Transportation

Long before this territory was settled by white people the ridge along which Atlanta's well-known Peach-tree Street now runs was already worn by an Indian trail leading to a trading post on the banks of the Chattahoochee River. Scattered pioneer families of the early nineteenth century, who settled in the heavily wooded areas north of the present city, were often affrighted by the sight of the bucks racing their horses madly to the post, waving their hands and emitting ear-splitting yells while their black hair whipped in the wind.

During the 1820's the intrepid Methodist circuit riders blazed new trails through the area, and when campgrounds were established near Sandy Springs, Lawrenceville, and Ben Mill, the connecting trails were widened into wagon routes. Afoot, on horseback, and in mule or ox-drawn wagons, the God-fearing pioneers made their way along roads gutted by winter freshets and choked with rotted vegetation.

In 1836 plans were announced for a State railroad to be built through the mountains of north Georgia, the southern terminus to be in this area. Various railroads in the lower part of the State planned to extend their lines to connect with this road, and a stake was driven at the present site of Atlanta to mark the proposed junction of the tracks. The arrival of lumberjacks, wood haulers, and railroad workmen attracted merchants, and soon this place, which was known simply as the terminus, developed into a trading center. Five roads, leading from Decatur, Marietta, McDonough, Whitehall Inn, and The Standing Peachtree, traversed the area, and short branch roads ran from these to the junction. Mrs. Willis Carlisle, who came to the terminus in 1841, says that the town was then a veritable wilderness and that she and her husband followed strange paths in search of a house, only to find the trails winding up at some spring or an uninhabitable shack abandoned by railroad hands. The stagecoach driven by Tom Shivers passed back and forth every other day from Decatur to Marietta, and, says Mrs. Carlisle, "this event was an oasis in the desert of our lives, for it was the only thing that broke the terrible monotony."

Other factors, however, soon broke the monotony more sharply. By 1842 the tracks of the Western & Atlantic Railroad were completed to Marietta and people were eager to see their first tram, but the only engine available was in Madison, Georgia, 65 miles away, and there was no connecting track. Undaunted, the railroad engineers constructed a massive 6-wheeled wagon to which were harnessed 16 mules. This unwieldy juggernaut was pulled and pushed laboriously through uncleared paths all the way to Madison. Fights with farmers occurred on the way, for some rural folk opposed the spread of railroads and did everything possible to obstruct the building of tracks. In Madison the engine and two little "passenger boxes" were hauled aboard the creaking vehicle and the return journey was begun. Families for miles around came in their wagons and accompanied the procession to the terminus where the entire population of the settlement, swelled by visitors from as far away as the north Georgia mountains, had gathered for the occasion. There were no real streets yet; the settlement was "just a wide place in the road." Horses, mules, and oxen were tethered to stakes driven in open ground and wagons were parked in shallow openings of the brush. People climbed fences and trees to view the arrival of the train. Many wild tales had been circulated concerning the "iron horses." Some people believed it was dangerous to stand near the tracks, as it was said that the suction of the passing train would draw one to death beneath the wheels. Others believed that engines squirted scalding water, and it was common knowledge that the boilers were always exploding,

When the locomotive was set upon the tracks it looked harmless enough and the people crowded close... An excursion to Marietta had been planned to celebrate the opening of the new State road, and those invited to make the trial trip formed a gay and excited group as they waited for the train to pull away from the rough plank shed at the terminus. Rebecca Latimer Felton, the first woman Senator in the United States, was only seven when she accompanied her parents on this excursion trip, but she recalled the exciting incident later in her book of memoirs Country Life in Georgia. Of the big ball given in Marietta in honor of the occasion, she said: "The joyful folks danced all night. There were relays of fiddlers to keep the tunes going. I remember I thought I had been awake all the time because the music and the calling of dance figures and the dancers' feet seemed to be going on until daylight in the morning.

After this successful run the people in the vicinity of the terminus awaited with eager anticipation the completion of the State road and the extension of other railroads to connect with the Western & Atlantic tracks. On September 15, 1845, the first through train from Augusta pulled into Atlanta, as the town was now known, over the Georgia Railroad tracks, and the following year the Macon & Western's first train arrived from Monroe.

