As we continue our series Autos in the Archives, we take a look at Bay Street, a corridor that can be considered Savannah’s first “main street.” Long before cars and tractor trailers rolled along this busy street, Bay Street was a central corridor for transportation, government, industry, business and social life in Savannah.
These images from the City of Savannah Municipal Archives show the evolution of Bay Street during the 20th century in terms of transportation, but even in one of the earliest images of Savannah from the colonial era, commonly referred to as the 1734 Peter Gordon View of Savannah (from the Library of Congress’ collection), one can see the early start of Bay Street as it supported the development of the Port of Savannah.
Freight offloaded from ships or railcars was hauled by livestock and carts over Savannah’s early streets, and over time Bay Street naturally evolved into a major east-west thoroughfare, in part due to its width and its proximity to the ports and rail yards.
In the 1850s, citizens complained about the dust generated by the “great burden of traffic” passing over the macadam, or crushed gravel, pavement and in the 1870s a new wood block pavement material promised to “do away with the vehicle-destroying and animal-murdering stone pavement” that was then in use on Bay Street, both instances of paving testament to the volume and impact of traffic on the street.
By 1905, Bay Street was paved with asphalt block and brick, another innovation aimed at streamlining traffic flow along the corridor. As Savannah’s new City Hall (completed in 1906) ushered in an era of modernity on Bay Street, streetcars traveled alongside horses and carriages, bicycles, automobiles and pedestrians.
In the 20th century, the volume of vehicle and truck traffic on Bay Street altered the way people interacted with the street, as parking changed from angled spots to parallel parking, and most recently when large stretches of parking were removed to better facilitate the flow of traffic.
City of Savannah Municipal Archives, Archives@savannahga.gov, Discover the Archives: savannahga.gov/MunicipalArchives.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah archives: How automobiles impacted Bay Street development
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