Peachtree Street
|
|
Peachtree Street is the main north-south street of Atlanta, Georgia. The city grew up around this one street, and many of its historical and municipal buildings are or were located along it. Running from downtown to Midtown and on through Buckhead, it is for Atlanta what Broadway is for New York City, New York: the proverbial and legendary heart of the city.
Peachtree1907.jpg
Historically, Atlanta grew up on a site occupied by the Creek people, and the "peachtree" street was, in fact, not named for a peach tree of any sort, but for a large Creek settlement called Standing Pitch Tree after a tall lone tree. Reportedly, the Creek used trees with fresh pitch (the sap of a pine tree) for solemnizing vows and treaties. The "pitch tree" was corrupted to "peach tree", perhaps by mistake, or because it sounded better to English speakers. While peaches are native to northern Georgia and the Atlanta area and Georgia is the "Peach State", there was apparently no historical peach tree that led to the name.
Because of the rapid growth of the city of Atlanta, and in particular its suburban communities, visitors to the city can have trouble. A local joke is that all directions begin, "Go to Peachtree . . . . " The name is so popular that there are many streets with "Peachtree" as part of their name. Peachtree Street itself changes its name to Peachtree Road at Midtown and then becomes Peachtree Industrial Boulevard north of Buckhead.
Then there are Peachtree Creek Road, Peachtree Lane, Peachtree Avenue, Peachtree Circle, Peachtree Drive, Peachtree Plaza, Peachtree Way, Peachtree Memorial Drive, and Peachtree Valley Road. West Peachtree Street is not the western branch of Peachtree Street, but a parallel major north-south street that is west of Peachtree Street. Others include Peachtree Battle Avenue, commemorating the Battle of Peachtree Creek, Peachtree-Dunwoody Road runs between Peachtree Street and Dunwoody, Georgia, and, finally, to top off the tourist's nightmare, Old Peachtree Street Road Highway runs to Alpharetta. Some of these streets intersect with Peachtree Street or are extensions of it, and some are nowhere near it. Not all the "Peachtrees" in Atlanta are given here.
In 1949 Gone With the Wind author Margaret Mitchell was killed as a pedestrian crossing Peachtree Street at the intersection with 13th Street.
Urban legend states that Peachtree Street is atop a ridge which is part of the Eastern Continental Divide. Actually, the railroad tracks were built on the watershed, which follows DeKalb Avenue from Decatur to Five Points, then turns southwest toward the airport, with the north side draining into the Chattahoochee or Flint Rivers and therefore into the Gulf of Mexico, and the south side eventually into the Atlantic Ocean. Atlanta's primary water source is the Chattahoochee and much of the water is pumped over the watershed. To balance the river flows, the sewage is pumped back to the Chattahoochee.
External links
- Peachtree street web site (http://www.gpb.org/gptv/georgialegacy/peachtree/)
- Driving in Atlanta (http://dest.travelocity.com/DestGuides/0,1840,TCYCAFR%7C4115%7C3%7C1%7C15432,00.html)
- Fort Peachtree replica (http://www.buckhead.org/history/fort-peachtree/)