Macon is not the most significant railroad hub in the country or even Georgia. In the early 1900s, however, it saw nearly 100 daily passenger trains.
In those years, the nation’s railroads dominated and, as was befitting, they flaunted their grandeur by building lavish passenger stations. In the South, virtually all of Macon’s counterparts had new eye-inviting stations. Macon, however, was still served by the 1855 Union Depot, which the local media described as a “ramshackle structure,” and the Southern Railway depot described as a “little dingy smoky structure.”
History changed on Dec. 1, 1916, when Macon Terminal Station opened its doors to an eagerly awaiting populace. A new book by David H. Steinberg, an ardent railroad enthusiast and historian, traces the history of the station and the events that began in 1838, with the entry of Macon’s first railroad line and led to the creation of Macon’s downtown treasure.
Steinberg has written two books for Arcadia Publishing, Chattanooga’s Transportation Heritage and When Atlanta Took the Train. Also, he assisted Justin W. Strickland with compiling his Chattanooga’s Terminal Station book and Ralcon Wagner with his Nashville’s Streetcars and Interurban Railways.
