page_title: Historic ferries of the Atlanta area
section_title: Powers Ferry
hierarchical_section_title: Historic ferries of the Atlanta area / Powers Ferry
caption_attribution_description: English: Powers Ferry Road in Cobb County
context_page_description: Historic ferries operated on rivers around Atlanta, Georgia area, and became namesakes for numerous current-day roads in north Georgia. Most of the ferries date to the early years of European-American settlement in the 1820s and 1830s, when Cherokee and other Native Americans still occupied part of what became Georgia.
  An assortment of privately owned and operated ferries carried travelers and loads across the Chattahoochee River and several other smaller rivers. Ferry operators often set up small trading posts at their ferry landings. They provided much needed service when there were no bridges, and many rivers ran too high to be forded. After the Civil War, the state and cities began to build bridges to replace the ferries. Some of these are counted among the historic bridges of the Atlanta area.
context_section_description: The Powers Ferry (originally spelled Power's Ferry) was another route northwest from Atlanta, upstream from Pace's Ferry. It is named for James Power (1790–1870),a plantation owner, who established this Chattahoochee River ferry in 1835, before Atlanta was founded. The ferry remained in service for nearly 70 years, until a bridge was built in 1903. Union Army soldiers used the ferry crossing in 1864, during the Atlanta Campaign of the Civil War.
  The exact location of the ferry is now the northeastern-most crossing of Interstate 285 over the river; and it is the Fulton-Cobb county line (now the Sandy Springs city limit). The interstate carryies several lanes of traffic in each direction (it had two each way when it opened in 1969). A Powers Island is in the river, now designated as a hiking area associated with the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Presumably, James Power's ferry was located in the vicinity of this island.
  The perimeter highway (I-285) is flanked on its north side by Interstate North Parkway (west) / Riveredge Parkway (east), and on its south side by the ferry's namesake road, each carrying two lanes (one in each direction). Powers Ferry Road runs through Cobb and Fulton counties, terminating at both ends at two different streets named Roswell Road (SR 120 and SR 9, respectively).
  The business district just east of the crossing is called Powers Ferry Landing, located where Northside Drive crosses the road, just east of the former landing. This provides freeway access at Northside Drive (west ramps) and New Northside Drive (east ramps, road and ramps built in a 1990s reconstruction). Signage on the freeway indicates Powers Ferry Road, Northside Drive, and New Northside Drive.
caption: Powers Ferry Road
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