Macon , officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. It lies near the state's geographic center, about southeast of Atlanta—hence the city's nickname, "The Heart of Georgia".
Located near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, Macon had a 2020 population of 157,346. It is the principal city of the Macon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a population of 233,802 in 2020. Macon is also the largest city in the Macon–Warner Robins Combined Statistical Area (CSA), a larger trading area with an estimated 420,693 residents in 2017; the CSA abuts the Atlanta metropolitan area just to the north.
In a 2012 referendum, voters approved the consolidation of the governments of the City of Macon and Bibb County, and Macon became Georgia's fourth-largest city (just after Augusta). The two governments officially merged on January 1, 2014.
Macon is served by three interstate highways: I-16 (connecting the city to Savannah and coastal Georgia), I-75 (connecting the city with Atlanta to the north and Valdosta to the south), and I-475 (a city bypass highway).
The city has several institutions of higher education, as well as numerous museums and tourism sites. The area is served by Middle Georgia Regional Airport and Herbert Smart Downtown Airport.
History
Macon was founded on the site of the Ocmulgee Old Fields, where the Creek Indians lived in the 18th century. Their predecessors, the Mississippian culture, built a powerful chiefdom (950–1100 AD) based on the practice of agriculture. The Mississippian culture constructed earthwork mounds for ceremonial, burial, and religious purposes. The areas along the rivers in the Southeast had been inhabited by indigenous peoples for 13,000 years before Europeans arrived.
Macon developed at the site of Fort Benjamin Hawkins, built in 1809 at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River to protect the community and to establish a trading post with Native Americans. The fort was named in honor of Benjamin Hawkins, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southeast territory south of the Ohio River for more than 20 years. He lived among the Creek and was married to a Creek woman. This was the most inland point of navigation on the river from the Low Country. President Thomas Jefferson forced the Creek to cede their lands east of the Ocmulgee River and ordered the fort built. (Archeological excavations in the 21st century found evidence of two separate fortifications.)
Fort Hawkins guarded the Lower Creek Pathway, an extensive and well-traveled American Indian network later improved by the United States as the Federal Road from Washington, D.C., to the ports of Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, Louisiana. A gathering point of the Creek and U.S. cultures for trading, it was also a center of state militia and federal troops. The fort served as a major military distribution point during the War of 1812 against Great Britain and also during the Creek War of 1813. Afterward, the fort was used as a trading post for several years and was garrisoned until 1821. It was decommissioned about 1828 and later burned to the ground. A replica of the southeast blockhouse was built in 1938 and still stands today on a hill in east Macon. Part of the fort site was occupied by the Fort Hawkins Grammar School. In the 21st century, archeological excavations have revealed more of the fort's importance, and stimulated planning for additional reconstruction of this major historical site.
As many Europeans had already begun to move into the area, Fort Hawkins was renamed "Newtown." After the organization of Bibb County in 1822, the city was chartered as the county seat in 1823 and officially named Macon. This was in honor of the North Carolina statesman Nathaniel Macon, because many of the early residents of Georgia hailed from North Carolina. The city planners envisioned "a city within a park" and created a city of spacious streets and parks. They designated for Central City Park, and passed ordinances requiring residents to plant shade trees in their front yards.
The city thrived due to its location on the Ocmulgee River, which enabled shipping to markets. Cotton became the mainstay of Macon's early economy, based on the enslaved labor of African Americans. Macon was in the Black Belt of Georgia, where cotton was the commodity crop. Cotton steamboats, stage coaches, and later, in 1843, a railroad increased marketing opportunities and contributed to the economic prosperity of Macon. In 1836, the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church founded Wesleyan College in Macon. Wesleyan was the first college in the United States chartered to grant degrees to women. In 1855, a referendum was held to determine a capital city for Georgia. Macon came in last with 3,802 votes.
During the American Civil War, Macon served as the official arsenal of the Confederacy manufacturing percussion caps, friction primers, and pressed bullets. Camp Oglethorpe, in Macon, was used first as a prison for captured Union officers and enlisted men. Later it held officers only, up to 2,300 at one time. The camp was evacuated in 1864.
