Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-12-04
What Railroads Do,
From Harper's Magazine for December.

From Harper's Magazine for December.
y Atlanta, the present metropolis of
Georgia, has had history peculiar for a
southern town Those who have spoken
of the city as the "Chicago Of the South"
appear to have struck not very wide of
The mark. Forty years ago there was
nothing at all here. Maps of the period,
very minute and careful in their topogra-
phy, show no such place. All the wag-
on roads conferred at Decatur, and Mari
eta, and at Canton. Greeks and Chero-
KEGS occupied the whole region, and there
was hardly even crossroads at this
point The turnpike between Georgia
and Tennessee did not pass through it,
and no large river furnished facilities for
navigation, or offered power to move
machinery. How, then, did Atlanta
come to exist at all: and, much more,
how did she succeed, like the goddess
whose name she suggests, in outstripplng
all her older sisters, Augusta. Savannah,
Macon, and the rest? The answer is
found in one word-railways. Atlanta
is a "fiat" town, and was put where she
is by act of Legislature rather than by
the natural course of events. 1t is an in
teresting and exceptional example of
prosperity ensuing from forced condi>
tions, and came about in this wise:
When the experiment ofsteam locmotion
had proved success IN England, and
was being introduced on this side of the
Atlantic, Georgians were quick to per-
oeive that they needed this new 1nven-
ton, and MS early as 1898 charters were
granted to several interior railway COM
panies. It was also seen that the State
required railway communication with
the West and N orthwest, in the shape
of a trunk line, IN the advantages of
which all the interior roads could share.
The Legislature was therefore consulted,
and in 1885 an act was approved author
izing the construction of a railway from
the Tennessee line, near the Tennessee
River, to the southwestern bank of the
Chattahoochee River, Sat a point most
eligible for the running Of branch roads
thence to Athens, Milledgeville, Forsyth,
and Columbus" A survey was made ac-
cordingly, and it was found that at this
point, seven miles east Of the Chattahoo-
chez, spurs of the Blue Ridge intersected
| in such manner that a natural centre
occurred for all the most likely routes of
railway communication then surveyed or
likely to be laid out. Here, then, right
out in the woods, it was resolved to be-
gin the estate" railway north to the
Tennessee line, and the spot naturally
came to be known as "Terminus."
"Cousin John" Thrasher is the original
Oldest inhabitant of Atlanta, because
in 1889 he cana here and built the first
house. Soon after, other families settled
at Terminus, and Mr.. Thrasher opened q
store; but he had little faith IN the fu-
ture of the village, for in 1912 "Cousin
John" sold out, for few hundreds, land
now worth half a million or more, and
departed. Patience fails to recount the
| growth Of the settlement into a village,
and the expansion of the village into the
city which now calls itself metropolis
It seems to have been essentially a pic.
neer town. owing its life wholly to the
railways, augmenting its size as new lines
were opened and the business of the old.
| er roads increased.