What is the history of Savannah Georgia ?

The Mickve Israel synagogue now sits on Monterey Square and houses the South’s oldest Jewish congregation, the third founded in America.

Need to calm your nerves after all those ghosts (or during a ghost tour)? Get a drink -- to go. The Historic District allows open containers, so you can take in the city by foot, tasty beverage in hand. You can even buy a beer in one bar, walk a block with it, and finish it in another. Locals like to call these magical and legal 16-ounce cups "travelers."

A marble monument at the corner of Bull and Oglethorpe Street marks the site of the original Jewish burial ground established by Oglethorpe in 1733.

If you don’t go home with a bag full of pralines, saltwater taffy and chocolate fudge, you’re not doing it right
Step inside Savannah's Candy Kitchen and be greeted with a free praline sample, or stop in Savannah Bee Company to sample fresh honey (tupelo, wildflower, acacia and orange blossom to name a few) or delicious mead varieties. Or, stop by Leopold's, a Savannah institution since 1919 with hand-churned flavors such as chocolate chewies & cream, honey almond & cream, peanut butter chippy and mocha chocolate chip.

Over the next ten years, thousands of colonist from many different countries and faiths came to Georgia to start a new life including Moravians and Salzburgers from Germany, Scottish Highlanders, French Huguenots, Irish Catholics, Italians, Greeks and Swiss.

Your inner bohemian will have a field day shopping in Savannah's unique boutiques and antique shops. Make sure to check out the one-of-a-kind artwork created by Savannah College of Art and Design students and faculty at ShopSCAD.

Most of the Georgia colonists embraced the revolution and colonial insurgents took the city at the outset of the war.

Feel the ballast stones from centuries-old voyages under your feet while you walk down River Street past old cotton warehouses now part of a buzzing riverfront home to hotels, shops and restaurants. Get your sea legs with a riverboat cruise down the Savannah River.

However, British forces easily recaptured Savannah in 1778 with the help of a slave who reportedly showed the troops a secret passage behind the American lines.

In October 1779, American Patriots, assisted by their French allies, tried to recapture Savannah with a French fleet of 22 vessels and 4000 soldiers.

Tybee Island, also known as Savannah Beach, is just 18 miles from Savannah and it’s worth the visit
Take a stroll along the three miles of public beach and reward yourself with a trip to Coco’s Sunset Grille. Every night, the bartenders pass out free shots, so that the entire bar can toast the setting sun. Cheers!

After a four day bombardment and a furious direct assault, the allies were forced to abandon the siege. The battle was the second bloodiest of the war with 264 British losses, 600 French losses, and 600 American losses

American forces included Count Casimir Pulaski, the Polish adventurer who was Washington’s first cavalry commander, and Sergeant William Jasper, a hero of 1776 battle of Charleston.

A popular weekend getaway for much of the Southeast, Savannah is within a 4-hour drive of Atlanta, Charleston, Charlotte, Jacksonville, and Orlando. For those visiting from outside the South, there are nonstop flights from 13 cities, including NYC and Boston to Savannah Hilton Head Airport.

Jasper was wounded in the fighting and would die here with hundreds of others. Mortally wounded while leading a desperate charge, Count Pulaksi died several days later aboard a ship and was buried at sea. Both have been memorialized with their own beautiful monuments on Monterey and Madison squares.

It served as a strategic port city in the American Revolution and during the American Civil War.

liberated in 1782 by forces under the command of Rhode Islander Nathanael Greene, Lieutenant Colonel James Jackson and his Georgia Legion were given the honor of entering the deserted streets of Savannah to receive the keys to the city on July 11, 1782.

Savannah is today an industrial center and an important Atlantic seaport.

In 1793, a tutor and Yale graduate named Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin at Mulberry Grove, a Savannah plantation owned by Revolutionary War hero, Nathanael Greene

Several heavy metal music groups have emerged from Savannah, including the Baroness, Kylesa and Circle Takes the Square.

Savannah's architecture, history, and reputation for Southern charm and hospitality are internationally known.

The cotton gin revolutionized the cotton industry and cotton production soared. “King Cotton” became Savannah’s dominant export crop. In 1790 Savannah exported 1000 bales of cotton, but by 1820, they were exporting ninety thousand bales a year

The city's former promotional name was “Hostess City of the South”, a phrase still used by the city government.

During the 18th century, factors and traders had conducted their business from the decks of ships and the wharves along the river. Now warehouses and offices were built at the foot of the bluff, tall enough to rise to the level of the town, connected to Bay Street by wooden bridges and cast-iron arches.

Each year Savannah attracts millions of visitors, who enjoy the city's architecture and historic buildings: the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low (founder of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America), the Georgia Historical Society (the oldest continually operating historical society in the South), the Telfair Academy of Arts and Sciences (one of the South's first public museums), the First African Baptist Church (one of the oldest African-American Baptist congregations in the United States), Temple Mickve Israel (the third oldest synagogue in America), and the Central of Georgia Railway roundhouse complex (the oldest standing antebellum rail facility in America).