Macon City Hall, which served as the temporary state capitol in 1864, was converted to a hospital for wounded Confederate soldiers. The Union General William Tecumseh Sherman spared Macon on his march to the sea. His troops had sacked the nearby state capital of Milledgeville, and Maconites prepared for an attack. Sherman, however, passed by without entering Macon.
The Macon Telegraph wrote that, of the 23 companies which the city had furnished the Confederacy, only enough men survived and were fit for duty to fill five companies by the end of the war. The human toll was very high.
The city was taken by Union forces during Wilson's Raid on April 20, 1865.
In the twentieth century, Macon grew into a prospering town in Middle Georgia. It began to serve as a transportation hub for the entire state. In 1895, the New York Times dubbed Macon "The Central City," in reference to the city's emergence as a hub for railroad transportation and textile factories. Terminal Station was built in 1916.
In 1994 Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in Florida bringing of rain, which resulted in major flooding in Georgia. Macon was one of the cities to suffer the worst flooding.
On May 11, 2008, an EF2 tornado touched down in nearby Lizella. The tornado then moved northeast to the southern shore of Lake Tobesofkee then continued into Macon and lifted near Dry Branch in Twiggs County. The tornado produced sporadic areas of major damage. Widespread straight-line wind damage was also produced along and south of the track of the tornado. The most significant damage was in Macon along Eisenhower Parkway and Pio Nono Avenue where two businesses were destroyed and several others were heavily damaged. Middle Georgia State College was also damaged by the tornado, snapping or uprooting around 50% of the campus trees and doing significant damage to several buildings on campus, with the gymnasium sustaining the worst damage. This tornado varied in intensity from EF0 to EF2 with the EF2 damage and winds up to occurring near the intersection of Eisenhower Parkway and Pio Nono Avenue. Total path length was with a path width of .
Consolidation
On July 31, 2012, voters in Macon (57.8 percent approval) and Bibb County (56.7 percent approval) passed a referendum to merge the governments of the city of Macon and most of unincorporated Bibb County, based on the authorization of House Bill 1171, passed by the Georgia General Assembly earlier in the year; four previous consolidation attempts (in 1933, 1960, 1972, and 1976) had failed.
Under the consolidation, the governments of Macon and Bibb County were replaced with a single mayor and a nine-member countywide commission elected to office by county districts. A portion of Macon that had extended into nearby Jones County was disincorporated from Macon. Robert Reichert was the first mayor of Macon-Bibb after the election in September 2013 and a runoff with C. Jack Ellis in October.
Timeline
1806 - U.S. Fort Hawkins built at present-day site of Creek Indian Ocmulgee Old Fields (future site of Macon).
1821 - Fort Hawkins settlement renamed "Newtown."
1822 - Bibb County created.
1823 - Town of Macon incorporated; named after North Carolina statesman Nathaniel Macon.
1826
Macon Telegraph newspaper begins publication.
First Presbyterian Church founded.
1829 - Newtown becomes part of Macon.
1833 - Steamboat in operation.
1834 - City of Macon incorporated.
1835 - Robert Augustus Beall elected mayor.
1836 - Monroe Railroad Bank built.
1838 - Monroe Railroad (Forsyth-Macon) begins operating.
1839 - Georgia Female College opens.
1840
Rose Hill Cemetery established.
Population: 3,927.
1843 - The Central of Georgia Railway connects Savannah and Macon.
1846 - The Macon and Western Railroad connects Macon and Atlanta; the Small House (residence) built (approximate date).
1848 - Telegraph begins operating.
1851 - Georgia State Fair relocates to Macon.
1860
Belgian Fair and Cotton Planters' Exposition held.
Population: 8,247.
1862 - "Arsenal of the Confederate Government moved to Macon" during the American Civil War.
1864
July 30: Macon besieged by Union forces.
"City Hall made temporary State Capitol of Georgia."
1865 - April 20: Macon occupied by Union forces.
1866 - October 29: Equal Rights and Educational Association of Georgia meeting held in Macon.
1871
Mercer University relocates to Macon from Penfield.
Bibb Manufacturing Company in business.
1874 - Public Library (social library) established.
1876 - Mount de Sales Academy active.
1880
Telephone begins operating.
Population: 12,749.
1884
Macon Daily News begins publication.
Academy of Music built.
1887
April 6: Riverside Cemetery chartered
August 6: Woolfolk family murdered near Macon.
1900 - Price Library (public library) opens.
