Circa 1899

The original Coca-Cola bottling factory was located in Chattanooga, Tennessee opening in 1899 as the world's first franchised Coca-Cola bottling plant.  The first Coca-Cola recipe was invented in Atlanta, Georgia in 1886 and was sold at a fountain, but the Chattanooga facility located at 17 Market Street pioneered the mass bottling and distribution system that made the product a national success.  

The drink, itself, was invented in Atlanta by pharmacist, John Stith Pemberton (1831-1888) in 1886 at his Pemberton Chemical Company and was initially a fountain drink.  His bookkeeper, Frank Robinson, chose the name for the drink and penned it in the flowing script that became the Coca-Cola trademark. Pemberton originally touted his drink as a tonic for most common ailments basing it on cocaine from the cocoa leaf and caffeine-rich extracts of the kola nut.  The cocaine was removed from Coca-Cola's formula in 1903. The city is home to the original formula and is where the Coca-Cola Company was founded, but the first dedicated bottling plant was established in Chattanooga.

In 1899, Chattanooga businessmen, Benjamin Thomas and Joseph Whitehead secured the rights from Asa Griggs Candler (1851-1929) to bottle Coca-Cola across most of the United States.  They opened the first bottling plant in Chattanooga which became the birthplace of the modern Coca-Cola bottling system.  As the business grew, the plant moved to larger locations in Chattanooga before the company's bottling operations eventually expanded across the globe. 

Somebody Knew I Was Coming

Circa 1940

Coca-Cola partnered with McDonald's to sell branded soft drinks in 1955, an exclusive partnership that lasted until 2007, when some locations began selling Pepsi products.  There is still a strong partnership between Coca-Cola and McDonald's, with Coca-Cola maintaining a separate McDonald's division. 

In 1982, the company introduced its low-calorie, sugar-free soft drink, Diet Coke which was originally named Diet Coca-Cola. 

Coca-Cola has continued to reign as the largest beverage company in the world.

Old wooden crates that held glass Coca-Cola bottles still found in an abandoned Coca-Cola plant in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Coca-Cola is the largest beverage manufacturer and distributor in the world, one of the largest corporations in the United States and one of the most successful brands in marketing history.  Its headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia.  The trademark "Coca-Cola" was registered with the U.S. Patent Office in 1893. 

In 1958, this nostalgic Coca-Cola bottle sign was on top of a bottling plant at 13th and York Streets in Tampa,  Florida.  

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