Terminal Station was the larger of two principal

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing ...

s in

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ...

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 498,7 ...

, Union Station being the other. Opening in 1905, Terminal Station served Southern Railway, Seaboard Air Line,

Central of Georgia The Central of Georgia Railway started as the Central Rail Road and Canal Company in 1833. As a way to better attract investment capital, the railroad changed its name to Central Rail Road and Banking Company of Georgia. This railroad was cons ...

(including the ''

Nancy Hanks Nancy Hanks Lincoln (February 5, 1784 – October 5, 1818) was the mother of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. Her marriage to Thomas Lincoln also produced a daughter, Sarah, and a son, Thomas Jr. When Nancy and Thomas had been married for j ...

'' to

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

), and the Atlanta and West Point. The

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

was P. Thornton Marye, whose firm also designed the Fox Theater and Capital City Club in downtown Atlanta, as well as the

Birmingham Terminal Station The Birmingham Terminal Station (or simply Birmingham Terminal), completed in 1909, was the principal railway station for Birmingham, Alabama (United States) until the 1950s. It was demolished in 1969, and its loss still serves as a rallying ima ...

. At the station's opening in 1905 the

military band A military band is a group of personnel that performs musical duties for military functions, usually for the armed forces. A typical military band consists mostly of wind and percussion instruments. The conductor of a band commonly bears the ti ...

of the 16th Infantry Regiment played "Down in Dixie" according to a report that appeared in the ''

Atlanta Journal ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the only major daily newspaper in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger between ...

''. On May 21, 1910, a

statue of Samuel Spencer The Samuel Spencer statue is a public monument in Atlanta, Georgia. Dedicated in 1910, the monument was designed by Daniel Chester French, Henry Bacon, and the Piccirilli Brothers and honors Samuel Spencer, a railroad executive who died in 1 ...

, who had served as the first president of Southern Railway, was dedicated at the station, where it would remain until the station's closing. In its 20th century heyday, Terminal Station was used by such well-known trains of the time as the ''

Crescent A crescent shape (, ) is a symbol or emblem used to represent the lunar phase in the first quarter (the "sickle moon"), or by extension a symbol representing the Moon itself. In Hinduism, Lord Shiva is often shown wearing a crescent moon on his ...

'', ''Man 'o War'', ''

'', ''

Ponce de Leon Ponce may refer to: *Ponce (surname) * *Ponce, Puerto Rico, a city in Puerto Rico ** Ponce High School ** Ponce massacre, 1937 * USS ''Ponce'', several ships of the US Navy *Manuel Ponce, a Mexican composer active in the 20th century * British sl ...

'', and '' Silver Comet''. A veritable rail-travel crossroads of the American south-east, it was a critical railroad link between the warm climate of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

and the

Gulf Coast The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coast, coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The list of U.S. states and territories by coastline, coastal states that have a shor ...

, and the rather colder, more densely populated states of the north-east and mid-west. For many residents of the Northeast, Terminal Station was the gateway to the sunshine. The Atlanta Convention Bureau released a postcard in the 1920s that claimed that Terminal Station was served by 86 trains per day. The

train shed A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train car ...

that had originally been built alongside the head house was torn down in 1925. The Southern Railway built an office building next door to the station at 99 Spring Street that is still standing, although the Southern eventually moved their local offices to another building in Atlanta. On 17 May 1938 a five-story Terminal Hotel, that had been built across the street from Terminal Station, burned in a disaster that claimed 27 lives. Atlanta_Terminal_Station_(c

The station head house was renovated in 1947 just after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. After Terminal Station closed in June 1970, Southern continued to operate its ''Southern Crescent'' and ''Piedmont'' passenger trains using the much smaller Peachtree Station, commonly known as Brookwood Station and built as a suburban station, as their only stop in Atlanta. The only other passenger train remaining at that time that had been using Terminal Station, the ''Nancy Hanks,'' used a makeshift ticket office and waiting room in the Southern office building next door. Terminal Station was razed in 1972, and the Richard B. Russell Federal Building, built in 1979, currently occupies the site. The last remains of the station were an interlocking tower and a portion of one of the station platforms retained by the Southern, the former demolished in June, 2018, and the latter demolished November, 2019.

Major trains

*Atlanta & West Point; and Southern Railway **''

'': New York - New Orleans *Central of Georgia Railway **''Man O'War'': Atlanta - Columbus **''

'': Atlanta - Savannah **'' Southland'': Chicago- St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Miami *Seaboard Air Line (Seaboard Coast Line after 1967) **''Cotton Blossom'': New York - Birmingham **''Passenger Mail and Express'': Washington and Portsmouth - Birmingham **'' Silver Comet'': New York and Portsmouth - Birmingham *Southern Railway **''Florida Sunbeam'' (winter only): Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland - Miami **'' Kansas City–Florida Special'': Kansas City - Jacksonville **''New Yorker'': New York - Atlanta **''Peach Queen'': New York - Atlanta, with through sleepers continuing west to Shreveport on the '' Southwestern Limited'' **''

Piedmont Limited The ''Piedmont Limited'' was a named passenger train operated by the Southern Railway in the southern United States. For most of its life it was a New York—New Orleans train, operating over the same route as the more famous '' Crescent Li ...

'': New York - Atlanta **''

'': Cincinnati - Miami and St. Petersburg **'' Royal Palm'': Cincinnati - Jacksonville **'' Southerner'': New York - Birmingham **''Sunnyland'': Atlanta - Birmingham **''Washington-Atlanta-New Orleans Express''

References

Bibliography

External links

* {{Atlanta landmarks Former Southern Railway (U.S.) stations Former railway stations in Georgia (U.S. state) Railway stations in Atlanta Railway stations in Georgia (U.S. state) Union stations in the United States Railway stations in the United States opened in 1905 Railway stations closed in 1970 Seaboard Air Line Railroad stations

Demolished railway stations in the United States Buildings and structures demolished in 1972 Demolished buildings and structures in Atlanta

Major trains

See also

References

Bibliography

External links