ATHENS, a city of Georgia, U.S.A., 73m. E. by N. of Atlanta, on a hill overlooking the Oconee river; the county seat of Clarke county. It is on the Bankhead highway and several other na tional automobile routes; has a municipal air port, Epps field; and is served by the Southern, the Seaboard Air Line, the Gaines ville Midland, the Georgia, and the Central of Georgia railways. The population in 1920 was 16,748, of whom 6,595 were negroes; and was 18,192 in 1930 by the Federal census. Athens was founded in 18o1 as the seat of the University of Georgia (chartered 1785) for which the State Legislature had in 1784 set aside 40,000 acres of land. The first department, Franklin college, was opened in 18o1; the college of agriculture and mechanic arts in 1872. In 1867 the Lumpkin law school (incorporated 1859), in 1872 the North Georgia agricultural college at Dahlonega (established 1871), and in 1873 the Georgia medical college at Augusta (founded 1829) became departments of the university. The State normal school at Athens (normal college since 1926) was created in 1891. The school of pharmacy was established in 1903; the summer school (authorized 1897) in 1904; the schools of forestry, commerce, and journalism, in 1906, 1912, and 1915 re spectively. The following institutions elsewhere in the State have been established, under the State Constitution of 1877, as branches or departments of the university : the Georgia school of technology, Atlanta (1885); the Georgia normal and industrial college for girls, now the State college for women, Milledgeville (1889) ; the Georgia industrial college for coloured youth, near Savannah (1890) ; the South Georgia normal school, now the State woman's college, Valdosta (1906) ; the Bowdon State normal college, Bowdon (1919) ; and the South Georgia agri cultural and mechanical college, Tifton (1924).
Athens has an extensive wholesale trade, and is growing in importance as a manufacturing centre. In 1927 there were 3o factories within the city and the value of their output was 423. The leading products are cotton goods, cottonseed oil, hard wood handles, sash, doors, lumber, fertilizer, bed-springs and mattresses, articles of marble and granite, and brick and tile. The city was chartered in 1872.