Train Tracks Through Town - Cartersville Downtown Historic District - Cartersville, GA
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 34° 09.921 W 084° 47.733
16S E 703199 N 3782685
The active train tracks are a contributing structure.
Waymark Code: WM10WA9
Location: Georgia, United States
Date Posted: 07/01/2019
Views: 1
County of tracks: Bartow County
Location of tracks: Parallel to Wall St., through Friendship Plaza, Cartersville
Tracks erected by: W&A Railway
Date tracks erected: 1850
" ... Most commercial development is located along three blocks of Main
Street (an arterial thoroughfare), plus two blocks on both sides of the railroad depot, in an area known as the
Public Square. ...
"Historic transportation routes within the district include state highways, city streets, and railroad lines.
Cartersville was established and flourished largely because of a transportation network that has flowed directly
through downtown (photograph 23). From around 1850 to the early 1900s, the rail lines (first the W & A, later two more rail lines) were most important and ran through the middle of downtown.
"The current CSX rail line
runs north-south through the middle of the "square," alongside the historic W & A railroad depot. (The railroad line is a contributing structure, and the plaza next to it is considered a noncontributing site
due to major landscape alterations.) Cartersville was designated as a county seat after the railroad came
through, therefore relegating the courthouse to a less dominant location than the railroad depot.
"The contributing objects are the three monuments
described previously. The one contributing structure is the railroad line." ~ NRHP Nomination Form