TERMINALS FROM THE POST CARD COLLECTION

ATLANTA TERMINAL


Atlanta was once the largest rail crossroads in the south. Travelers could get virtually everywhere quickly and conveniently by rail. Built in 1905, this Terminal was the grand portal to the city. It had two Italianate towers and a huge train shed behind. This structure was torn down in 1970, and Atlanta lost a sizable chunk of its architectural history.

Nowadays days Atlanta’s intercity rail depot is a small former commuter rail station located far north of downtown, adjacent to a 16-lane highway.

DENVER TERMINAL



In 1894, most of the central portion of the original 1881 depot was destroyed by fire. A larger replacement depot in the Romanesque style was built in 1891

In 1912, A new central portion, designed by Denver architects Gove & Walsh, was built in the Beaux-Arts style and opened in 1914.

During its heyday, the station served 80 daily trains operated by six different railroads. Today, one daily Amtrak train runs from Chicago to the the Bay Area and passes through this station.

NASHVILLE TERMINAL


Nashville's terminal opened in 1900 to serve the passenger operations of the eight railroads then providing passenger service to Nashville, Tennessee.

The station reached peak usage during World War II when it was the shipping-out point for tens of thousand of U.S. troops and the site of a USO canteen. The formation of Amtrak in 1971 reduced service to the northbound and southbound Floridian train each day. When this service was discontinued in October 1979, the station was abandoned entirely.

RICHMOND TERMINAL



This station, also known as the Broad Street Station, was built as the southern terminus for the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad (RF&P) in 1917 in the neoclassical style by the architect John Russell Pope.

The station also served the trains of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL), the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W). Eventually, the Seaboard Air Line Railway (SAL), which had formerly used Richmond's other union station (Main Street Station), switched to Broad Street Station.

Passenger service to the station ceased in 1975. The station is now the home of the Science Museum of Virginia.

SOUTH BOSTON TERMINAL



South Station opened as South Central Station on January 1, 1899. It became the busiest station in the country by 1910. A station on the Atlantic Avenue Elevated served the station from 1901 to 1938 and what is now the Red Line subway was extended from Park Street to South Station in 1913. It's train shed(the world's largest) was razed in a 1930 renovation because of corrosion caused by salt air.

South Station was sold to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) in 1965. Portions of the station were demolished and the land was used to build the Boston South Postal Annex and the Stone and Webster building.