Georgia State Routes Former

In the U.S. state of Georgia, Interstate 75 runs north–south along the U.S. Route 41 corridor on the western side of the state, passing through the cities of Valdosta, Macon and Atlanta. It is also designated â€” but not signed â€” as State Route 401. In downtown Atlanta, I-75 joins with Interstate 85 as the Downtown Connector.

Interstate 75 enters Georgia near Valdosta, and it continues northward through the towns of Tifton and Cordele until it reaches the Macon area, where it intersects with Interstate 16 eastbound towards Savannah. For northbound traffic wishing to avoid potential congestion in Macon, Interstate 475 provides a relatively straight bypass west of that city and Interstate 75's route. After Macon it passes the small town of Forsyth. The freeway reaches no major junctions again until in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The first metropolitan freeway met is Interstate 675, then followed by the Atlanta "Perimeter" bypass, Interstate 285. It crosses inside the Perimeter and heads northeast several miles towards the Atlanta city center. Interstate 75 is then duplexed with Interstate 85 due north over the Downtown Connector through the central business district of Atlanta. After the two Interstates split, Interstate 75 makes a beeline northwest, crossing outside the Interstate 285 Perimeter and heading towards the major suburban city of Marietta. This section of Interstate 75 just north of Interstate 285 has 15 through lanes, making it the widest roadway anywhere in the Interstate Highway System. North of Marietta, the final major junction in the Atlanta metropolitan area is the Interstate 575 spur. Interstate 75 then traverses the hilly northwestern Georgia terrain as it travels towards Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The 180-mile section of I-75 from I-475 to Interstate 24 in Chattanooga is one of the longest continuous six-lane freeways in the United States (some segments along this corridor have as many as 16 lanes).

Due to recent widening in south Georgia, the only four-lane section of I-75 in Georgia is bypassed by six-lane I-475; along this route there are at least six lanes from Florida's Turnpike in Wildwood, Florida to I-24 in Chattanooga.

In 1998, The portion of I-75 that runs from the Chattahoochee River northward to the Tennessee state line was named the Larry McDonald Memorial Highway. Larry McDonald, a conservative Democratic representative to Congress was aboard Korean Air Lines Flight 007 when it was shot down by the Soviets on Sept. 1, 1983. He was the only sitting Congressman to be reportedly killed by the Soviets during the Cold War.

Until 2000, the state of Georgia used the sequential interchange numbering system on all of its Interstate Highways. The first exit on each highway would begin with the number "1" and increase numerically with each exit. In 2000, the Georgia Department of Transportation switched to a mileage-based exit system, in which the exit number corresponded to the nearest milepost.

In March 2007, I-75 in Atlanta (the HOV ramp serving Northside Drive) was the site of the 2007 Atlanta I-75 Charter Bus Accident.