"Pardon my paraphrasing", however I'm certain everyone is quite familiar with the lyrics from Glenn Miller's song of the 1940's. During that era, in the Golden Days of the Railroad, Chattanooga, Tennessee was a major center of transportation in the South with its railway lines and, of course, the Tennessee River. It was known as the "Gateway to the South" not only for its transportation system but also for its prominence as an industrial center. However, over the next 30 years, the United States was rapidly changing and, unfortunately, Chattanooga was simply not keeping up the pace.

The year was 1969 and the inaugural year of Earth Day. The United States was awakening to the needs of its environment. It was Walter Cronkite who announced on the evening news that the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) had awarded Chattanooga the title of "The dirtiest city in America". It was well known that drivers, at times, needed to turn on their headlights during the day just to see through the air pollution. The air quality and the polluted Tennessee River were an embarrassment to the citizens of Chattanooga. Its future looked very bleak. It was not until the early 1980's when the citizens became tired of their abysmal reputation. The city's downtown became virtually a ghost town. It was now that concerned citizens inaugurated a plan called Vision 2000.

The plan called for building upon Chattanooga's assets by enhancing and preserving its natural beauty, its fascinating history and its historic treasures. The riverfront would also be developed by the creation of new parks and trails. And, a new momentum of commercialism was necessary to replace the run down and abandoned city sites.

It was a giant task; however, by the year 2000, the vision was rapidly becoming a reality with the building of the world's largest freshwater aquarium and the transformation of the former railway terminal into the Choo-Choo Holiday Inn, not only a large hotel but also a tourist attraction. The all-new Bluff View Art District arose like a phoenix out of the inner city's crumbling sites. Together with Miller Park and Ross's Landing, the entire downtown area had been transformed into pubic plazas for festivals, open-air concerts and other recreational activities. It was a monumental task that required both private and public funding.

A few years earlier, city officials had traveled to Istanbul, Turkey to receive a "Best Practices" award from the United Nations for Chattanooga's environmental accomplishments that included clean air improvements, electric buses, housing renovations and greenway development. This litany alone would be reason enough for anyone to select Chattanooga as a vacation destination. But the citizenry was not satisfied with what it had already accomplished in two decades and continued a modernization program with yet another huge project called the 21st Century Waterfront Plan. This project was completed on May 1st 2005 and established Chattanooga as a modern and beautiful 21st Century American city and returned it to a top spot on a list of America's tourist destinations.

Having personally seen Chattanooga's dedication towards improvement, I highly recommend it as a destination of choice for anyone's family summer vacation plans. And, if you do make that choice, you will find an extension of the Tennessee Aquarium to include a 500,000gallon saltwater aquarium and also an extension of the Hunter Museum that includes the finest collection of American art with outdoor sculpture gardens and sweeping lawns that provide some of the best views of the Tennessee River. For the children, at the entrance of the new riverside expansion, the Creative Discovery Museum gives the young visitors a real connection to the river. Children can navigate model boats on a scale model river, around an island and a waterfall, under a bridge and into a lock. They can act out adventures on the "climb-aboard" riverboat or scale the climbing structure high overhead. This is but a small fraction of the many activities of Chattanooga's interactive children's museum of the new millennium.

Stretching both upriver and down from Ross's Landing and reaching across to the north shore, the 129-acre plan completes the city's $120,000,000 "return to the river" project. I don't believe that since Hernando DeSoto's 1540 Spanish expedition along the Tennessee River in search of gold and silver has there been so much enthusiasm and excitement generated among the Chattanoogans.

Chattanooga Visitor Information: (800) 322-3344, website: http://www.chattanoogafun.com/

Information on attractions not to be missed:

The Chattanooga Choo Choo/Holiday Inn: Have you ever slept in a railway sleeper car? Besides the many standard rooms at the hotel, 48 restored passenger cars have been decorated in Victorian style with the availability of queen and single beds. The Choo Choo is not just a hotel but also a destination in itself. There will be many memories to bring back home after a visit to this restored 1909 railroad terminal.