A city built around rail
BY Jeanne Bonner • October 5, 2009
David Emory was practically born with rail on his mind.
His father, Bruce Emory, was one of the planners who designed MARTA, and as a toddler, Dave visited MARTA stations as the system opened.
Fast forward to now, and David is a planner at the Atlanta Regional Commission and one of the folks behind a map that shows what our transit system could look like (there are two versions, one released by Citizens for Progressive Transit, in photo below, and another under the guise of Concept 3).
Both maps are awesome! Both are so far from where we are now.
But here’s a little bit of hope. According to David, it’s a misnomer to say Atlanta grew up around the car.
“We expanded the city by building additional streetcar lines,” said David at a talk Thursday at Parish that was sponsored by the Sierra Club and CPT.
He added, “We had quite a railroad culture.”
Of course he’s talking about back before people thought riding or expanding MARTA was a surefire way to catch the Bubonic Plague.
Through an interesting slide show that included the photos here, David provided us with a sense that at one time Atlanta was a rail city.
Sure, we all know Atlanta was once called Terminus because it was the end of the line for one of the early rail routes.
But we may not be thinking every day about how rail was once a thriving industry in our city and a conduit for everyone to get everywhere.
Or how it shaped the city we see today. Literally.
You know why the stately building at the corner of Ponce and Peachtree curves with the street?
Because the building was built to accommodate one of the streetcar lines, which went north up Peachtree and then turned right at Ponce, and started to head east.
Oh shoot I got goosebumps when David said that!
(It’s the building just south of the Georgian Terrace hotel that seems to have been born with scaffolding on it).
Much of the talk was pessimistic. Maybe you’ve seen projections for how much MARTA will cost versus how much money it will take in over the next decade. It ain’t pretty.
But on the other hand, I feel like it’s always possible to revisit things you’ve done before.
You may not be able to replicate, you may have to scale back your vision but if something that once thrived is still alive, it can be vibrant again.
Different, but still vibrant.
You can find the original post from Atlanta Unsheltered with comments here.
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