Recent headlines about U.S. Postal Service issues of rates, employment and relevancy prompted the Photo Vault to look back at Atlanta’s role. Anyone who’s familiar with the city’s history knows that its beginning literally started at the end of the line. Originally built as a railroad terminus, Atlanta’s original name, Terminus, describes how important rail was in its growth.
As the United States grew, the need to get mail as well as other forms of information from one end to the other became increasingly important.
The horse-and-rider system was not only dangerous and slow, but was limited in how much could be sent per trip.
In the late 1800s, trains became the preferred mode of transporting parcels, letters, etc.
Decades later, an even faster method grew in prominence.
As early as 1918, mail by airplane had begun. What had taken several days to deliver could be handled in a day. By 1926, international and coast-to-coast mail delivery was primarily done by plane.
On September 15, 1926, Atlanta aviation history was made when the city’s first air mail flight took off. Under a charter to Florida Airways Inc., Contract Air Mail Flight 10 left Candler Field for Macon, Jacksonville, Tampa, Fort Myers and Miami. The service was short-lived because of a lack of mail to be delivered.
A few years later, Atlanta became part of a triangle of service to and from New York and New Orleans.
On May 1, 1928, air mail service again returned to Candler Field. Pitcairn Aviation, the forerunner of Eastern Air Lines, launched Contract Air Mail Route 19, airmail service between Atlanta and New York with New Orleans service beginning the next day.
Beacon lights were installed every ten miles along the route so that pilots could fly at night, allowing the first night airmail service to or from Atlanta.
Atlanta postmaster Edwin K. Large signed some of the letters carried on the first flight of CAM 19. Also, all letters on the first flight received a special cancel, handstamped in purple ink. Leaving Candler Field at 6 p.m., the mail arrived in New York the next morning, where it received a 10:30 am backstamp on the reverse of the envelope.
In 1934 the Roosevelt administration completely overhauled the way the mail service contracts were awarded. It was then that tiny Delta Air Lines, from Monroe, La., won the Atlanta to Charlotte, North Carolina, mail contract.
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