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A center of historic battles, a southeastern Tennessee city fights again -- this time conquering economic hard times with the help of dreamers, musicians and ... some fish

Tennessee Valley Railroad, the South's largest operating historic railroad

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee (CNN) -- Its name is from a Creek Indian word meaning "rock coming to a point," an apt description for the north end of 83-mile (134-kilometer) long Lookout Mountain, which ends in a jumble of boulders on a steep slope at the Tennessee River's Mocassin Bend. Chattanooga sits on the border of Tennessee and Georgia, not far from the corner where those states meet Alabama.

One of the last battles of the Revolutionary War was fought at Mocassin Bend -- a clash between the British-supporting Cherokee and frontiersmen. Later, Cherokee Chief John Ross and his people began the infamous Trail of Tears from Ross' Landing, now Chattanooga.

During the Civil War, Chattanooga was the site of the famed "Battle Above the Clouds" on Lookout Mountain, although actually the battle's real fighting took place just below the cloud line.

The Union victory there changed the momentum of the Civil War. Confederate forces had pushed the Federals back to Chattanooga from Chickamauga, Georgia -- and held them there with artillery attacks from Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. The Union forces finally broke through in November 1863, and charged up the mountain, pushing the Confederates back into Georgia and clearing the way for Sherman to march to Atlanta, and then to the sea.

In more recent times, the once heavily industrial downtown Chattanooga fell on hard times. But now a magnificent freshwater aquarium is leading a new boost for the city, and downtown is booming again, filled with tourists and Chattanoogans alike who come to Mocassin Bend to enjoy a city's rebirth.

In addition to sitting near the junction of three states, Chattanooga is at the crossroads of several major routes to other Southern cities. The city is 110 miles (177 kilometers) southwest of Knoxville, Tennessee on Interstate 75; 134 miles (216 kilometers) southeast of Nashville, Tennessee at the southern end of Interstate 24; 148 miles (238 kilometers) northeast of Birmingham, Alabama on Interstate 59; and 116 miles (187 kilometers) northwest of Atlanta on Interstate 75.