Despite its growing prominence as a railroad center, few seriously thought the settlement would ever be other than a mere wood station, and no consideration was given to community planning. True, property for a depot had been donated to the State railroad, and this plot, known as State Square, was the block bounded by the present Pryor, Decatur, and Alabama Streets and Central Avenue. Also the adjacent lot to the west was given to the Macon & Western Railroad as a site for its depot. Landowners built wherever they pleased and, as a result, the eroded scars that served as streets radiated from the State Square in haphazard fashion like the warped spokes of a wheel. In 1849, the road which led to Whitehall Inn out near the junction of the Sandtown and Newnan roads (now Gordon and Lee Streets) was straightened and named Whitehall Street. Pryor Street was laid out in the same year and named in honor of Allen Pryor, the surveyor. Alabama Street was at that time little more than a red clay ditch, but it was so named because of its westerly direction and because the early settlers were proud of boasting that some day it would reach clear to Alabama. Business houses had concentrated along Whitehall, Alabama, and Mitchell Streets, thoroughfares that were difficult of passage and dangerous, for newspapers of the day state that they were pitted by great holes, some of which were 15 feet wide and 18 feet deep.

The movement of wagons and carriages through the town was accomplished with difficulty. Heavier vehicles constantly mired down and "going to town" was more a matter of a walk than a ride. Drivers often had to pull their wagons up on the dirt sidewalks to avoid the deeper puddles of the streets, and thus the sidewalks became so rutted that they were hardly distinguishable from the streets. Even those who rode horseback fared little better, for their mounts often stumbled and threw the riders into the mud or red dust. Many storekeepers, in consideration for their customers, laid boardwalks in front of their shops. By the late 1850's several of the sidewalks nearest the railroads were so paved and a few of the streets had been surfaced with a double layer of crushed rock.

The roads leading into town were equally difficult of passage, but, despite transportation obstacles, brisk trade was developing with the surrounding territory. Long wagon trains, heavily laden with produce and sometimes drawn by as many as six mules or oxen, pulled into Atlanta and struggled through the quagmires to the market place on Marietta Street. In 1856 the city purchased 3,000 shares of stockin a company organized to build a bridge over the Chattahoochee River, thus stimulating trade with Cobb County.

A year later connecting lines of the Western & Atlantic Railroad were completed to Memphis, Tennessee, on the northwest and to Charleston, South Carolina, on the east. A group of Atlanta citizens joined the mayor of Memphis and his party when they passed through the city on their way to Charleston to mingle the waters of the Mississippi River with those of the Atlantic Ocean. At the commemorative banquet held in Charleston the group from Atlanta was toasted as coming from "The Gate City," an apt phrase which immediately took hold and did much to advertise Atlanta as the distribution center of the South. In the same year the city bought $100,000 worth of stock in the Georgia Air Line Railroad which was to run to Charlotte, North Carolina. An additional purchase of $100,000 was made the following year. In 1860 the city invested $300,000 in the stock of the Georgia Western Railroad.

At the outbreak of the War between the States Atlanta was the most important railway center in the South, with four major railroads radiating from the city. The Federal forces, realizing that the capture of Atlanta would seriously cripple the entire Confederacy, made it a goal for their drives. Their aim was achieved in 1864 when General Sherman left the city a shambles before marching to the sea.

Returning families could bring but few household furnishings over the virtually impassable roads, which had been rutted by the passage of heavy gun carriages and blasted by shell. Most bridges being destroyed, it was necessary to wade creeks or unharness the horses and walk them across the few remaining bridges. The wagons were then pulled and pushed across the flimsy structures.

Conditions were even worse inside the city, where the wreckage of buildings littered the streets. One member of the family usually ran ahead of the returning wagon, searching for a passage through the debris. One man, O.H. Jones, took advantage of the situation to establish livery stables near the City Hall. With his stock of powerful stallions he took over much of the business of moving the belongings of private families. To the public he rented "rockaways," a type of carriage very popular because its lightness and high narrow wheels rendered it unlikely to get stuck in the mud.

Even several years after the close of the war little had been done toward repairing the highways and streets. Miss Sarah Huff tells in her memoirs of the difficulties travelers experienced in approaching the city over the Marietta Road. Great pits on this road, as on all others, often made it necessary for drivers to lead their horses up onto the dirt sidewalks," much to the chagrin of pedestrians. One ingenious vehicle, known as thè slide, came into usage about this time.

The opposing armies had cleared many paths through the wooded areas surrounding Atlanta, and, through constant usage, these paths became roads. One of the most important was the line of General Joseph E. Johnston's retreat. In 1866, when Atlanta's cattle and mule market had its beginning, cattle were driven afoot from Tennessee and the north Georgia hills along this line. The route today is virtually the same as that followed by US 41.

