Sign from Union Station, the now-demolished Atlanta train station on Forsyth Street, circa 1930. Gift of Doug Alexander
It’s no surprise that the world’s busiest airport can be found in ATL, a city that’s been obsessed with transportation since the outset. Atlanta’s location was marked in 1837 as the spot where the Western & Atlantic Railroad terminated—or began. The site earned the nickname Terminus because of its location at the end of the rail line. A few years later, it was officially named Marthasville after a former governor’s daughter, Martha Lumpkin. We became Atlanta in December 1845.
By the close of the 1850s, there were four major rail lines serving the city and linking the Southeast—Western & Atlantic, the Georgia Railroad, Macon & Western, and Atlanta & West Point. The passenger depot, considered the largest and finest in the South, sat in the very heart of the city, actually straddling the community’s public space. The volume of comings and goings through the depot led Atlanta to be known as the Gate City of the South, meaning everything had to pass through Atlanta.
Following the destruction of the Civil War, the city quickly rebuilt its rail capabilities, maintaining its role as a transportation hub. By 1871, a new train station opened on the site of the original 1853 depot. That first depot had been demolished in November 1864 by the U.S. Army as it prepared to leave Atlanta on the March to the Sea. The city’s first two depots were named Union Station. A third was constructed in 1930, but at a new location, on the Forsyth Street viaduct overlooking the downtown rail lines. (The previous 1871 Union Station was torn down not long after the new station opened.)
The new Union Station served the Georgia Railroad, Atlantic Coast Line, and Louisville & Nashville.
The structure was designed and built by McDonald & Company of Atlanta. A few blocks north, the city’s Terminal Station built in 1905 served Southern Railway, Seaboard Air Line, and Central of Georgia. With the growth of the interstate highway system, passenger service to Union Station was discontinued in 1971 and the station closed. It was razed the following year.
During its heyday, this sign helped passengers navigate the bustling station on Forsyth Street. Learn more about Atlanta’s origins as a railroad city in our exhibition, Locomotion: Railroads and the Making of Atlanta.