Overview
Atlanta’s third Union Station opened on April 18, 1930, replacing the city’s aging 1871 depot.
Located at the Forsyth Street viaduct, the limestone-and-marble station was built jointly by the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway and the Georgia Railroad as part of a broader railroad modernization project. The facility featured spacious waiting rooms, modern passenger amenities, and one of the South’s largest butterfly train sheds. At its peak, more than twenty trains a day served the station, making it one of the region’s busiest railroad gateways.
The station symbolized Atlanta’s importance as a transportation hub during the height of the passenger-rail era. However, declining rail travel after World War II steadily reduced traffic. Demolition began in August 1971, shortly after Amtrak assumed most intercity passenger service, bringing more than a century of union-station service in downtown Atlanta to an end.
Quick Facts
- Status
- Demolished
- Coordinates
- 33.75480103105818, -84.39213790872965
- Opened or constructed
- 1930
- Closed, demolished or abandoned
- 1971