Savannah

Savannah is America's first planned city, and its grid still works. Founded in 1733 by James Oglethorpe as Georgia's colonial capital, Savannah was designed around a pattern of public squares connected by wide streets—urban planning before the term existed. The city served as the colony's seat of government until 1786 and played critical roles in both the Revolution and Civil War. In 1819, the steamship Savannah made history as the first to cross the Atlantic.

Like Charleston, Savannah's wealth came from slave-grown crops: rice and cotton for the triangle trade, exported through a deepwater port. The historic district's antebellum architecture—22 of Oglethorpe's original 24 squares survive—preserves the elegance that enslaved labor built. Today those squares anchor a tourism economy that trades on Old World glamour: Spanish moss, horse-drawn carriages, the largest St. Patrick's Day celebration in America.

But Savannah is not just pretty. The Port of Savannah is the largest single-terminal container facility in North America, now America's busiest port by volume. Unlike most ports that import far more than they export, Savannah nearly balances—a rare feat. The port employs more people than tourism and anchors a manufacturing corridor that includes Gulfstream, JCB, Georgia-Pacific, and BASF.

Savannah's dual economy—historic charm for tourists, industrial muscle for shipping—depends on the same deepwater access Oglethorpe chose in 1733. By 2026, the tension between preservation and growth intensifies: the container ships get bigger, the historic district gets more crowded, and the grid absorbs both.