Atlanta Georgia

Underground Atlanta

In the antebellum South, cotton was king, and the prosperity of the planters depended on moving that all-important crop from plantation to market. In 1836, the State of Georgia chartered the 138-mile-long Western & Atlantic Railroad, linking Chattanooga to mid-Georgia. To this day, the Zero Milepost still stands next to Underground Atlanta, marking the southern end of that line. As other rail lines built up, a bustling new community emerged at the crossroads, a town which would come to bear the names Terminus, Thrasherville, Marthasville, and finally, Atlanta. On the eve of the Civil War, Atlanta – with a population of 10,000 – had already become the trade and cultural center of the South. Lower Alabama Street, between Peachtree Street and Central Avenue, was the city's center, which was to become Underground Atlanta.

The State of Georgia seceded from the Union in January 1861. The Civil War, bloodiest of American conflicts, raged for four years. Atlanta was the railroad center of the South, and a prime target for Union commanders. General William T. Sherman, known for his scorched-earth tactics, had Atlanta in the crosshairs. Union troops shelled the city’s center in The Battle of Atlanta, on July 22, 1864. A gas lamp damaged in the assault still stands inside Underground Atlanta at Peachtree and Lower Alabama Streets. In “Gone with the Wind”, author Margaret Mitchell writes about the railroad depot, which stood where Underground is now, between Pryor Street and Central Avenue. Scarlett O'Hara and doctors worked frantically over Confederate soldiers inside the depot, which became a triage hospital. General Sherman burned the depot – and nearly everything else in Atlanta – to the ground. One month after the siege began, Atlanta was surrendered to federal troops. A Union camp was established near Underground Atlanta.

After the war, heartbroken yet determined Atlantans sifted through the rubble of their once great city to start anew. Reconstruction efforts zeroed in (again) around the Zero Milepost. Atlanta became a boomtown, and would double its population to 22,000 in just five years. In 1869, engineers with the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot built an impressive three-story head house, state-of-the-art in its time. Called Union Station Depot, a single-story structure still remains to this day, and stands next to Underground Atlanta. It is the oldest building downtown. In the 1870's, a bustling business district emerged nearby. Banks, hotels, saloons, grain wholesalers, law offices, and a whiskey distillery all sprang up near the train station. Packinghouse Row, which comes to life in present-day Underground Atlanta, was on the northern side of Lower Alabama Street between Pryor and Central. In 1887, just one-half block from Union Station, Coca-Cola was first served at Jacob's Pharmacy on Peachtree Street. By 1900, Union Station Depot served 100 trains a day with direct rail service from New York, Cincinnati, Knoxville, Chattanooga, Macon, Augusta and Columbus. By 1910, several iron bridges had been constructed to cross the rail tracks at Union Street. Local architect Haralson Bleckley proposed that new concrete bridges be built to replace the iron bridges. A linear mall at bridge level would connect the concrete viaducts and create a series of public plazas.

As the new century took off, Atlanta began to take on a new look. Following the Chicago School of architecture, multi-story "skyscraper" office buildings cropped-up in the downtown area, and the city became a business and retail center. In the 1920's, construction of concrete "viaducts" elevated the streets of downtown one level above the railroad tracks to facilitate traffic flow. Merchants moved their operations to the second floor, leaving the old storefronts for storage and service. These viaducts would create the unique cityscape that would later become Underground Atlanta.

Atlanta continued to stride forward, attracting new industries and growing as a national transportation hub. In 1943, Plaza Park was constructed on a viaduct built over the railroad gulch. Eventually, that park was replaced by the larger Peachtree Fountains Plaza, which is now a major entrance to Underground Atlanta. In the 1960's, Atlanta rose to international prominence as the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement under the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. After his tragic assassination in 1968, hundreds of thousands of mourners lined the route of his funeral procession from the Ebenezer Baptist Church to Morehouse College, passing over the viaducts that would later become the Underground Atlanta district.

In 1968, the Atlanta Board of Aldermen bestowed historic status onto the five-block area of the original downtown, paving the way for restoration. Surprisingly, after years of neglect, the “city beneath the city” was a diamond in the rough. Original storefronts with ornate marble, granite archways, cast-iron pilasters, decorative brickwork and hand-carved wood posts and panels were still intact. Underground Atlanta opened as a retail and entertainment center in 1969, but had some economic hiccups throughout the following decade. In 1980, the original Underground Atlanta shut its doors. Construction of the MARTA rapid transit line and other factors led to its closing. Still, civic and business leaders succeeded in their bid to place Underground Atlanta on the National Register of Historic Places. And with that Atlantan spirit of determination, city leaders vowed to re-open the area. In 1989, through a joint venture between City of Atlanta and private industry, the New Underground Atlanta opened for business. At a cost of $142 million, it was redesigned to become one of the major projects aimed at preserving and revitalizing Downtown Atlanta. Today, Underground Atlanta offers a complete family experience, with retail shops, special events, unique entertainment offerings, the Old Alabama Eatery food court, and fine restaurants.