Above the fall line, flatboats and barges moved goods around the state. After the first steamship arrived in 1828, Columbus became a gateway city for cotton. Columbus served as the upstream head of navigation for the Chattahoochee, as did Augusta for the Savannah River and Macon for the Ocmulgee River. At that point they were forced to disembark and reload their cargo on the other side of the falls in order to continue their journeys. These cities became important transportation hubs because traders could only travel upstream until they reached the waterfalls of the fall line. The city of Columbus, for example, was established where the Chattahoochee River crosses the fall line Macon, Milledgeville, and Augusta are similarly located at the crossings of the Ocmulgee, Oconee, and Savannah rivers, respectively. Cities founded along the fall line, called “fall line cities,” are located at the places where these rivers crossed the fall line, marking the upstream limit of travel. Rivers of the Coastal Plain were a major means of commercial transportation during the 1700s and early 1800s. American alligators and sea turtles are found south of the fall line, as are the smallest frog species (little grass frog) and largest snake species (eastern indigo) in the United States. Among amphibians and reptiles, giant salamanders inhabit the Coastal Plain, while numerous woodland salamanders in the Appalachian Mountains give this region the highest salamander diversity in the world. Coastal Plain mammals south of the fall line include the round-tailed muskrat in the swamps marsh rabbits and mink in the tidal marshes and the North Atlantic right whale, the state marine mammal, in offshore waters. To the north of the fall line, the smoky shrew and deer mouse occur only in the Blue Ridge numerous bat species inhabit the caves of the Valley and Ridge and Appalachian Plateau and generalist species like chipmunks and gray foxes occupy the Piedmont. Mammal species vary widely among the regions as well. Agricultural production to the north, in the Piedmont, centered on cotton cultivation in the past but today focuses on such animal products as poultry (including eggs) and beef. The soil to the south of the fall line, in the Upper Coastal Plain, is better suited to peanut and vegetable cultivation. North of the fall line, deciduous hardwood forests, including oaks and hickories, are native to the Piedmont and mountain regions, as are plant communities on granite outcrops. Wiregrass– longleaf pine forests, swamp forests, and tidal marshes form the main landscape features south of the fall line. One significant consequence of these differences is that the fall line separates distinctive plant and animal communities. To the north of the fall line, clay soils and narrower stream valleys are the rule. For example, sandy soils predominate to the south of the fall line, and wide floodplains have developed along many of the streams in this region. The geological differences to the north and south of the fall line give rise to variations in soil types, hydrology ( water cycles), and stream morphology. Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development.
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