AJC Flashback Photos: Georgia’s (once) scenic highways

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Flashback Photos: Georgia’s (sort of) scenic highways

Well, most of them were technically “scenic” for their time. Today, many are major traffic thoroughfares clogged with traffic. But see how they looked in years past, courtesy of the AJC Photo Archives.

May 19, 2012 - Screven County: This is one of the earliest photos of Georgia Welcome Center in Screven County that opened in 1962. The center is located on highway US 301 across the South Carolina state line. The state's first visitor center built in 1960 has withstood every attempt to kill it, including one earlier this year by Gov. Nathan Deal. Officially, the center attracts an average of about 250 visitors a day, according to logs apparently kept by center staff. JOHNNY CRAWFORD / JCRAWFORD@AJC.COM

KENNESAW, GA. (COBB): This is a 1952 photo taken in Kennesaw, Ga. In the photo, we are looking South on U.S. Highway 41. In the background, on the left, is Kennesaw Mountain. The smaller hump next to Kennesaw Mountain is Little Kennesaw Mountain. Photo by Jerome Drown

March, 1949 - Avondale Estates. English architecture sets style in Avondale business section. Quaint structures lie alongside the Covington Highway. (Journal photo) 1949

The state paved the road to Dahlonega's American Legion Club. The Lumpkin County Commission didn't request project. (Tommy Beatty/AJC staff) 1958

1934 - Covered bridge, one of the few left on main highways. Scene on the Little River near Etonton, Ga.

No truer words were written than these. Highway 41 sign at entrance to Tift County. (1949)

The Dixie Highway near Valdosta, Ga., running between rows of giant live oaks draped with gray Spanish moss.

Dockery Gap, three miles south of Woody's Gap, presents a spectacular panorama of the Blue Ridge Mountain ranges. This spot is about twelve miles northeast of Dahlonega, Ga., and ninety miles north of Atlanta.

Forsyth's Courthouse Square, beside which Route 41 runs at present. At, first, citizens balked at idea of losing their 'through-town' highway. (1957)

Georgia 400: an 8.4 mile stretch will be expanded from two lanes to four lanes in each direction. These cars travel over the new section of Ga. 400 newly opened near Dahlonega. (Bud Skinner/AJC staff) 1981

Through a forest of pine trees, the Pathfiner car heads to Anderson, SC, the first stop on the New York Herald - Atlanta Journal Good Roads Tour.

Highway construction with mules, 'wheelers' and 'snatch teams' was slow business in the 1920s when the Ga. Highway Commission was organized. In 1919 there wasn't a paved road north of Marietta.

550 GALLONS OF MOONSHINE - WAYCROSS, Jan. 3, 1957 - Sheriff J. A. Altman and his deputies dispose of a load of moonshine. The Georgia State Patrol confiscated the illicit liquor when they stopped a truck on the Douglas Highway. The driver, a Florida man, listed as Travis Albert Byrd Jr., was arrested on charges of transporting and possessing non-tax-paid liquor, the patrol said. (Flanders Studio) 1956

Vehicles line the road at Neels Gap in the north Georgia mountains, probably shortly after the opening of the road in 1925.

The Radium Springs Casino was the place to go in southwest Georgia for elegance and fun. Florida-bound tourists traveling the railroad or the Old Dixie Highway stop in Albany for a trip to the renowned restaurants and swimming at Radium Springs. Scene on bridal paths. (COPY) 1930s

Stone Mountain's history and economy are tied to the famous mass of granite.

Where the Hardee's is now: This scene was in 1910 in front of Albert Pate's general store at Scenic Highway and West Main Street in Snellville. Historians are hoping to come upon other old photographs, tucked away perhaps in a dusty trunk. (Special to the AJC) 4/96

Sorghum time in Georgia. Grinding the cane at an old-fashioned mule driven syrup mill on the Dixie Highway near Acworth, Ga.

Strickland Springs, at the corner of Buford Highway and Sugarloaf Parkway, was once quite the destination. At the early part of the last century, it was the site of a 22-room hotel and its mineral waters were considered quite the health tonic. C.R. Milam and his little brother, Joe Steed, explore the springs with their Aunt Rosie Lee in the late '40s.

Neels Gap, Ga showing switchback highway.

TOURIST ATTRACTION - Adel, Dec. 28, 1953 - This neat motel here is among the many springing up in Georgia on US Highway 41 and other major tourist routes. With increased highway constrcution in the state and more tourist traffic, operators of these roadside hostelries are finding business good almost the year 'round. Georgia's tourist court boom began following World War II and has continued steadily. Some of the courts represent investments running into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Interstate highway 85 has arrived, portending much for Newnan. Nov. 1971. (Robert Connell/AJC staff)

Oct. 27, 1950 - Warning sign on the new road on the edge of the town of Morven, Brooks County, Ga. paved by a construction firm headed by a state senator which was paved less than three weeks ago. (1950)

Conflicting signs confuse the southbound motorist - sign war on U.S. 17 near Savannah leaves tourists in a quandry. (Aug. 1956)

Aug. 23, 1971 - U.S. Highway 19 is four-laned through Florida. The people in this area (Thomas County) are trying to get it four-laned through Georgia to Atlanta and the Highway department is said to be studing parts of it for this purpose. (Robert Connell/AJC staff) 1971

1959 - Atlanta, Ga - South Atlanta near the airport - Directional signs to Georgia Ave West, Washington Street, and various US Highways.

ROAD CONDITIONS: On U.S. 11 in northwest Georgia, note the edges of Georgia roads (foreground) with no side lines in contrast with the Tennessee side. (Darrell Thompson/AJC staff) 1950s

1939 - Woody's Gap, as seen from the Appalachian Trail, which crosses the highway at this point. Black Mountain looms beyond the highway.

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