It allowed Columbus to become a thriving cotton-marketing center with unobstructed river travel to the Gulf of Mexico.
The Appalachian Trail passes the river's uppermost headwaters. From its source in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Chattahoochee River runs southwesterly to Atlanta and through its neighborhoods. It ultimately turns due-south to form the southern half of the Georgia/Alabama state line. The Chattahoochee River begins in the southeast corner of Union County, Georgia, in the southern Appalachian Mountains and flows southwesterly through the Atlanta metropolitan area before stopping in Lake Seminole, at the Georgia-Florida border. The river runs for a total interval of about 434 miles.