The biggest or tallest of anything – whether it's a drive-in restaurant or a skyscraper – is entitled to bragging rights and often becomes an iconic symbol of its city and state.
Georgia and Atlanta certainly have their fair share of impressive buildings – or in a few cases, impressively odd – that help define the area.
The following are 5 of the biggest, tallest things in Georgia:
Biggest drive-in restaurant
Credit: Johnny Crawford/AJC
Credit: Johnny Crawford/AJC
It's no surprise that the biggest drive-in restaurant in Georgia – and the world – is The Varsity.
It serves an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 people on a football Saturday, but crowds can swell even larger on Saturdays in July, Gordon Muir, grandson of founder Frank Gordy and president of The Varsity, told the AJC. A two-story parking deck, plus more spots around the building, are further evidence of the huge crowds that make The Varsity the biggest drive-in.
Biggest football stadium
The new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta will be able to pack up to 75,000 fans in for a potential Super Bowl or up to 83,000 for other events, but the largest football stadium in Georgia will still be Sanford Stadium in Athens.
Credit: UGA Sports
Credit: UGA Sports
The Georgia Bulldogs play in front of home crowds as large as 92,746 on Saturdays, and although Sanford will undergo a $63 million renovation, it's expected to affect capacity only by the addition of a 500-seat recruiting pavilion.
Credit: Phil Skinner/AJC
Credit: Phil Skinner/AJC
Biggest church
Located firmly in the Bible Belt, Georgia probably has several churches close to where you live and work. More than six of Atlanta's houses of worship qualify as megachurches, with each having an average of over 2,000 worshipers a week.
Alpharetta's North Point Community Church and its satellite campuses attract more than 30,000 people each week, making it the largest church in Georgia and the third largest in the nation.
Credit: Christopher Oquendo Photography
Credit: Christopher Oquendo Photography
Tallest building
With its soaring skyline, Atlanta is home to many tall buildings, but the title of the tallest in the state – as well as the Southeast – goes to Bank of America Plaza. At 1,023 feet tall, it has 55 stories and 1.3 million square feet of space.
The building has changed owners several times over the years and also has been subject to the highs and lows of the real estate market, but it continues to dominate Atlanta's skyline.
Biggest roadside attractions
Roadside attractions – those quirky, kitschy places you might stop by on your way to someplace else – are a staple of every state, including Georgia. The biggest can be hard to exactly quantify, but a few of the largest may reveal a little about the state and what's important to Georgians.
If these attractions are any indication, granite, fried chicken and peanuts are all symbols of the state:
Credit: Courtesy of Trevor Park
Credit: Courtesy of Trevor Park
The Big Chicken at 12 Cobb Parkway in Marietta is an iconic 56-foot animatronic chicken on top of a KFC restaurant. Constructed in 1983, it recently underwent a $2.2 million renovation and reopened on May 11, 2017.
Credit: RoadsideAmerica.com
Credit: RoadsideAmerica.com
Georgia also has a large peanut monument that attracts stares from drivers passing by on I-75 and visitors including Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis. Located at 300 Sylvia Drive in Ashburn, the 20-foot tall monument proudly proclaims "Georgia 1st in Peanuts."
Credit: File photo
Credit: File photo
Finally, Georgia's own Stonehenge of sorts – known as The Georgia Guidestones – has been erected in Nuberg. Each of the four granite monoliths is 19 feet tall and were erected at the request of a stranger who wanted a remote location with a lot of good granite to have his own version of Stonehenge built, according to RoadsideAmerica.com.
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