The Metropolitan Street Railroad was an early streetcar company in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
.
The horsecar line was organized in 1882 by
Lemuel Grant
Lemuel Pratt Grant (1817–1893) was an American engineer and businessman. He was Atlanta's quintessential railroad man as well as a major landowner and civic leader. In railroads he served as a laborer, chief engineer, speculator and executi ...
,
Jesse W. Rankin,
William L. Abbott,
William A. Haygood, and
Jacob Haas. The goal was to serve the southeast side of town. It operated two lines:
* Pryor Street Line – south from
Union Station
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
on Pryor to Garnett St, to Pulliam St to Clark St, to Washington St, terminating at Crumley Street in the
Washington-Rawson neighborhood, now demolished. Later extended out Washington to Georgia Avenue (the north east corner of today's
Turner Field
Turner Field was a baseball stadium located in Atlanta, Georgia. From 1997 to 2016, it served as the home ballpark to the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB). Originally built as Centennial Olympic Stadium in 1996 to serve as the c ...
) and then east to
Grant Park.
*Park Line – south on Pryor to Hunter St (MLK), to Fraser St to Fair St (Memorial Dr), thence east past
Oakland Cemetery to the newly laid out Park Ave then south to Grant Park.
The original company did not do well financially and was sold in 1888 to Aaron Haas and W.H. Patterson. They laid new rail along all routes and began running dummies (steam driven engines). Their stables and car-house were on the southeast corner of Fair (now Memorial) and Park Ave, the current location of the Oakland Park loft
After passing through receivership, all was purchased by the
Atlanta Consolidated Street Railway in 1892.
References
''Atlanta and Environs: A Chronicle of Its People and Events, 1880s-1930s'' by Franklin M. Garrett
See also
*
Timeline of mass transit in Atlanta
Timeline of mass transit in Atlanta:
*1871 Richard Peters and George Adair run the first streetcars on the Atlanta Street Railway Company
*1872 West End & Atlanta Street Railroad Company formed
*1878 Adair sells out to Peters
*1879 Gate City ...
{{Atlanta history
History of Atlanta
Defunct public transport operators in the United States
Companies based in Atlanta
Railway lines in Atlanta