A day in the life of Atlanta airport
January 17, 2014 8:47 AM   Subscribe

ATL24 - A day in the life of the world's busiest airport. A collaborative photo and video essay of Atlanta airport, by reporters from CNN.

A single link to CNN - but I thought this was very interesting.
posted by carter (21 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Ah, this reminds me of how I wasn't able to make it to Atlanta for DragonCon last year, which I almost like as much for just being in a real city as for the convention.

"Scroll to begin experience."

(I hate the word experience used this way, though.)
posted by JHarris at 8:57 AM on January 17, 2014


(That picture of Mi Ja Choi, though. Difficult to look at.)
posted by JHarris at 8:59 AM on January 17, 2014


Oh internet layout designers. Just because you can do a thing doesn't mean you should.
posted by yoink at 9:05 AM on January 17, 2014 [9 favorites]


I'm fascinated, well a little, by how the slides appear to be exactly the height of my browser window. I suspect that the pictures are larger than shown (the text on the door particularly is cut off at the bottom) and it just uses the top part of them.
posted by JHarris at 9:10 AM on January 17, 2014


Ah, this reminds me of how I wasn't able to make it to Atlanta for DragonCon last year, which I almost like as much for just being in a real city as for the convention.

Atlanta is only slightly city-like. There are people, and there are some tall buildings downtown, but that's where the resemblance ends.
posted by sonic meat machine at 9:11 AM on January 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


Well, I won't debate the issue. Looks like one from where I'm sitting, but that's rural Georgia. sigh....
posted by JHarris at 9:12 AM on January 17, 2014


What, no mention of the smoking lounge?

I often forget that the Atlanta airport is connected in any way to an actual on-the-ground city. I've driven through Atlanta once, but transferred through the airport there probably hundreds of times.

My many complex associations with the Atlanta airport have basically nothing to do with anything I would associate with Atlanta the city, either based on my (short, long ago) visit there or based on anything I know about the place.
posted by Sara C. at 9:38 AM on January 17, 2014


Fascinating journal piece, but holy crap this site combines everything that's wrong with parallax scrolling.
posted by Anima Mundi at 9:38 AM on January 17, 2014 [3 favorites]


Wait, there's also a city called Atlanta?
posted by indubitable at 9:45 AM on January 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


Man. that is a monster of a photo-essay. I've flown through that airport since my parents first flew to Georgia to look at houses prior to moving here in 1969. A lot of people complain about it but I feel at home there. Especially when returning from a trip and I see Fly Delta Jets, I know I'm getting close, even though I have a layover, another 45 minute flight, and a while wondering if my luggage made it. (DELTA=Don't Expect Luggage To Arrive)
posted by TedW at 9:48 AM on January 17, 2014 [3 favorites]



Wait, there's also a city called Atlanta?


It's a bedroom community for the airport workers. Politicians often winter there in January and February too, I have heard.
posted by TedW at 9:54 AM on January 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


I've mostly only ever seen the Atlanta airport as a blur rushing past me as I sprinted from one gate to another.
posted by octothorpe at 10:11 AM on January 17, 2014


The old joke is, Atlanta is a great place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit there.

You know who has a really nice airport? Pittsburgh. I had a connection through there once, and I just wanted to stay, maybe get a job in the food court and settle down.
posted by thelonius at 10:22 AM on January 17, 2014 [3 favorites]


I think that interface some sort of convoluted metaphor for navigating an airport on foot.
posted by HumanComplex at 10:37 AM on January 17, 2014 [3 favorites]


In that maps post the other day most of the busiest airline routes in the world were in Asia, and none were in North America. I would be interested in a map of the ten busiest airports in the world.
posted by bukvich at 10:40 AM on January 17, 2014


I'm not sure how recently you've been in the Pittsburgh Airport, thelonius, it's still nice but pretty barron. U.S Air pulled their hub out after 9/11 so now about 3/4 of the gates are closed off. It has a bit of a zombie apocalypse feel to it now.
posted by octothorpe at 11:32 AM on January 17, 2014


Thanks (to some of you) for taking a chance to shit on a city of six million people instead of discussing the content.

Some of us live there. And even like it.

So... Thanks?
posted by rock swoon has no past at 1:39 PM on January 17, 2014 [3 favorites]


I've mostly only ever seen the Atlanta airport as a blur rushing past me as I sprinted from one gate to another.

After dealing with DFW for several years, I've come to really appreciate a small but full-service airport like Buffalo. Yeah, there aren't many direct flights like there were from DFW, but.. Which terminal will your plane leave from? The. And cheap parking is right there at the terminal, just a five minute walk from the doors.

And it's close enough in that I just text biscotti when we're taxiing and she's usually waiting for me before I've grabbed my bag from overhead and tromped to the entrance.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 2:18 PM on January 17, 2014


BGR is good for that.The TSA is very nice there, too.
posted by thelonius at 2:26 PM on January 17, 2014


(That picture of Mi Ja Choi, though. Difficult to look at.)

I really hope she's ok. It's all very well for the officer to let her stay there for some unspecified period, but if she really has dementia, surely something more proactive could be done? They later mention a chaplain helping out some other passengers...

It's haunting, like she's just been hurt and tossed aside. I know there are a multitude of homeless people, all with needs (if she even is homeless, they seem to just make that presumption) and perhaps I shouldn't differentiate, but wow. Those eyes are going to stay with me for a while.

I hope she finds her way home.
posted by unbearablylight at 6:25 PM on January 17, 2014


Oh, my bad, reading the ridiculous layout of the piece on an ipad and the video didn't load. Hopefully they did manage to help her out a bit more.
posted by unbearablylight at 6:30 PM on January 17, 2014


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