National Geographic highlights Atlanta's 22-mile BeltLine as the best way to see the city, connecting 45 neighborhoods via a network of trails and parks built on former railroad corridors.

Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern announce an $85 billion merger to create the first transcontinental railroad. Norfolk Southern is one of three Class I railroads serving Atlanta.

An urban design study tracing Atlanta's form back to the Terminus — the triangular railroad intersection that determined the city's layout, from the 1839 Zero-Mile Post to the present-day void.

Where other cities leveraged rivers to revitalize historic districts, Atlanta has the Gulch — a dry riverbed of railroad tracks and asphalt, fundamental to the city's creation, yet one of its most challenging gaps.

The State of Georgia releases a bid invitation for 9.5 acres of the Gulch — public land since the founding of Atlanta — with no protections for the planned Multimodal Passenger Terminal.

A CIM Group proposal would fill the Gulch with 9,000 parking spaces, effectively blocking any future passenger rail expansion at the historic junction where three railroads founded the city.