Flashback Photos: Atlanta Crossroads, the city’s intersections, 1910-1999

Flashback Photos

Flashback Photos: Atlanta Crossroads, the city’s intersections, 1910-1999

Atlanta's roads have always been its lifeline. Long before there was MARTA, the city's streets were the only way to get from one place to another. Let's look at some of the city's most famous - or infamous - crossroads.

The Heart of Atlanta: This is the Five Points intersection of Peachtree and Marietta streets in 1937.

Peachtree Industrial Boulevard at I-285 on Oct. 20, 1992. Ga. DOT shut down one lane of the congested thoroughfare in each direction just before evening rush hour in order to work on the widening of I-285.

Traffic jams at the intersection of Ashford Dunwoody Road and I-285 in 1999. Perimeter Mall is in the background at the top of the photo.

U.S. 78 in Snellville looking west near its intersection with Ga. 124 showing traffic and strip development. Shot Thursday morning, September 18, 1996. (KIMBERLY SMITH/AJC staff)

A view of Five Points in downtown in 1952.

Peachtree Industrial Blvd at intersection with I-285 on Oct. 20, 1992. Peachtree Industrial Boulevard will lose one lane for the I-285 widening project.

Intersection of Peachtree and 14th Streets in Midtown Atlanta at Colony Square in 1991.

Work continues in June 1996 on the General Motors 'Century of Motion' tent at the corner of Techwood and Marietta streets across from CNN Center. The 15,000 square-foot tent is on a third of an acre in Centennial Olympic Park. (AJC Photo/Phil Skinner)

8th Street at the intersection of Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta on June 10, 1977.

A 1936 photo showing Highland Avenue approaching Virginia Avenue intersection. (Photo courtesy of John Milledge Jr.)

On April 12, 1954, Patrolman S.G. Peeples talks to a motorist whose transmission locked all wheels of the vehicle in the center of Peachtree and Ellis Streets intersection. (Bill Warren/AJC staff)

1940s-era photo showing the Five Points intersection of Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta. The trolley cars were permanently removed in 1949. The Olympia Building still stands on the left corner (foreground), while Underground Atlanta begins at the top of the photo.

Car trapped in intersection at Marietta and Broad streets on Jan. 2, 1953.

Intersection of Peachtree and Cain (now Andrew Young International Boulevard) streets in the early 1920s. The Masonic Temple, foreground, right, was demolished in the mid-1920s.

A parade was held for the winner of the "Good Roads Tour" race between Atlanta and New York sponsored by the Atlanta Journal and the New York Herald in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. Scene looks south on Peachtree Street with Forsyth Street intersecting on the right. The race started at Herald Square in New York in 1909. In 1910, the race was reversed and went from Atlanta to New York.

Traffic on Piedmont Avenue near the intersection of Monroe Drive probably in the late 1940s or early 1950s.

In this aerial view of the junction of Spring and Peachtree Streets you can see the Gothic tower of the Peachtree Christian Church (left, center), the dome of the Jewish Temple (left), a group of apartment houses and (right) the turreted roof of Rhodes Memorial Hall. (Undated, but probably 1930s)

A view of Broad Street looking toward Peachtree Street in April 1967.

Looking up Peachtree Street at the Candler Building from Broad Street in May 1976.

Birds-eye view of an early 20th century street scene at the corner of Peachtree and Broad Streets in downtown Atlanta.

The intersection of Ponce de Leon Avenue and Briarcliff Road in 1998.

Peachtree Street with Coca Cola sign in front of the Candler Building at the intersection with Forsyth Street in the 1940s.

This is the corner of Piedmont and Sidney Marcus Boulevard north of the Lindbergh MARTA Station in 1999.

In 1980, the intersection of old Whitehall Street (now Peachtree Street) and Alabama St. Building on the left is the old Connally Building.

Street scene from early in the 20th century on Broad Street at the Marietta Street intersection, looking north. The Exchange Hotel (on left) is on the corner of Broad Street.

Cars turn onto Buford Highway as the camera looks south at Jimmy Carter Boulevard on Sept. 4, 1998, in Norcross.

Five Points, circa 1910. Trolleys, motorized and animal-drawn vehicles and pedestrians all contribute to the traffic scene earlier in the 20th century.

The Ashford Dunwoody/I-285 interchange on Nov. 20, 1998, pre-diverging diamond.

Five Points at Marietta and Peachtree streets looking north at about midnight in April 1992.

Fire hoses and crowds block the intersection of Cain and Spring Streets while firemen battle a blaze in the Masonic Temple on Peachtree Street in September 1950. Scene looks west on Cain Street (now Andrew Young International Boulevard).

Pedestrians outnumber cars in this street scene at Five Points around 1920.

The intersection of Auburn Avenue (left) and Peachtree Street in 1971.

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Credit: AJC staff

The Heart of Atlanta: This is the Five Points intersection of Peachtree and Marietta streets in 1937.

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