In 1871 the officials of the five railroads running into the city jointly rebuilt the Union Station on State Square. But the city was growing in all directions and its increase in size made necessary some means of city transportation. Accordingly, the Atlanta Street Railway Company, which had been incorporated in 1866, completed its organization and built the first street railway line in the city, extending from the railroad crossing on Whitehall Street to Camp's Spring in what is now known as the suburb of West End. The early cars, mounted on cast-iron tracks and pulled by two mules, looked not unlike the "Toonerville Trolley" of comic-strip fame. The car barn was on Exchange Place where the Atlanta Theater now stands, and the stables were at the corner of Ivy and Gilmer Streets. The horsecars immediately proved so profitable that a second line began operating out Marietta Street in January 1872. In May of the same year the Decatur Street line to Oakland Cemetery began service. The Peach-tree Street line began running as far as Ponce de Leon Circle in August and, two years later, was extended to Ponce de Leon Springs where the Sears Roebuck store now stands.

By 1880 the Peachtree line had been extended to the present Piedmont Park section, and a new route had been opened out Alabama Street to McDonough Street. During the next two years two new companies, the Gate City Railway and the Metropolitan Street Railway, were organized and lines were put in operation through the eastern part of the city to Ponce de Leon Springs and west to West View Cemetery.

In 1888 two innovations in street transit were introduced by newly formed companies. Early in the year Aaron Haas began the operation of steam cars, popularly known as "dummies" because the steam engines were hidden in the ordinary street car superstructure. Some south side lines were leased from the Metropolitan Street Railway Company and the steam cars, actually small trains, began operating over these routes. The citizens of Atlanta considered these steam cars not only practical conveyances but entertainment vehicles, and a "ride on the dummies" became a most popular form of amusement. Such joy rides, however, were not without hazard; the motor-driven vehicles were capable of much faster speeds than the old horse-drawn cars and the dummies often leapt the tracks.

Only a few months after the introduction of the steam cars, Joel Hurt began operating the first electric cars out Edgewood Avenue to Inman Park. In the same year the famed "nine-mile circle" was established, an electric line running from Peachtree out Houston and Hilliard Streets to Highland and Virginia Avenues and back to town over Boulevard. This new means of transportation became immediately popular and a ride over the nine-mile circle was regarded as the city's prime entertainment feature. Such streetcar tours were even advertised as being soothing to tired and frayed nerves.

But it was actually a noisy era with the rattle of three kinds of streetcars horse, steam, and electric—the shrieking of train whistles, the rumble of heavy wagons, and the clatter of horses' hoofs over the cobblestone pavements. Even so, Miss Sarah Huff recalls with nostalgic longing the merry bells of the horsecars ringing traffic warnings" through the dignified residential districts. Many a noted citizen, such as Joel Chandler Harris, Frank L. Stanton, Jonathan Norcross, and George W. Adair, had their favorite places in the streetcars, and riders who boarded the cars at points up the line tacitly understood that these seats were not to be taken or were to be relinquished if these gentlemen boarded the cars at their accustomed stops.

The decade of the nineties was a period of great expansion in all of Atlanta's transportation facilities. In 1890 two new street railway systems were organized. The Consolidated Street Railway Company, headed by Joel Hurt, took over all existing lines and equipped them for electric cars. The second system was the Atlanta, West End & McPherson Barracks Railway Company. The following year this system changed its name to the Atlanta Traction Company and a new company, the Collins Park and Beltline, was organized. In 1892 still a fourth company, the Atlanta City Railway, was formed. Two years later both the Atlanta Traction Company and the Atlanta City Railway went into receivership and were taken over by the Atlanta Railway Company, which was organized in 1895.

The paving of Atlanta's streets had kept pace in most instances with the extension of the streetcar lines. Crushed rock, Belgian blocks, and cobblestones were the most popular surfaces. Sidewalks were laid with bricks in herring-bone fashion. The work of grade separation had begun in 1891 on a comprehensive scale with the erection of the Forsyth Street viaduct. There followed in rapid succession the building of eight bridges, underpasses, and viaducts.

