The name Chattanooga comes from a Creek word, meaning "rock rising to a point"; six miles from downtown is the rock itself, the 2215ft Lookout Mountain . To reach the top, you can either drive the whole way along a complicated, poorly signed road or catch the world's steepest incline railway , which grinds its tentative way up through a narrow gash in the lush forest from 3917 St Elmo Ave near the foot of the mountain (on bus route #15), tackling nerve-racking gradients of up to 72.7 percent (daily: summer 8.30am-8.50pm; rest of year 9am-5.50pm; 3 trips per hour; $9; tel 423/821-4224). Once there, a steep five-minute walk through Point Park brings you to Point Lookout , the northern promontory of the mountain, which commands a not-to-be-missed view of the city and the meandering Tennessee River. This is part of the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park , covering several sites around the city and in nearby Chickamauga, Georgia, that witnessed fierce fighting in the fall of 1863. The battle here that November, in which Confederate forces which had been besieging Chattanooga were finally forced to withdraw, was also known as the "Battle Above the Clouds"; thick mantles of fog often obscure the city below to this day. Among the many memorials in Point Park is the only statue in the country to show Union and Confederate soldiers shaking hands.

Lookout Mountain

• Lookout Mountain

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