West Point, Georgia

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West Point is a city in Harris County and Troup County, Georgia. It is part of the Columbus, Georgia-Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 3,382.

Its first name was Franklin (there is now another Franklin, Georgia). The town's current name comes from being near the westernmost point on the Chattahoochee River, where its southwestward flow from the mountains and by Atlanta quickly turns toward the south-southeast to form the state line with Alabama. Lake West Point was created by the Army Corps of Engineers at this point for flood control, just upstream from the town, which flooded when the dam nearly overflowed in late spring of 2003. Excessive thunderstorm rains upstream in the Atlanta metro area the day before, combined with the same situation locally that day, in addition to allegedly poor forecasting of lake levels and inflow, would have exceeded the capacity of the lake and topped the dam had the emergency release not been made. While this avoided an outright dambreak and catastrophic failure, the town flooded more so than any time since the dam had been built. Still, the town was spared a much worse fate, as flooding would have been seriously worse without the dam.

The Atlanta & LaGrange Railroad was renamed the Atlanta & West Point Railroad for the town, and the town of East Point was named so for being at the opposite end of the line near Atlanta.

1 Companies
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 External links

[edit] Companies

CharterBank started in West Point, GA in 1954. It is now the corporate office to 10 branches along I-85. [1].

Kia Motors of South Korea announced on March 12, 2006, that it would build its first North American plant in West Point [2].

[edit] Geography

West Point is located at 32°52′35″N, 85°10′26″W (32.876452, -85.173848)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 11.8 km² (4.6 mi²). 11.5 km² (4.4 mi²) of it is land and 0.3 km² (0.1 mi²) of it (2.86%) is water.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 3,382 people, 1,354 households, and 931 families residing in the city. The population density was 294.8/km² (764.3/mi²). There were 1,515 housing units at an average density of 132.0/km² (342.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 40.60% White, 57.84% African American, 0.03% Native American, 0.89% Asian, 0.15% from other races, and 0.50% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.62% of the population.

There were 1,354 households out of which 28.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.7% were married couples living together, 26.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.2% were non-families. 28.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 3.07.

In the city the population was spread out with 29.4% under the age of 18, 6.4% from 18 to 24, 25.0% from 25 to 44, 23.0% from 45 to 64, and 16.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 82.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $31,886, and the median income for a family was $37,797. Males had a median income of $32,271 versus $22,135 for females. The per capita income for the city was $16,735. About 16.4% of families and 19.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.1% of those under age 18 and 13.0% of those age 65 or over.