By Messenger Staff
Workers from the City of Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management, have (as we all know) been tearing up the streets around Candler Park for months now. This week, at the intersection of Ferguson and McClendon, workers unearthed a cross tie which appears to be part of the old trolley line that once ran through Candler Park. (In the photo above, the broken cross tie can be seen in the center-left.)
One contractor, who asked that his name not be used as he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the City, explained to the Messenger that over the past few months while workers have been excavating McClendon, steel rails and cross ties have been exposed many times. Occasionally, the contractor explained, workers had to cut and remove the steel rails and cut the old cross ties and remove them. But most of the time the workers have been able to work around the old rail lines and have left them in place.
“It’s been a very interesting job,” said the contractor.
You can read more about the history of the trolley line in our neighborhood by visiting the Candler Park Neighborhood Organization’s, A Brief History of the Candler Park Neighborhood.
As the CPNO tells it, the trolley line played an important part in developing the town of Edgewood (incorporated in 1898) and later the suburban community of Candler Park after Edgewood was annexed by the City of Atlanta in 1908. Candler Park featured two streetcar lines, one running down McClendon and the other along Dekalb Avenue. Commercial areas at Oakdale and at Clifton were streetcar stops on these trolley lines.