1906 - Ocmulgee River levee construction begins.
1910 - Population: 40,665.
1917 - Cox Capitol Theatre in business.
1918
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Columbus branch organized (approximate date).
Macon Art Association formed.
Outbreak of Spanish flu.
1919
Washington Memorial Library (public library) established.
Paul Jones was lynched on November 2, 1919, after being accused of attacking a fifty-year-old white woman. He was burned alive.
1921 - Douglass Theatre and Rialto Theatre in business.
1922
WMAZ radio begins broadcasting.
Sherah Israel Synagogue built.
1925 - Macon City Auditorium built.
1929 - Luther Williams Field (stadium) opens.
1933 - Citizens & Southern National Bank building constructed.
1936
Ocmulgee National Monument established.
Farmer's Market built.
1938 - Bibb Theatre in business.
1948 - WIBB radio begins broadcasting.
1949 - Middle Georgia Regional Library headquartered in Macon.
1950 - Population: 70,252.
1952 - Georgia Journal newspaper begins publication.
1953 - WMAZ-TV begins broadcasting.
1955 - "Singer James Brown records his first single 'Please Please Please' at the studio of WIBB" radio in Macon.
1960 - "Stratford Academy founded"
1964 - Middle Georgia Historical Society formed.
1965 - Macon Junior College established.
1966 - U.S. Supreme Court decides Evans v. Newton desegregation-related lawsuit.
1967
December 18: Funeral of musician Otis Redding.
Ronnie Thompson becomes mayor.
1970 - Population: 122,423.
1978 - Middle Georgia Archives organized.
1983
Cherry Blossom Festival begins.
Richard Ray becomes U.S. representative for Georgia's 3rd congressional district.
1993 - Sanford Bishop becomes U.S. representative for Georgia's 2nd congressional district.
1994
July: Flood.
Georgia Sports Hall of Fame relocates to Macon.
1999 - C. Jack Ellis becomes mayor.
2000 - Population: 97,255.
2001 - City website online (approximate date).
2003 - Historic Macon Foundation formed.
2007 - Robert Reichert becomes mayor.
2010 - Population: 91,351.
2012 - Governments of Macon city and Bibb County consolidated.
2015 - Middle Georgia State University active.
Geography
The Ocmulgee River is a major river that runs through the city. Macon is one of Georgia's three major Fall Line Cities, along with Augusta and Columbus. The Fall Line is where the hilly lands of the Piedmont plateau meet the flat terrain of the coastal plain. As such, Macon has a varied landscape of rolling hills on the north side and flat plains on the south. The fall line, where the altitude drops noticeably, causes rivers and creeks in the area to flow rapidly toward the ocean. In the past, Macon and other Fall Line cities had many textile mills powered by the rivers.
Macon is located at (32.834839, −83.651672).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (0.82%) is water.
Macon is approximately above sea level.
Climate
Macon has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa). The normal monthly mean temperature ranges from in January to in July. On average, there are 4.8 days with + highs, 83 days with + highs, and 43 days with a low at or below freezing; the average window for freezing temperatures is November 7 thru March 22, allowing a growing season of 228 days. The city has an average annual precipitation of . Snow is occasional, with about half of the winters receiving trace amounts or no snowfall, averaging ; the snowiest winter was 1972−73 with .
Surrounding cities and towns
Demographics
Macon is the largest principal city of the Macon-Warner Robins-Fort Valley CSA, a Combined Statistical Area that includes the Macon metropolitan area (Bibb, Crawford, Jones, Monroe, and Twiggs counties) and the Warner Robins metropolitan area (Houston, Peach, and Pulaski counties), which had a combined population of 411,898 at the 2010 census.
As of the official 2010 U.S. Census, the population of Macon was 91,351. In the last official census, in 2000, there were 97,255 people, 38,444 households, and 24,219 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,742.8 people per square mile (672.9/km2). There were 44,341 housing units at an average density of 794.6 per square mile (306.8/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 67.94% African American, 28.56% White, 0.02% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.46% from other races, and 0.77% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 2.48% of the population.
There were 38,444 households, out of which 30.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.0% were married couples living together, 25.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.0% were non-families. 31.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.08.
