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Hub AI
Atlanta Beltline AI simulator
(@Atlanta Beltline_simulator)
Hub AI
Atlanta Beltline AI simulator
(@Atlanta Beltline_simulator)
Atlanta Beltline
The Atlanta Beltline is 22-mile (35 km) long multi-use trail on a former railway corridor which encircles the core of Atlanta, Georgia. The Atlanta Beltline is designed to reconnect neighborhoods and communities historically divided and marginalized by infrastructure, improve transportation, add green space, promote redevelopment, create and preserve affordable housing, and showcase arts and culture. The project is in varying stages of development, with several mainline and spur trails complete. Since the passage of the More MARTA sales tax in 2016, construction of the light rail streetcar system is overseen by MARTA in close partnership with Atlanta Beltline, Inc.
The Beltline will be connected to MARTA's first bus rapid transit (BRT) line. The line is currently under construction and is scheduled to be completed in 2025 with revenue service beginning in late 2025. The 5-mile (8.0 km) line will run from downtown Atlanta, through Summerhill, and end at the Beltline. The BRT line named the "MARTA Rapid Summerhill", will utilize new 60-foot (18 m) articulated electric buses.
The name "Beltline" and its development is connected to Atlanta's historical association with railroads. During post-Civil War reconstruction, Atlanta began to industrialize, unlike most of the South. Those new factory and other industrial jobs attracted workers to Atlanta, rapidly increasing the city's population. Since both travelers and industry regularly utilized railroads, the increased demand on the existing railroad infrastructure created the need for additional rail infrastructure. In response, a "belt" of railway was proposed to bypass the busy downtown railway system and alleviate rail congestion.
After roughly 30 years of development, the "belt" of railway around Atlanta was realized. The railway belt was constructed from four separate railway segments, each owned and operated by different railway companies. In chronological order, the four original belt railway lines were:
Perhaps the earliest official reference to an Atlanta "belt line" is an 1888 map of Atlanta produced by the United States Geological Survey which labels a railway segment (likely belonging to the Atlanta and Richmond Air-Line Railway) as the "Belt Line R.R." Still under heavy use today, this railway segment begins near the Westside Provisions area, connects to the Atlanta Amtrak station, and continues northeast paralleling I-85 past Ansley Golf Club. The map notes that this segment meets the Atlanta and Richmond Air-Line Railway line at a point labeled as "Belt Junction".
Though not considered a "belt line" railroad, the Beltline also uses right-of-way from the former Atlantic Coast Line Railroad for the Westside Connector Trail and the northernmost portion of Segment 4 of the Westside Trail.
The idea to turn the rail corridors into a ring of trails and parks originated in a 1991 proposal by the Georgia Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. In 1993, a similar plan was promoted by city planner Alycen Whiddon and adopted Atlanta City Council as part of the city's 15-year Parks, Open Space and Greenway Trails.
In his 1999 master's degree thesis, Georgia Tech architectural student Ryan Gravel, proposed a version of the project that included fixed-rail transit without trail or parks. in 2000, while working for an Atlanta architectural firm, Gravel and two of his colleagues, Mark Arnold and Sarah Edgens, summarized his thesis added in the earlier trails and parks concept, and mailed copies to two dozen influential Atlantans. Cathy Woolard, then a City Council member, was an early supporter. She, Gravel, Arnold, and Edgens spent the next several months promoting the idea of the Beltline to neighborhood groups, and Atlanta business and civic leaders. To advocate for the project, they formed the non-profit Friends of the Belt Line.
Atlanta Beltline
The Atlanta Beltline is 22-mile (35 km) long multi-use trail on a former railway corridor which encircles the core of Atlanta, Georgia. The Atlanta Beltline is designed to reconnect neighborhoods and communities historically divided and marginalized by infrastructure, improve transportation, add green space, promote redevelopment, create and preserve affordable housing, and showcase arts and culture. The project is in varying stages of development, with several mainline and spur trails complete. Since the passage of the More MARTA sales tax in 2016, construction of the light rail streetcar system is overseen by MARTA in close partnership with Atlanta Beltline, Inc.
The Beltline will be connected to MARTA's first bus rapid transit (BRT) line. The line is currently under construction and is scheduled to be completed in 2025 with revenue service beginning in late 2025. The 5-mile (8.0 km) line will run from downtown Atlanta, through Summerhill, and end at the Beltline. The BRT line named the "MARTA Rapid Summerhill", will utilize new 60-foot (18 m) articulated electric buses.
The name "Beltline" and its development is connected to Atlanta's historical association with railroads. During post-Civil War reconstruction, Atlanta began to industrialize, unlike most of the South. Those new factory and other industrial jobs attracted workers to Atlanta, rapidly increasing the city's population. Since both travelers and industry regularly utilized railroads, the increased demand on the existing railroad infrastructure created the need for additional rail infrastructure. In response, a "belt" of railway was proposed to bypass the busy downtown railway system and alleviate rail congestion.
After roughly 30 years of development, the "belt" of railway around Atlanta was realized. The railway belt was constructed from four separate railway segments, each owned and operated by different railway companies. In chronological order, the four original belt railway lines were:
Perhaps the earliest official reference to an Atlanta "belt line" is an 1888 map of Atlanta produced by the United States Geological Survey which labels a railway segment (likely belonging to the Atlanta and Richmond Air-Line Railway) as the "Belt Line R.R." Still under heavy use today, this railway segment begins near the Westside Provisions area, connects to the Atlanta Amtrak station, and continues northeast paralleling I-85 past Ansley Golf Club. The map notes that this segment meets the Atlanta and Richmond Air-Line Railway line at a point labeled as "Belt Junction".
Though not considered a "belt line" railroad, the Beltline also uses right-of-way from the former Atlantic Coast Line Railroad for the Westside Connector Trail and the northernmost portion of Segment 4 of the Westside Trail.
The idea to turn the rail corridors into a ring of trails and parks originated in a 1991 proposal by the Georgia Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. In 1993, a similar plan was promoted by city planner Alycen Whiddon and adopted Atlanta City Council as part of the city's 15-year Parks, Open Space and Greenway Trails.
In his 1999 master's degree thesis, Georgia Tech architectural student Ryan Gravel, proposed a version of the project that included fixed-rail transit without trail or parks. in 2000, while working for an Atlanta architectural firm, Gravel and two of his colleagues, Mark Arnold and Sarah Edgens, summarized his thesis added in the earlier trails and parks concept, and mailed copies to two dozen influential Atlantans. Cathy Woolard, then a City Council member, was an early supporter. She, Gravel, Arnold, and Edgens spent the next several months promoting the idea of the Beltline to neighborhood groups, and Atlanta business and civic leaders. To advocate for the project, they formed the non-profit Friends of the Belt Line.