Chattanooga Tennessee - Only 30 Minutes from Canyon Ridge
Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in Tennessee. It is located in southeast Tennessee on Chickamauga and Nickajack Lake, which are both part of the Tennessee River, near the border of Georgia, and at the junction of three interstate highways, I-24, I-75, and I-59. The city lies at the transition between the ridge-and-valley portion of the Appalachian Mountains and the Cumberland Plateau, and is surrounded by ridges.

Health Care:
Chattanooga's health care sector has three hospital systems. Erlanger Hospital is the area's primary trauma center. Erlanger has been operated by the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Hospital Authority since 1976. Parkridge Hospital is located east of downtown in the Glenwood District and is run by Tri-Star Healthcare. Tri-Star also operates East Ridge Medical Center in nearby East Ridge. Also located downtown is Memorial Hospital, operated by Catholic Health Initiatives. In 2004, Memorial was named one of the Top 100 teaching hospitals by Solucient Top Hospitals.

Museums:
Chattanooga is the home to the Hunter Museum of American Art, a well known art museum. As birthplace of the tow truck, Chattanooga is now home to the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum, as well as another transportation icon at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum, the largest operating historic railroad in the south. Other notable museums include the Chattanooga Regional History Museum, the National Medal of Honor Museum, the Houston Museum, and the Chattanooga African American Museum.

Tourist Attractions:
Chattanooga touts its many tourist attractions, including the Tennessee Aquarium, caverns, and heavy development along and across the Tennessee River. In the downtown area are the Chattanooga Choo Choo Holiday Inn Hotel that is a renovated train station with the largest HO model train layout in the United States, the Creative Discovery Museum (a hands-on children's museum dedicated to science, art, and music), an IMAX 3D Theatre, and the newly expanded Hunter Museum of American Art. Along the river itself is the Tennessee Riverwalk, a 10-mile handicapped accessible greenway trail. Not far from the downtown area is the Chattanooga Zoo at Warner Park. The red-and-black painted "See Rock City" barns along highways in the Southeast are remnants of a now classic Americana tourism campaign to attract visitors to the Rock City tourist attraction in nearby Lookout Mountain, Georgia. The mountain is also home to Ruby Falls, Craven's House and the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway, a steep funicular railway which rises from historic St. Elmo to the top of the mountain to drop passengers off at the National Park Service's Point Park and The Battles for Chattanooga Museum, a diorama that details the Battle of Chattanooga. From the military park, visitors can enjoy the panoramic views of Moccasin Bend and the Chattanooga skyline from the mountain's famous "point" or from vantage points along the well-designated trail system. Near Chattanooga, the Raccoon Mountain Reservoir, Raccoon Mountain Caverns and Reflection Riding Arboretum and Botanical Garden boast a number of outdoor and family fun opportunities. Other arboretums include Bonny Oaks Arboretum, Cherokee Arboretum at Audubon Acres and Cherokee Trail Arboretum. The Ocoee River, host to a number of events from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, features rafting, kayaking, camping and hiking. The Hiwassee River is one of the top trout streams in the Southeast boasting a 14 mile trophy trout section that anglers know the world over. The Cumberland Trail begins in Signal Mountain, just outside of Chattanooga.

Festivals and Events:
Chattanooga is notable for the Riverbend Festival, an annual week-long music festival held in June in the downtown area that is known for drawing huge crowds from in and around the Tennessee Valley. One of the most popular events of the festival is the Bessie Smith Strut, a one night showcase of blues and jazz music named for the city's most noted blues singer. The annual "Southern Brewer's Festival" and the "River Roast" festival celebrate such traditional Southern staples as beer and barbecue, while new events, such as GoFest!, "Between the Bridges" wakeboard competition and Talespin seek new audiences. The Chattanooga Market features events all year round as part of the Sunday at the Southside calendar of events including an Oktoberfest in mid October has been bringing an eclectic mix of rock, blues, jazz, reggae, zydeco, funk, bluegrass and folk music to downtown Chattanooga for the past 19 years. The Back Row Film Series is a city wide celebration of film co-sponsored by the Hunter Museum of American Art, the Arts & Education Council and UTC.

Outdoor Sports:
Due to its location at the junction of the Cumberland Plateau and the southern Appalachians, Chattanooga has become a haven for outdoor sports such as hunting, fishing, trail running, road running, adventure racing, rock climbing, mountain biking and road biking. The city boasts a number of outdoor clubs: Scenic City Velo, SORBA-Chattanooga, The Wilderness Trail Running Association, and The Chattanooga Track Club. The city also funds Outdoor Chattanooga, an organization focused on promoting outdoor recreation. The city recently hired it’s first-ever bicycle coordinator to promote bicycling for transportation, recreation and active living.

Population:
Chattanooga's Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes Hamilton, Marion, and Sequatchie counties in Tennessee and Catoosa, Dade, and Walker counties in Georgia, had an estimated population of 496,704 in 2006.

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Source - http://www.wikipedia.org - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chattanooga,_Tennessee