In the city, the population was spread out, with 26.9% under the age of 18, 11.3% from 18 to 24, 27.5% from 25 to 44, 20.0% from 45 to 64, and 14.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 79.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 72.8 males.
Economy
Personal income
According to the 2010 Census, the median household income in the city was $28,366, as compared with the state average of $49,347. The median family income was $37,268. Full-time working males had a median income of $34,163 versus $28,082 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,010. About 24.1% of families and 30.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 43.6% of those under age 18 and 18.4% of those over 65.
Retail
Malls include The Shoppes at River Crossing, Macon Mall, and Eisenhower Crossing. Traditional shopping centers are in the downtown area, and Ingleside Village.
Military
Robins Air Force Base, the largest single-site industrial complex in the state of Georgia, is just 10 miles south of Macon on Highway 247 next to the city of Warner Robins.
The headquarters of the 48th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Georgia Army National Guard is located in Macon.
Arts and culture
Musical heritage
Macon is the birthplace or hometown of musicians Emmett Miller, The Allman Brothers Band, Randy Crawford, Mark Heard, Lucille Hegamin, Otis Redding, Little Richard, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry of R.E.M., as well as more recent artists like violinist Robert McDuffie and country artist Jason Aldean. September Hase, an alternative rock band, was discovered in Macon. Capricorn Records, run by Macon natives Phil Walden and briefly Alan Walden, made the city a hub for Southern rock music in the late 1960s and 1970s. Composer Ben Johnston was born in Macon.
The Macon Symphony Orchestra, a youth symphony, and the Middle Georgia Concert Band perform at the Grand Opera House in downtown Macon.
The Georgia Music Hall of Fame was located in Macon from 1996 to 2011.
Festivals
International Cherry Blossom Festival - a 10-day celebration held every mid-March in Macon
The Mulberry Street Festival - an arts and crafts festival held downtown the last weekend of March
The Juneteenth Freedom Festival - An annual June performing arts and educational celebration of the end of American slavery in 1865, celebrating black freedom and heritage both ancient and contemporary
Pan African Festival - An annual celebration of the African diaspora and culture, held in April
Ocmulgee Indian Celebration - A celebration of the original residents of the land where Macon now sits, this festival is held in September at Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park. Representatives from the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and other nations come to share stories, exhibit Native art, and perform traditional songs and dance.
Skydog is a music festival celebrating the birthday, life, and music of Skydog (Duane Allman) held in November.
The Georgia Music Hall of Fame hosts Georgia Music Week in September.
Macon's annual Bragg Jam festival features an Art and Kids' Festival along the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail and a nighttime Pub Crawl.
Macon Film Festival - an annual celebration of independent films, held the third weekend in July
Points of interest
Historical sites
Terminal Station is a railroad station that was built in 1916, and is located on 5th St. at the end of Cherry St. It was designed by architect Alfred Fellheimer, prominent for his design of Grand Central Terminal in New York City in 1903.
Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park is located near downtown Macon. It preserves some of the largest ancient earthwork mounds in Georgia built by the Mississippian culture a millennium ago, c. 950–1150. It was sacred to the historic Muscogee (Creek Nation) as well. Archeological artifacts reveal 13,000 years of human habitation at the site. The park features a spiral mound, funeral mound, temple mounds, burial mounds, and a reconstructed earth lodge. It is the first Traditional Cultural Property designated by the National Park Service east of the Mississippi River.
Fort Benjamin Hawkins, a major military outpost (1806-1821), was a command headquarters for the U.S. Army and Georgia militia on the boundary between U.S.-held and Native land, as well as a trading post or factory for the Creek Nation. It was a supply depot during U.S. campaigns of the War of 1812 and the Creek and Seminole Wars.
Cannonball House - historic site
Luther Williams Field
Old City Cemetery - one of Macon's oldest cemeteries
Rose Hill Cemetery - cemetery listed on the National Register of Historic Places
Sidney Lanier Cottage - historical home of the poet Sidney Lanier
Temple Beth Israel - The Jewish congregation was founded in 1859, and now occupies a domed Neoclassical facility built in 1902.
