Peachtree Center (MARTA station)

Peachtree Center
MARTA rapid transit station
Station statistics
Address 216 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30303
Lines
  Red Line
  Gold Line
Connections CCT, GCT, GRTA
Structure Underground
Platforms 1 island platform
Tracks 2
Parking None
Bicycle facilities 5 bike racks
Other information
Opened September 11, 1982
Accessible
Code N1
Breeze Card Yes
Traffic
Passengers (2007) 7,900 (daily)[1]  0%
Services
Preceding station   MARTA   Following station
toward Airport
 Red Line
Gold Line
toward Doraville

Peachtree Center station is an underground Train station on the Red and Gold lines of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) rail system. It is the deepest station in the MARTA rail system, at 120 feet (37 m) below Peachtree Street. It serves the Peachtree Center area of downtown Atlanta, and is the first station north-northeast of the rail system hub at Five Points. This is one of the busiest stations on the Red/Gold Lines handling over 15,000 people per weekday. The East entrance of this station is located in the lobby of the Peachtree Center Mmall, and in the West entrance a United States Post Office is present, the closest proximity of any United States Post Office in the system.

It provides access to the Peachtree Center Business and Dining District, HardRock Cafe, The Westin Peacthree Plaza Hotel, Downtown Atlanta Hotel District,SAE Institute, Rialto Center for the Performing Arts, Atlanta-Fulton County Library, The Georgia Aquarium, World of Coca-Cola and Woodruff Park. It provides connecting bus service to the city of Atlanta's Main attractions and destinations along Peachtree Street (110-The Peach) such as: The Center for the Arts in Midtown, Buckhead, Emory University Hospital Midtown ( Formerly Crawford-Long), Piedmont Hospital, The Main Amtrak Station and Underground Atlanta. As well as GRTA Xpress Service to metro Atlanta, Cobb express bus service and Gwinnett Transit express bus.

The station has an island platform serving two tracks. The floor is made of gray tile, the "walls" are made of solid gneiss rock, and the ceiling panels are made of steel. Four escalator banks are used to access the station, with the Carnegie Way/Ellis Street (southwest) entrance having the longest escalators in the system, which MARTA claims are also the longest in the Southeast U.S.[1]. The Harris Street (northwest) entrance has a map of the MARTA system with proposed lines on it. The station was featured in the 1985 movie The Heavenly Kid.

Contents

Nearby landmarks and popular destinations

Station Entrance

Bus routes

Connection to other transit systems

Construction

Although the operation of the North Line began between the Garnett and North Avenue stations on December 4, 1981, the Peachtree Center station between them did not open until September 11, 1982. A poster dating to 1982 on the station platform describes how the station was built. The poster reads:

MARTA's moving Atlanta, 120 feet below Peachtree Street.
The Peachtree Center station was built by tunneling through solid gneiss, a grainitelike rock formed of layers of quartz and mica. This rock provides underground support for the station. Soft ground or mixed tunneling was used where there was insufficient rock structure for underground support. With this method, compressed air twice the normal atmospheric pressure was used to support the walls while permanent structures were being built. Like deep sea divers, workers on this section of the rapid rail transit system were required to undergo 30 minutes of compression/decompression when entering or coming out of the tunnel. This station is only one of a few tunnels in the world where the walls and the ceiling were carved from solid rock.
Length of longest escalator serving the station entrance across from the Atlanta Public Library is 190 feet- the longest in the southeast. Cost of Station: approx. $45 million. Station depth: 120 feet. Station length: 900 feet.

The Design of the Peachtree Center Marta Station was done by the architectural firm of Toombs Amisano and Wells. Joseph Amisano being the last of the three original partners executed the design over the course of several years and was the major creative force behind the project.

Also the architect of the Peachtree Summit Building, located three blocks north of the station, Mr. Amisano left a legacy of structures following his death in 2008.

References

  1. ^ a b MARTA facts

External Links