Atlanta sprawls. Its so dauntingly huge that my trip home to the suburbs this break will be thirty-five miles and I'll still be in an area with more jobs than people promoting the construction of skyscrapers in the area. Atlanta is so vast and unplanned that the world outside your daily commute is unknowable. People would be hopelessly lost if they strayed from the highways and tried to make a forty miles trip with roads. Atlanta is so large that it is impossible for fifth ring of suburbs to see the CBD due to the curvature of the earth.
Atlanta is the kind of city where you drive through one skyline, see a lot of trees, then drive through another and another before you finally reach an urban area. It is important to realize, though, that there is a limit to how far people will commute when traffic reaches a certain level. The growth has already started turning in on itself and the city of Atlanta itself had more permits than any County in the metro area (other than the one its in of course). Here is a nice reminder of the city. The photo is credited so I hope this is kosher.
Buckhead (north City of Atlanta) (no this is not the CBD, this is the view from one outer business district to another)
ATLksuGUY
Also, the city of Atlanta has a density of 3,690 people per square mile and a core density of tens of thousands of people per square mile. I know my block is urban and I don't ever leave my little urban area except to visit the family so its not like you can't have the 'urban' lifestyle around here.