Pictures of Underground Atlanta
NPS photographs by Jody Cook
After the devastation of Atlanta during the Civil War, the city
began to rebuild itself around the railroad tracks that brought
goods and people to the city. However, by the 1920s, Atlanta had
a growing traffic problem. A series of viaducts was built to bridge
the railroad tracks and relieve congestion in the downtown area.
The viaducts illustrate a dramatic early 20th-century chapter in
local transportation and were part of a largely unrealized City
Beautiful plan to fashion a Beaux Arts civic center above the railroad.
Atlanta continued to grow above these viaducts--and above the original
street level of the center city. The ground floors of these buildings,
essentially sealed off by the viaducts, reflect the typical architecture
of this period. Those that front Alabama, Pryor and Peachtree streets
remain the most intact examples.
Above ground buildings of Underground
NPS photograph by Jody Cook
These post-bellum business blocks were abandoned for decades, but
were rediscovered and redeveloped as a shopping and entertainment
district called Underground Atlanta in the late 1960s and early
1970s. Today they remain a distinct, urban environment. The storefronts
along the north side of Alabama Street are the surviving lower portions
of buildings that were demolished to make way for the MARTA rapid-rail
line. Most of the storefronts in Underground Atlanta date from the
late 19th and early 20th centuries, and are generally Victorian
in style. Within the district is also the Zero
Mile Post, which marked the beginning point of the State-built
railroad line that fostered the development of the city.
Underground Atlanta, a shopping and entertainment district,
is open to the public during normal business hours. For further
information visit their website.