9 Things Georgians Say About Atlanta That Only Make Sense Inside the Perimeter

Take a right onto Peachtree.

Okay, but which one?

Atlanta talk can sound like shorthand, and Georgians from outside the metro may need a minute to catch on.

Here’s your guide to the local lingo, so you’re not the one asking.

1. Spaghetti Junction

Spaghetti Junction is the name for the Atlanta interchange of Interstate 85 and Interstate 285 in DeKalb County.

You’ll find the official name is the Tom Moreland Interchange, honoring a former state transportation chief.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in 1987 that some Atlantans were already calling it Spaghetti Junction.

A contest run by radio station WSB had produced a rival name, the “DeKalb Super Looper.”

Super Looper lost.

Say the nickname, and many people will know which interchange you mean.

2. Peachtree

Atlanta has 71 streets with Peachtree in the name, according to the Atlanta History Center.

The Gregory Brothers turned the confusion into a 53-second song called “71 Peachtrees (Lost in Atlanta).”

Discover Atlanta, the city’s tourism site, repeats a joke that a right turn and two lefts off any street will land you on a Peachtree.

If a friend asks you to meet on Peachtree, check which Peachtree first.

Details matter.

3. ITP and OTP

Atlanta Magazine’s guide to local terms defines inside the Perimeter (ITP) and outside the Perimeter (OTP) as the two sides of the loop.

The Perimeter is Interstate 285, a beltway 64 miles long.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s archive shows coverage of the loop’s October 1969 opening predicting an immediate end to truck traffic through the downtown interstate connector.

A 2016 WABE public radio analysis of 2010 Census data looked at about 950 metro neighborhoods.

It found neighborhoods that skew older tend to be further outside the Perimeter, while the neighborhoods with the youngest residents mostly cluster in the core counties inside it.

Many people now use the loop to sort neighborhoods.

If you’re new to town, ask which side of the loop someone lives on.

The loop is the line.

4. Downtown Connector

Atlanta’s Downtown Connector is the stretch where Interstate 75 and Interstate 85 merge through downtown.

Atlanta Magazine describes it as expanding to as many as 12 lanes.

A 1964 archive piece from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says the Atlanta Traffic and Safety Council warned about the design.

The council predicted it would be one of the most difficult driving areas in the nation.

On the unofficial opening, a tractor-trailer hauling cotton overturned on the Piedmont Avenue entrance ramp.

The main northbound ramp stayed blocked for more than two hours.

Over two hours.

Many people say the Connector without naming either interstate.

If you’re driving through downtown, you’ll be on it whether you ask for it or not.

5. DeKalb County

DeKalb County is pronounced “duh-CAB,” according to Atlanta Magazine.

That’s the opposite of how the Brooklyn avenue’s name is said.

Many people will correct you if you say it the other way.

Duh-CAB it is.

Georgia established DeKalb County in 1822 and named it for Baron Johann DeKalb, a hero of the Revolutionary War, according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

The county’s farmland disappeared in the 1960s as it became an urban county with more miles of interstate than any other county in Georgia.

If you’re saying the name for the first time, you’ll want the duh-CAB version.

6. Ponce de Leon Avenue

You say Ponce de Leon Avenue so the ending rhymes with "Freon," and that isn't how the Spanish explorer's name sounds.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in 2008 that the avenue is named for freshwater springs near present-day City Hall East.

In 1871, a sick railroad worker drank from the springs and claimed he was cured.

Dr. Henry Wilson then dubbed the waters Ponce de Leon Springs for their supposed healing properties.

Springs, not Spain.

If you say the name like the explorer's, many people will notice.

7. Gate City

According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, railroads supported Atlanta's claims to be the region's Gate City and the Chicago of the South.

Atlanta began in 1837 as Terminus, the endpoint of the Western and Atlantic Railroad.

Rails came first.

If you hear someone say Gate City, you're hearing a nickname tied to those railroads.

Many longtime residents still use it as a nickname for the city.

8. Atlanna

Atlanna is how Atlanta Magazine's guide to local terms says you pronounce the city's name, with no second t.

If you pronounce the second t, many Atlantans will know you're a visitor.

The t stays silent.

The New Georgia Encyclopedia says the name is reportedly a feminine form of "Atlantic," first used by railroad engineer John Edgar Thomson.

9. The Two Georgias

The Two Georgias is a phrase for the gap between metro Atlanta and the rest of the state.

In 1983, Albany Herald editor Jimmy Gray proposed that there were two Georgias, with South Georgia the poor economic cousin of the Atlanta region, according to Georgia Trend.

The phrase lasted.

Georgia Public Broadcasting reported in 2021 that the phrase fell out of favor in political circles because it seemed divisive.

When you say the Two Georgias, you're talking about money and opportunity, not the Perimeter.

Hotlanta

Hotlanta is a nickname newcomers are told not to use.

We'd skip it.

If you're tempted to try it on a local, you'll do better with the plain name.

West End and Westside

In Atlanta, if someone says West End or Westside, you'll want to ask which one they mean because the two names point to different places.

Atlanta Magazine's guide describes West End and Westview as historic streetcar neighborhoods southwest of downtown, with Victorian homes and Craftsman-style bungalows.

You can't swap them.