A chief engineer identifies the terminus point; a stake is driven into the ground, and, around that marker, the City of Atlanta grows. It’s a pretty neat story. . . except that isn’t exactly how it happened. Nothing, it seems, is ever safe from political intrigue and that would include the founding of the City of Atlanta.
Before construction began on the State-owned Western and Atlantic Railroad, the terminus point, which was the exact point where the W&A rail line would end, was moved about 1,200 feet to the southeast from its original location. Given the size of Atlanta today, that slight adjustment in the placement of the zero-mile marker may not seem like a big deal but, in 1842, the placement of that marker would signify the point around which the City of Atlanta would grow. . . something that might be of interest to someone who owned property in the vicinity of the terminus point.
The reason given for the move had to do with the new site being a better option from an engineering standpoint, easier and more efficient to bring trains in and out of the area, and that may well have been true. It may also have been that the primary motivation for moving the terminus point was based not on engineering but on money. That’s a question we’ll leave for the historians to decide.
Whichever the case, in 1842 the State obtained right-of-way for a new terminus point and the zero-mile marker was relocated. For one of Atlanta’s earliest pioneers, that was the last straw, as you will see in this week’s Stories of Atlanta.
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