The history of Atlanta dates back to 1836, when Georgia decided to build a railroad to the U.S. Midwest and a location was chosen to be the line's terminus. The stake marking the founding of "Terminus" was driven into the ground in 1837. In 1839, homes and a store were built there and the settlement grew. Between 1845 and 1854, rail lines arrived from four different directions, and the rapidly growing town quickly became the rail hub for the entire Southern United States. During the American Civil War, Atlanta, as a distribution hub, became the target of a major Union campaign, and in 1864, Union William Sherman's troops set on fire and destroyed the city's assets and buildings, save churches and hospitals. After the war, the population grew rapidly, as did manufacturing, while the city retained its role as a rail hub. Coca-Cola was launched here in 1886 and grew into an Atlanta-based world empire. Electric streetcars arrived in 1889, and the city added new "streetcar suburbs".
Antebellum Atlanta: State Square and the first Union Station
Western & Atlantic Railroad's Zero Mile Post
A slave auction house on Whitehall Street, 1864
Railyards in Atlanta (1932)
Western and Atlantic Railroad
The Western & Atlantic Railroad of the State of Georgia (W&A) is a railroad owned by the State of Georgia and currently leased by CSX, which CSX operates in the Southeastern United States from Atlanta, Georgia, to Chattanooga, Tennessee.
One of the W&A's famous locomotives, The General, on display in the railroad's Union Depot in Chattanooga
CSXT 8029 is waiting for another train at the siding at Tunnel Hill, Georgia, on the Western & Atlantic Sub.
Western & Atlantic RR 25¢ bearer certificate, March, 1862
Battle of Allatoona Pass, 1864, for control of the line