This is a presentation that as you might have guessed will have two tracks.
Remarks
Not long ago, I was writing a story actually about transportation in the Atlanta area. Anybody who’s lived here for any period of time knows that transportation is one of those topics that just never goes away.
Everyone knows Casey Jones; he may be the most famous engineer in railroad history.
‘This town is here for one reason: these train tracks right here.’
This is, I think, really the perfect example of illustrating a city that grew up along the Western & Atlantic Railroad.
I’m going to presume since everybody’s here, we’re all in agreement: This is the best railroad. Right?
When we look at railroad history, we tend to look at railroads like the Western & Atlantic. But there is a great interurban history in this country.
What’s fascinating about researching railroads is often, there is a distinct lack of facts. It sounds funny. What happened, happened, and it should be undeniable. But history has a funny way of obscuring the past.
Smyrna was once a railroad town. We tend not to think about the railroad unless we are sitting at a grade crossing and a train is passing.
I find it interesting that today when people talk about commuter rail or mass transit in metro Atlanta and specifically Cobb County, they often say, “Maybe one day, Cobb County will have a mass transit option.”