This highway follows the divide between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, with waters on the south flowing into the Broad and Savannah rivers to the Atlantic and waters on the north flowing into the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola rivers and the Gulf. This divide was once the boundary between the Cherokee and Creek Nations, and along this ridge ran the Indian War Trail from Cherokee settlements on the Upper Tugalo to what is now Atlanta. A branch of the trail went southeast into the Creek Nation. The trail was the route to “Chopped Oak,” where Indians once cut a gash in an oak tree for each scalp.