Presented by the Buildings Worth Saving
Committee of the Atlanta Preservation Center:

2007 List of Endangered Buildings:

Monroe Railroad Embankment, 1839-1841
Address: Underneath Philips Drive
Owner/Contact: Norfolk-Southern Corp., 404-529-1000
Threat: Neglect of earthen embankment; part is covered with black plastic

In 1839 John Thrasher was hired by the Monroe Railroad, which ran from Macon to Forsyth, to construct an embankment across the low ground where the Monroe Railroad would meet the Western & Atlantic Railroad in what is now downtown Atlanta. In 1954 City Historian Franklin Garrett identified the earthen railroad embankment as “the oldest man-made construction in downtown” in his history of Atlanta, Atlanta and Environs (p. 167). The embankment is visible from the parking deck underneath International Plaza in front of the Georgia Dome.

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