Wall Street, looking west toward Kimball House

Jeff Morrison: This photo from the 1930’s, looking west along Upper Wall St. from Central Ave., is an excellent depiction of the elevated viaducts that create the “underground” condition. When bridges were built in 1928 for the streets crossing the railroad tracks, the two parallel streets, Alabama and Wall, were also elevated to connect to them. Subsequent development treated the elevated street level as the main entrance, until it is now difficult to discern, from the sidewalk, where the streets are at grade and where they are elevated.

The open block in the foreground was the site of the Union Depots, also known as the Union Train Sheds (1853-1864 and 1871-193-?). The second open block would be covered with Plaza Park in 1949. That block is now part of the plaza at the entrance to the Underground mall. On the north side of Wall St. is the Kimball House. Visible at the center of the photograph, spanning over the railroad tracks, is the neo-classical Union Station (1930-1972), which operated concurrently with Terminal Station. Both of these twentieth-century stations were built at the upper street level.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page for information on the guided tours Jeff occasionally gives of this area. Google map

Unseen Underground is a unique walking tour of the area known as the Railroad Gulch. This includes the railroad junction that was the very reason for Atlanta's existence, the zero milepost marker at the center of it all, the elevated viaducts that allowed the streets to span over the tracks and created the "underground" condition, and the various railroad stations that are all long since gone. In the process, we explore a surreal network of spaces concealed beneath the city streets. And along the way we learn some fun history about how this area has shaped the growth of our city from the very beginning.

If you're interested, Jeff says you can send him an email and he'll contact you next time he conducts one of these excellent tours. He can be reached at jemorrison @ bellsouth.net (just remove those extra spaces on either side of the "@" symbol).

Photos and information on this page appear courtesy of Jeff Morrison.