River Street In Savannah, Georgia

So we spent a week in the Savannah area.  Savannah, GA sits right on the Savannah River, a major river in the southeastern United States.  The river separates Georgia from South Carolina and made Savannah a strategic port city for the American Revolution and Civil War days to the industrial center and important Atlantic seaport it is today.

Savannah was established in 1733 and served as the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia, one of the southern colonies in British America.  It later became the first state capital of Georgia.

Each year Savannah attracts millions of visitors to it’s historic district, it’s parks and squares and it’s beautiful historical homes and architecture.

We spent our day in the historic River Street.

Lined with old buildings from the 1700’s that were warehouses, mills and factories, they now house quaint shops, art galleries and restaurants.

It is said that the building this restaurant houses is one of the oldest brick and stone buildings in Georgia.  That’s it in the picture above.  It also has it’s original beams and posts inside.  Put it to you this way, the building was more interesting than our meals.

While wandering around River Street we came across this interesting looking pedestrian bridge.  We went up to get a closer look and discovered a whole new area to explore.

The backside of the buildings were just as beautiful.  River Street sits below the main road, by about two stories.  When you walk behind River Street and up to the main road, you see these catwalks that lead up to the buildings backsides.  The area that is created below these catwalks is known as Factors Walk.  It’s called this after a “Factor” which was the name given to a man that estimated the amount of cotton in a shipment.

The Savannah Cotton Exchange.  Built in 1817 only two floors high, this is where the cotton was stored while in port.  In 1853 three more stories were added for more storage and offices for this booming industry.

The cotton exchange was the center of activity for Savannah.  In it’s heyday it moved over 2 million bales of cotton a year.

Savannah also has private docks along River Street.  I only mention this because we looked across the street to the river and all we saw was a huge mast.  Curious, we wandered over to the dock and saw this…

The Hyperion.  Built in 1998 for the Founder of Netscape and Silicon Graphics, it is docked here in Savannah for a month long stay.

The stats alone on this yacht are impressive.  It’s 155 feet long, has a crew of 8 and it has the largest sloop (a sailboat with a single mast) ever built and the mast stands a mere 194 feet tall!  To give you an idea of how huge this was, the mast on this yacht will only clear the Golden Gate Bridge by 30 feet!

It truly is to large to capture in pictures.  So to solve that problem, David threw the quadcopter up in the air to get a better look.

Also on River Street the city has put together this wonderful memorial for the WWII vets.  It was a really neat globe inscribed with all the names of the WWII vets from the area.

David was brave enough to fly in and around the globe from some unique perspective.

He has put together an awesome video of River Street and the area.  Please check it out below.  It truly did turn out well.

As far as Savannah goes, we did enjoy the city.  It was beautiful.  But I think we can both check this off our list and move on.  There are several wildlife reserves in the area, so we’re going to check out the Savannah National Wildlife Reserve next.

Until next time…