a Neoclassical style, and its dome was gilded with gold mined in Dahlonega, Georgia. It has served as the seat of Georgia's government since then.
The building houses the legislature and the Georgia Capitol Museum, and it is open to the public for tours.
Visit: Georgia State Capitol (landmark)
80 Jesse Hill Jr. Dr SE — The city's largest safety-net hospital
As a pharmaceutical rep, Charlie's world revolves around hospitals, clinics, and physician offices. When the EMP kills power, hospitals fail first, patients are in peril, and the drug supply chain she works in ceases to exist. The medical system's collapse forms a stark backdrop for her world turning upside down.
Grady opened in 1892 and has long served as Atlanta's primary public hospital and Level I trauma center. It is affiliated with Emory University and Morehouse School of Medicine.
It is a major working hospital and trauma center. It is not a tourist site.
1364 Clifton Rd NE — Medical sales territory
Charlie's sales territory would include major academic hospitals like this one, where she courts physicians to prescribe her company's drugs. It represents her competent, successful pre-collapse career at the top of her game. The EMP wipes that world away overnight.
Emory University Hospital grew from the university's medical school, which dates to the 19th century, and moved to the Druid Hills campus in the 1920s. The nearby CDC is headquartered along Clifton Road.
It is part of Emory Healthcare and is a busy teaching hospital in the Druid Hills area.
1968 Peachtree Rd NW — Midtown and Buckhead medical corridor
Another stop on the circuit of a drug rep, this hospital area is typical of the professional world that Charlie moves through before the blackout. After the EMP, the corridor's medical offices and pharmacies become targets for desperate people. It highlights how quickly the thing she sells becomes the thing others will kill for.
Piedmont Hospital was founded in 1905 as Piedmont Sanitarium and has operated in Atlanta's Peachtree corridor for over a century.
It is a large, active hospital and the flagship of the Piedmont Healthcare system.
3393 Peachtree Rd NE, Buckhead — Upscale shopping hub
Buckhead's shopping and business district is the kind of affluent area Charlie would frequent in her old life. With no power, it becomes a place of looting and danger as crowds panic. It illustrates how the comfort of modern consumer life collapses into scavenging.
Lenox Square opened in 1959 as one of the Southeast's first major shopping malls. It grew into a centerpiece of Buckhead's retail scene.
It remains a large, popular shopping mall with department stores and restaurants.
Visit: Lenox Square (landmark)
4400 Ashford Dunwoody Rd — Northern suburban edge
The northern business and retail sprawl along I-285 marks the area between the dense city and the countryside. For Charlie and her companions, passing through the suburbs means leaving the worst of the urban danger but not the threat of gangs and criminals. Each mile north brings them closer to a friend's farm.
The Perimeter Center area developed in the 1970s and 1980s as an edge city on the northern side of I-285. Perimeter Mall opened in 1971.
It is one of Atlanta's biggest suburban office and shopping districts.
Cochran Shoals Unit — River barrier on the way out of town
The Chattahoochee is a natural barrier that anyone heading northwest out of Atlanta must contend with. With bridges as potential chokepoints for criminals and gangs, crossing it would be a major danger for Charlie and her two companions. Getting past it signals real progress toward safety.
The Chattahoochee River has supplied Atlanta with drinking water and shaped its growth. The National Recreation Area was established in 1978 to protect the river corridor.
The National Park Service operates trails, boat launches, and picnic areas along the river units.
Visit: Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area (park)
900 Kennesaw Mountain Dr, Kennesaw — Civil War battlefield northwest of the city
Beyond the metro area, open ground and wooded ridges offer Charlie and her companions a chance to travel off the roads and away from the gangs. The mountain serves as a landmark on the route out of the city toward the countryside. It echoes an earlier time Atlanta was cut off and besieged.
The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was fought in June 1864 during Sherman's Atlanta Campaign. The site became a national battlefield park in 1935.
The park has hiking trails, a visitor center, and a museum, and it is open to the public.
Visit: Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park (park)
More by Walt Browning: All Walt Browning books
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