Chattanooga: the train that became a song

Made famous worldwide by a 1940s swing song, Chattanooga preserves the historic railroad station transformed today into a hotel.

The center, grown around the station made famous by the song Chattanooga Choo Choo, is comfortably explored on foot.

The Chattanooga Choo Choo, a former 1909 railway station made famous by Glenn Miller's eponymous song, is today a hotel complex with vintage railway cars converted into guest rooms.

Just steps away, the Tennessee Aquarium, among the world's largest freshwater aquariums, opens directly onto the Tennessee River.

Crossing the Walnut Street Bridge, one of the world's longest pedestrian bridges, offers views of the river winding through the city among the southern Appalachian hills.

As evening falls, a funicular ride up Lookout Mountain, among the world's steepest, reaches a vantage point from which, according to local tradition, seven different states are visible.

Glenn Miller's song 'Chattanooga Choo Choo' became the first record in history to receive a gold disc for sales in 1942, making the city's name famous far beyond Tennessee's borders.

The view of the 'seven states' from Lookout Mountain's summit depends on atmospheric haze—on the clearest days you can distinguish several, but rarely all seven at once.