City and port of Georgia, USA, 29 km/18 mi
from the mouth of the Savannah river;
population (1980) 226,000. Founded 1733,
Savannah was the first city in the USA to be
laid out in geometrically regular blocks. It
exports cotton, and produces cottonseed oil,
fertilizers, and machinery. The Savannah, the
first steam-powered ship to cross the
Atlantic, was built here; most of the 25-day
journey, in 1819, was made under sail. The
first nuclear-powered merchant ship, launched
by the USA 1959, was given the same name.