Opened in November 2005, the Georgia Aquarium in front of you was the largest aquarium in the world by water volume, a distinction it held until 2012. The aquarium was made possible by a donation of two hundred and fifty million dollars from Bernie Marcus, co-founder of The Home Depot, which was itself founded in Atlanta in 1978 and grew into one of the largest retail companies in American history. The gift from Marcus, one of the largest single philanthropic gifts to any cultural institution in American history, reflected a pattern that has shaped Atlanta's cultural landscape: corporate wealth generated in the city being channeled into public institutions.
The aquarium houses whale sharks, beluga whales, manta rays, and tens of thousands of other animals across exhibits covering ten galleries. It sits alongside Centennial Olympic Park in the cultural campus that has made this corner of downtown Atlanta one of the most visited tourist districts in the Southeast. The Home Depot connection is worth remembering — the company that helped build suburban America, that supplied the lumber and drywall for millions of houses, funded a monument to the ocean depths in a landlocked city two hundred miles from the nearest coast.
Atlanta contains multitudes.