Fulton

Formed December 20, 1853 (104^th county)

Fulton County (1,062,702), Atlanta (498,722)

The governmental look is obvious in the 1914 masonry courthouse.  There was an 1884 courthouse also in Atlanta, the only county seat.  Anthony Ten Eyck Brown and Morgan & Dillon Architects provided the designs for this Neo-Classical Revival and Beaux Arts style facility.  The courthouse was under renovation in 2021.  This concrete Justice Center was added in 1993.  The architects are unknown.  Fulton County was founded on December 20, 1853 as the 104^th county.  The courthouse is located on Capitol Square at Martin Luther King and Pryor avenues.  The huge Interstate Highways 20/85/75 interchange is four blocks southeast of the site.  The county was formed from De Kalb County.  Fulton County is named for inventor Robert Fulton.  Atlanta was founded as the terminus of the Western & Atlantic Railroad and thus got its name from the railroad.  Fulton County was the birthplace of 1 Georgia Governor, Lester G. Maddox, Sr.  The county center is in Atlanta 4.5 miles North of the city center. 

Fulton County government consists of a sheriff, an administrator, a coroner, a clerk, and a tax commissioner (executive).  It has 7 Commissioners (legislative.)  Seventeen Superior Court Judges, Ten State Judges, and Forty-eight County Judges, court clerk, and county attorney serve Fulton County (judicial.) The county is in northeast Georgia.  The county shape is a match stick with Atlanta dominating the center extending into De Kalb County.  Atlanta is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 46.8% of the county population.  The Georgia state capitol is located in this county.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Forsyth, Gwinnett, De Kalb, Clayton, Fayette, Coweta, Carroll, Douglas, Cobb, and Cherokee counties. 

The area of the county is 529 square miles.  It is 17 out of 159 in the state.  It ranks 1 out of 159 in population in the state.  It has a density of 2016.5 persons per square mile making it 5 out of 159 in the state.  Fulton County has 99.9% of its population in its incorporated areas.  Interstate Highway 20 crosses the county east to west from De Kalb County to Douglas County.  Interstate Highway 75 goes northwest to southeast from Cobb County to Clayton County.  Interstate Highway 85 enters from the northeast, De Kalb County, and exits to the southwest, Coweta County.  United States Highway 19 comes in from Cobb County, north, and goes into Clayton County, south.  United States Highway 29 basically parallels Interstate Highway 85 from De Kalb County to Coweta County.  United States Highway 41 parallels Interstate Highway 75 from Cobb County into Clayton County.  United States Highway 78 comes in from De Kalb County, east, and parallels Interstate Highway 20 west into Cobb County.  United States Highway 278 parallels Interstate Highway 20 into the county from De Kalb County and goes into Cobb County.  This county is in the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta Metropolitan Statistical Area.