By Josh Buchanan:

The red represents the famous burning of Altanta during the Civil War that the city has risen from to become a global economic and cultural power. The blue represents the Chattahoochee River, which defines much of the city’s landscape and provides much of its water. The black “train tracks” represents the city’s history of importance in transportation and commerce throughout the South, the country, and the world. There are five squares created by the tracks. Four represent significant events in the city’s history: Sherman’s Burning (1864), the Cotton States Expo (1895), the Civil Rights Movement (1960s), and the Olympics (1996). The final square is not fully closed to represent the unlimited possibilities of how the people of Atlanta can change the world. The color scheme also correlates with the city’s professional sports teams’ color schemes (Braves- navy and red, Falcons- red and black, Hawks- red and black, Atlanta United- red and black).