Atlanta City Planning, 1900-1950 (Primary Source)

One of my primary sources is an image taken of the Railroad Plaza and the viaducts from Central to Broad streets in 1938. This image shows how the construction of the viaducts put the railroad system below the level of the city where cars were becoming a prominent mode of transportation. This image illustrates the many forms of transportation that were available in Atlanta at that time and how the city planning adapted to these modes of transportation. The invention of the automobile allowed for Atlanta's population to disperse into the city's suburbs. Therefore, the downtown area became highly commercialized while residential areas moved to the suburbs. This image depicts the commercialized downtown area. There are tall office buildings and a lot of parked cars but no people on the streets, so one can assume that they are inside the buildings working. There are no visible houses or residential areas, illustrating how the city transformed from centralized housing to decentralized housing in the outsides of city limits.