The town's name comes from being near the westernmost point on the Chattahoochee River, where its southwestward flow from the mountains and by Atlanta quickly turns toward the south-southeast to form the state line with Alabama. Lake West Point was created by the Army Corps of Engineers at this point for flood control, just upstream from the town, which flooded when the dam nearly overflowed in late spring of 2003. Excessive thunderstorm rains upstream in the Atlanta metro area the day before, combined with the same situation locally that day, in addition to allegedly poor forecasting of lake levels and inflow, would have exceeded the capacity of the lake and topped the dam had the emergency release not been made. While this avoided an outright dambreak and catastrophic failure, the town flooded more so than any time since the dam had been built. Still, the town was spared a much worse fate, as flooding would have been seriously worse without the dam.
The Atlanta & LaGrange Railroad was renamed the Atlanta & West Point Railroad for the town, and the town of East Point was named so for being at the opposite end of the line near Atlanta.
Geography
West Point is located at 32°52'35" North, 85°10'26" West (32.876452, -85.173848)1.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 11.8 km² (4.6 mi²). 11.5 km² (4.4 mi²) of it is land and 0.3 km² (0.1 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 2.86% water.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there are 3,382 people, 1,354 households, and 931 families residing in the city. The population density is 294.8/km² (764.3/mi²). There are 1,515 housing units at an average density of 132.0/km² (342.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 40.60% White, 57.84% African American, 0.03% Native American, 0.89% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 0.15% from other races, and 0.50% from two or more races. 0.62% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 1,354 households out of which 28.7% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.7% are married couples living together, 26.5% have a female householder with no husband present, and 31.2% are non-families. 28.7% of all households are made up of individuals and 12.7% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.50 and the average family size is 3.07.
In the city the population is spread out with 29.4% under the age of 18, 6.4% from 18 to 24, 25.0% from 25 to 44, 23.0% from 45 to 64, and 16.2% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 37 years. For every 100 females there are 82.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 75.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $31,886, and the median income for a family is $37,797. Males have a median income of $32,271 versus $22,135 for females. The per capita income for the city is $16,735. 19.9% of the population and 16.4% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total people living in poverty, 25.1% are under the age of 18 and 13.0% are 65 or older.