Before Atlanta was called Atlanta, it was known as Terminus. It got that name
around 1840 because it was on the spot where the new Western and Atlantic
Railroad ended. The railroad came from Chattanooga and this was the terminus,
the end of the line. Ever since then trains have played a very important role
in Georgia's history.
*Harmonica*
The railroads made Atlanta. The railroads were just as
important to Atlanta back in those days as the airports are today. In the 19th
century trains were all driven by steam. John Gilbert teaches people about trains
at Big Shanty Museum.
Oh this is where the locomotives operated from. The
engineer sat over here and the fireman sat over there. Now this wasn't like a
fireman that goes and puts out a fire. He was in charge of getting the wood and
taking it and he would open the firebox here and throw in the wood to keep the
steam boiling, to keep the water boiling to generate steam. So he had a lot of
work to do. You're a fireman back in those days had really big arms, tough guys.
The Civil War was known as the first railroad war.
So railroads were vitally important but during the Civil War because these these battles were
fought up and down railroad lines. As the southerners were retreating they would
burn the bridges and pull up the railroad tracks. Now Sherman would march
down to the sea. Again he would rebuild the railroads ahead of him move his men
and supplies down the railroads and then he would tear up the railroad his rear
so no one could come up behind him and he had a really good method for doing
this. He would take the rails and pull them up well lay them on a pile of cross
ties and then heat them to the rails were cherry red and they'd get a couple
of men on each end. They would run and they would wrap those rails around a
tree and those came to be known as Sherman's neckties.
In 1862 a man named
James Andrews and a group of Union soldiers staged a daring raid into North
Georgia. The Great Locomotive chase as it came to be called
was made into a funny silent movie but the raid was deadly serious.
Andrew's Raiders stole an engine called the General. Today the general is in the
Big Shanty Museum in Kennesaw, Georgia.
Now their idea was to take this
locomotive and they were gonna race it to Chattanooga and they were gonna tear
up the tracks and burn the railroad bridges. The conductor of the general who
had lost his train, his train had been stolen, his name was William A Fuller. Now
William A Fuller started after the General on foot, hard as he could run down the tracks.
The conductor found a locomotive called the Texas and the chase was on.
Now one thing about these locomotives, they only get about 33 miles
to a court of wood. So that means that they've got to stop every so often and
they've got to put more wood into the tender and they've also got to take on
water because it's it's it's fire and water that power this locomotive. So the
Texas stayed so close behind the General, they weren't able to take on wood and
water and finally the General just simply ran out of fuel. And the steam was
so exhausted by the time that they ran out of wood that all the men on the
General, they just they pulled the locomotive into reverse and they jumped off the train.
And all of the Union raiders were captured and Andrews and
seven others were hanged by the Confederates but 19 of the men who
participated in the raid, even the ones who were hanged, received the
Congressional Medal of Honor. The first ever issued by Congress.
Unfortunately James J Andrews could not receive the medal because he was a civilian. The
railroads made Atlanta a good place to do business. They connected the city and
the state to the rest of the country. Trains carried cotton out and brought
goods and materials in so the railroads were rebuilt almost as soon as the Civil
War ended.
Steamboats, the rivers were still important in
getting cotton to market but rail could do it cheaper and faster and in many
cases more directly so railroads had become very important. So in the years
after the after war, all efforts were lent toward getting the
railroads back on their feet.
Building the railroads was hard work.
A lot of it was done by groups of
african-american men. These workers laid the track and repaired it. If a train
wrecked or bridge washed out, it was their job to clean up. They often used
tools made by the Gandhi manufacturing company and they sang while they worked.
Some people think that's how they got their name, Gandy dancers.
Singing songs will take your mind off what you're doing. If you think about doing something
that's a toiling, you know hard task all day long, you would probably sing too if you could.
But there was another reason why the Gandy Dancer sang.
The rhythm of the music helped coordinate their movements. Gandy dancers
did heavy dangerous jobs so everyone had to work together.
Because if you don't
synchronize the efforts then if everybody's pulling at or picking up at
different times. No man can lift that rail.
If you imagine maybe three of us trying to move a grand piano, what would we do? We'd say we'd all
get in position right and then we say one two three go, right? Okay that's
essentially what they were doing, what they were making music out of it. They're
making art out of it.
Have the tracks always been this size?
These tracks are four feet eight and a half inches wide.
That's kind of interesting. This is the old the same size as the old Roman chariot wheels.
The distance between the rails is called the gauge but until 1886
the gauge is northern and southern tracks were different. Now, the standard
gauge in the South was five feet between the rails and the northern gauges were
four feet eight and a half inches. In 1886 they decided they want all the
railroads in the United States 1 gauge and in 48 hours, they took every rail and
moved it in just a little bit to make the standard gauge. Did that in two days.
*Train whistle and bells*
On into this century engines continue to get larger and larger. This is the 750
here. This is an example of an engine that was built in 1910 and look how big
these wheels are. These are tremendous wheels and this engine was used for both
freight and passenger service and look the wheels or wheels are tall as I am.
Railroads continued to grow in Georgia. The train routes had fancy names like
Dixie Flyer, Silver Comet, and the Peach Queen.
Passenger service in Atlanta
reached its height in 1914 when 152 passenger train stopped in Atlanta every
single day. That's an average of one train every 10 minutes. From a hundred
and fifty two trains in 1914, Atlanta only has two passenger trains stopping
today; the northbound Crescent and the southbound Present.
Today trains are
still important to Georgia, but their freight trains pulled by diesel engines.
Passenger trains have almost vanished. They've been replaced by cars and
interstate highways and airplanes. The day of the steam locomotive has all but
passed away.
*End Screen Music*