Wesleyan College - first chartered women's college in the world
Museums
The Allman Brothers Band Museum - the "Big House" used by the Allman Brothers Band in the early 1970s, now a museum of Allman Brothers history and artifacts
The Georgia Children's Museum - interactive education, located in the downtown Museum District
Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
The Little Richard House and Museum - a museum of Little Richard's history and artifacts
Museum of Arts and Sciences and Planetarium
Tubman Museum of African American Art, History, and Culture - the largest African American museum in the Southeast
Community
City Hall, Georgia's capital for part of the Civil War
Douglass Theatre, named for its founder Charles Henry Douglas. An entrepreneur from a prominent black family, he was an established theatre developer well versed in the vaudeville and entertainment business. The theatre has undergone modern renovations and hosts numerous theatrical events.
The Grand Opera House, where the Macon Symphony Orchestra performs
Hay House - also known as the "Johnston-Felton-Hay House," it has been referred to as the "Palace of the South"
City Auditorium, the world's largest true copper dome
Macon Coliseum
Macon Little Theatre, established in 1934, the area's oldest community theatre, producing seven plays/musicals per season
Waddell Barnes Botanical Gardens
Theatre Macon, in the old Ritz Theatre; they perform around nine shows a year
Sports
Macon is home to the Mercer Bears, who compete at the NCAA Division I level in sports that include soccer (men's and women's), football, baseball, basketball (men's and women's), tennis, and lacrosse. Central Georgia Technical College also competes in men's and women's basketball. Wesleyan College, an all-female school, has teams in basketball, soccer, cross country, tennis, softball, and volleyball.
Former teams
Parks and recreation
The city maintains several parks and community centers.
Ocmulgee Heritage Trail - a green way of parks, plazas, and landmarks along the Ocmulgee River in downtown Macon
Bloomfield Park
East Macon Park
Frank Johnson Recreation Center
Freedom Park
L.H. Williams Community School Center
Memorial Park
North Macon Park
Rosa Jackson
Senior Center
John Drew Smith Tennis Center
Tattnall Square Tennis Center
Gateway Park Otis Redding
Central City Park
Central City Skatepark
Government
Prior to 2013, the city government consisted of a mayor and city council. Robert Reichert was elected the first mayor of the consolidated Macon-Bibb County in October 2013. There are also 9 County Commissioners elected from districts within the county.
On March 15, 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged the former County Manager, Dale M. Walker, with fraud.
Education
Public schools
Bibb County Public School District operates district public schools.
Public high schools include:
Central High School
Howard High School
Northeast Health Science Magnet High School
Rutland High School
Southwest Magnet High School and Law Academy
Westside High School
Georgia Academy for the Blind, operated by the state of Georgia, is a statewide school for blind students.
Also operated by Bibb County Public Schools:
Elam Alexander Academy
Northwoods Academy
Private high schools
Covenant Academy
First Presbyterian Day School
Mount de Sales Academy
Stratford Academy
Tattnall Square Academy
Windsor Academy
State public charter schools
The Academy for Classical Education
Cirrus Academy Charter School
Colleges and universities
Approximately 30,000 college students live in the greater Macon area.
Central Georgia Technical College
Mercer University
Middle Georgia State University
Miller-Motte Technical College - satellite campus
Wesleyan College
Media
Macon has a substantial number of local television and radio stations. It is also served by two local papers.
Newspapers and magazines
The 11th Hour
Gateway Macon (web portal), The Local's Guide for Things To Do in Macon
''Macon Business Journal, a journal chronicling the business community in the Middle Georgia region
Macon Community News, a monthly positive news print newspaper
The Mercer Cluster
The Telegraph, a daily newspaper published in Macon
References in popular culture
The Simpsons
In "Bart on the Road", the Season 7 episode of The Simpsons, character Nelson Muntz suggests the boys take a road trip to Macon. Later he reminds the group that none of their trouble would have happened had they chosen Macon over Knoxville, Tennessee.
Gone with the Wind
In Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind, Aunt Pittypat's coachman, Uncle Peter, protected her when she fled to Macon during Sherman's assault on Atlanta.
Baconsfield Park
U.S. Senator Augustus Bacon, of Georgia, in his 1911 will, devised land in Macon in trust, to be used as a public park for the exclusive benefit of white people. The park, known as Baconsfield, was operated in that manner for many years. In Evans v. Newton, the Supreme Court of the United States held that the park could not continue to be operated on a racially discriminatory basis. The Supreme Court of Georgia thereupon declared “that the sole purpose for which the trust was created has become impossible of accomplishment” and remanded the case to the trial court, which held cy-près doctrine to be inapplicable, since the park's segregated character was an essential and inseparable part of Bacon's plan. The trial court ruled that the trust failed, and that the property reverted to Bacon's heirs. The Supreme Court of Georgia and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed. The 50-acre (20 ha) park was lost and commercially developed.
