Atlanta's historic granite Zero Mile Post turns 180 this year, and it's been on my mind lately because of the City of Atlanta's ever imminent sale of Underground Atlanta to South Carolina developers WRS Real Estate Investments for $34-$35 million dollars (negotiations have extended beyond the December 2016 deadline. I think Bill Torpy has some good points in his January 23rd column). In fact, Atlanta also celebrates the 170th anniversary of its incorporation this year. At its humble start, Atlanta was first known as Thrasherville and Terminus, and the town formed a circle a mile and a half out in all directions from this mile post located near the southern entrance of today’s Underground Atlanta on the basement level next to the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot (between Central Ave., Wall St., and Alabama St.; inside the Georgia Building Authority police headquarters on the first floor of the Central Ave. parking garage adjacent to the southern entrance to Underground Atlanta). The Georgia Railroad Freight Depot is Central Atlanta’s oldest building, built in 1869 to replace the Union Depot which burned down in the 1864 Battle of Atlanta (Union Depot was rebuilt in 1880 only to be destroyed again in 1930). The settlement of Thrasherville was officially incorporated as Marthasville on December 26, 1843, its name was legally changed on December 23, 1845, and it legally became Atlanta on December 29, 1847. In the early days people, especially railroad workers, referred to the area as Terminus, because the Zero Mile Post driven into the ground in 1837 marked the first of 138 mile posts along the Western & Atlantic railroad between Atlanta and Chattanooga and designated the southeastern end of the W& A line. On a recent trip to Underground, the post, once referred to as the "exact center" of Atlanta, was behind closed doors and not readily accessible, but I could still see it through the dusty window panes.
Atlanta’s that rare major city without a port, so there was never a proverbial fertile Tigris-Euphrates delta around which to build its civilization. No river boats or steamships to haul goods, labor, and people in the early days, but where it lacked a port, it had a train depot.…or two, or three, or four. It quickly became a railroad hub built out from that original post driven into the ground in 1837, and in 1866, Atlantans yet again found themselves rebuilding and rebranding their war-ravaged city around it. Except that once perfect circle extending from the very heart of where the city was first staked and surveyed would expand, and even change shape altogether, during Reconstruction to accommodate a population boom and a Greater Atlanta.
The way the master architects of the time rebooted the city around the Zero Mile Post in 1866 reminds me a little of the current multi-million dollar campaign to rebrand and “reNew Atlanta” with the Atlanta Beltline project of repurposing old rail corridors. To be clear, “Where Atlanta Comes Together” is their slogan, not “Where Metro Atlanta Comes Together,” but I've often wondered if the completed project, which promises "to connect 45 intown neighborhoods via a 22-mile loop of multi-use trails, modern streetcar, and parks – all based on railroad corridors that formerly encircled Atlanta," might one day inadvertently create the vibe of a concrete moat around Atlanta which walls out many interdependent neighboring communities. Hopefully the streetcar lines, MARTA routes, and PATH Foundation trails incorporated into the plans will keep it open for all. An interactive map of the completed project showing the "emerald necklace" indeed sort of resembles the "circle" that radiated from the 1837 Zero Mile Post before the city grew out into an even bigger Metro Atlanta. Could this marker actually mark the figurative center of the Beltline?
It's not common knowledge, but the location of the Five Points MARTA station across from Underground Atlanta was once a slave auction house, but there is no marker. Photo: Library of Congress
Today you can catch bus 13 from the Five Points MARTA station to connect with the Atlanta Beltline on Westview Drive in Atlanta's historic West End neighborhood, which turns 150 this year (settled as White Hall in 1835 but renamed West End in 1867). One can also take a bike trail from the Five Points MARTA station from Atlanta to Chattanooga, just like that original W&A train route from the Zero Mile Post to Chattanooga. It's not common knowledge, but the location of the Five Points MARTA station across from Underground Atlanta was once a slave auction house, but there is no marker. At least one blogger speculated a few years ago that Kenny's Alley at Underground Atlanta also figured in local slave trade.
$3.00. A Georgia Railroad freight receipt showing the rate to ship Negroes and dogs: $3.00.
What IS known is that slaves played a substantial role in building the Georgia Railroad (and beyond), and Wachovia Bank, a corporate successor of the Georgia Railroad and Banking Company, apologized for its ties to slavery in 2005. The railroad experience for black Americans in Industrial America, particularly in the South, ran deeper than the early days of slave labor. How should the Atlanta Beltline project factor in the contributions of the often forced labor of the hidden figures who laid down the very rails they are repurposing? Will the improved belt line neighborhoods displace historically black communities that first formed around the railroad for the physical convenience of its first workers? The railroads were central to the lives of African Americans. As far as the sale of Underground Atlanta and the Zero Mile Post are concerned, my hope is that, since they're both on the national register of historic places, a spirit of historic preservation will prevail and in fact be updated accordingly to include Atlanta's first black residents.
