High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The second USS Atlanta was a protected cruiser and one of the first steel warships of the "New Navy" of the 1880s. Atlanta was laid down on 8 November 1883 at Chester, Pennsylvania by John Roach & Sons; launched on 9 October 1884; sponsored by Miss Jessie Lincoln, the daughter of Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln and granddaughter of President Abraham Lincoln; and commissioned at the New York Navy Yard on 19 July 1886, Capt. Francis M. Bunce in command.