Telltale's The Walking Dead
The city of Macon is visited in two different The Walking Dead spinoff games by Telltale Games: The Walking Dead: Season One and The Walking Dead: 400 Days.
In Season One, the city is portrayed as a small rural town and is visited by the main characters as they temporarily set up camp in the city. The city is the hometown of the game's main protagonist and the playable character throughout the game, Lee Everett. He and the other survivors barricade themselves inside his family's pharmacy as they are besieged by zombies. After one of the survivors dies, the group heads to a motel on the outskirts of Macon where they set up camp for two more episodes, before eventually deciding to leave the city for Savannah.
In 400 Days, the city is briefly shown in the episode "Vince's Story" as a flashback to when the episode's main character, Vince, fatally shoots an unseen and unnamed resident of the city before fleeing into the night before the apocalypse began. This murder would ultimately lead to Vince's arrest and the events that occurred at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse.
Infrastructure
Hospitals
The American Red Cross of Central Georgia
Central Georgia Rehabilitation Hospital
The Children's Hospital Of Central Georgia
Coliseum Medical Centers
Coliseum Northside Hospital
The Medical Center, Navicent Health (a part of Atrium Health)
Transportation
Airports
Macon Downtown Airport is located near downtown. It has a large number of corporate and private aviation aircraft.
Middle Georgia Regional Airport provides public air service to Macon as well as cargo flights. The airport is situated south of downtown.
Highways
Interstates:
Interstate 14 (proposed)
Interstate 16
Interstate 75
Interstate 475
U.S. Routes:
U.S. Route 23
U.S. Route 41
U.S. Route 80
U.S. Route 129
State Routes:
State Route 11
State Route 19
State Route 22
State Route 49
State Route 74
State Route 87
State Route 87 Connector
State Route 247
State Route 401 (unsigned designation for I-75)
State Route 404 (unsigned designation for I-16)
State Route 408 (unsigned designation for I-475)
State Route 540 (Fall Line Freeway)
Mass transit
The Macon Transit Authority (MTA) is Macon's public-transit system, operating the Public Transit City Bus System throughout Macon-Bibb County. Most commuters in Macon and the surrounding suburbs use private automobiles as their primary transportation. This results in heavy traffic during rush hour and contributes to Macon's air pollution. The MTA has a total of 10 city bus routes and an express bus that serves suburban Warner Robins just south of the city.
Macon Transit Authority has a tourist trolley system. The trolleys have offered tours of the downtown Macon area since 1999. The tours consist of all of the major historical sites such as the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, the Hay House, and the Tubman Museum. There are three trolleys holding up to 39 passengers.
Intercity bus and rail
Greyhound Lines provides intercity bus service.
Macon grew as a center of rail transport after the 1846 opening of the Macon and Western Railroad. Two of the most note-worthy train companies operating through the city were the Central of Georgia Railway and the Southern Railway. The city continued to be served by passenger trains at Terminal Station until 1971. The Frisco Railroad's Kansas City–Florida Special served the city until 1964. The Southern's Royal Palm ran from Cincinnati, through Macon, to Miami, Florida until 1966. (A truncated route served to Valdosta, Georgia until 1970.) The Central of Georgia's Nancy Hanks ran through Macon, from Atlanta to Savannah until 1971.
Since at least 2006 Macon has been included in the proposed Georgia Rail Passenger Program to restore inter-city rail service but as of 2020 Georgia lacks any inter-city passenger rail service other than the federally funded inter-state Amtrak services. In 2022, Amtrak announced a new fifteen year plan to expand its services, which Macon was included in.
Pedestrians and cycling
Heritage Trail
Ocmulgee Heritage Trail
Notable people
Sister cities
Macon has six sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International, Inc. (SCI):
Mâcon, France
Elmina, Ghana
Kurobe, Toyama, Japan
Ulyanovsk, Russia
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Gwacheon, South Korea