Several new railroads came into Atlanta during the nineties, and the city became general headquarters for a number of terminal companies. Early in the decade the Southern Railway System had absorbed many of the smaller companies. By the turn of the century the number of railway systems maintaining offices in Atlanta had risen to 44, and more than one third of all the freight entering the State was unloaded in the city. In 1904 the Terminal Station was erected to accommodate the trains of six big railroads.

During the first ten years of the 1900's, ten more grade separation projects were brought to completion and the city had 84 miles of paved streets and 268 miles of brick sidewalks. In 1902 all street railways were consolidated under the name of the Georgia Railway & Electric Company. In 1908 this organization took over the Georgia Power Company, which had been formed two years previously, and became the nucleus of the present company.

Despite this bustling expansion the era was not without its elegance. In his book Chip Off My Shoulder Thomas Stokes describes the flow of traffic past his West End home in the early 1900's. "There was constant activity. The streetcars lumbered along the incline past the house every few minutes and against the Belgian block pavement the horses beat their tattoo, now slow and regular as they pulled a heavy wagon up the incline... now gay and ecstatic... as blooded steeds proudly drew fine equipages, linked two and two. The coachman sat stiff and erect. The plumes of the women waved a feathery trail behind. It was a splendid sight."

"Constant activity" was to take on new meaning, however, and the elegance of leisure was doomed to suffer extinction by the automobile. The first horseless carriage to appear on the city's streets had been purchased in 1897 by J.W. Alexander. The vehicle, known as a loco-steamer, was propelled by a steam motor and was described as being as contrary a critter as was ever endowed with cranks and other complications. Mr. Alexander's most sensational exploit was the attempt of a one-day round-trip to East Point, six miles south of Atlanta. Scoffers prophesied that he would never make it. They were right. About three miles out of town a particularly stubborn red mule disputed the right of way with Mr. Alexander's coughing contraption. The stage of angry glaring was quickly passed and the mule took the offensive with a well-placed kick which decided the encounter by depositing Mr. Alexander and his loco-steamer in a gully.

This triumph of the mule over the machine was but the last spiteful gesture of a defeated era. Shortly after the turn of the century, the automobile, while by no means commonplace, had ceased to be a sensation. One type of motive power followed another in quick succession and, in a very few years, steam-, electric-, and gasoline-powered automobiles were rolling along Atlanta's streets. When it became evident that the horseless carriage was here to stay, Atlanta's variety of street pavings gave way to the smoother and more durable asphalt. This repaving, at first a slow process, was hastened and made more comprehensive by the Florida boom of the 1920's. At that time the State constructed many new highways through Georgia, and Atlanta financed the paving of many thoroughfares through the city lest tourists choose other routes. New streets were cut through several sections of the city to relieve traffic congestion and one major elevated artery, the Spring Street viaduct, was opened.

During this period another medium of transportation arose to compete with the street railway system. This was the distracting fleet of "jitneys" or model-T Fords overloaded with commuters who were willing to put up with a great deal of discomfort to take advantage of the five-cent fare. At one time these jitneys reached a peak of 363 cars. In 1924 they were abolished by a city law which declared them to be an unsafe and unfair means of competition. This left an unrivaled field for the Georgia Power Company which, it is generally conceded, has provided Atlanta with the best street railway service in the country. The company maintains a fleet of feeder, shoppers special, and express busses to supplement the electric streetcars and, in 1940, introduced the modern streamlined trackless trolley.

Interstate bus lines, which started running into Atlanta late in the 1920's and were considered only supplementary to train service, are now a major factor of travel. In 15 years the bus traffic has outgrown three depots, and a fourth station, the largest in the South, has recently been opened. This depot serves more than 200 daily busses operating on the 15 lines which enter the city.

Atlanta's two railway stations, the Union and the Terminal, serve the 15 main lines of 8 major railway systems running 110 passenger trains in and out of the city daily. A third station at Brookwood is maintained by the Southern Railway System for the convenience of north Atlanta residents.

As far back as 1910 Atlanta had an aerial exposition featuring "a whole flock of the new-fangled air machines." City leaders were as quick to recognize the growing importance of air travel as the early settlers had been to grasp the significance of the railroads. Many individuals, having bought their own private planes, urged the establishment of a graded landing field. In 1925 the city leased the Candler race track and converted it into an airport. In 1929 the property was purchased outright and extensive improvements made. Candler Field now ranks third in the Nation's air passenger service and eighth in volume of air mail. It is on the routes of eight major passenger lines, and in 1939 handled 99,800 commercial passengers.

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