10,000 B.C. |
First Humans arrive in Southeast traveling on animal trails |
1734 (AD) |
Savannah begins to function as a port for trade with Charleston and Great Britain |
1755 |
Georgia's colonial assembly requires all males between ages 16 and 60 to spend up to 12 days each year working on local roads |
1788 |
State of Georgia issues patent to William Longstreet and Isaac Briggs for steamboat |
1819 |
The Savannah becomes the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean |
1836 |
Georgia legislature creates W&A Railroad |
1845 |
Regular service over the Georgia Railroad from Augusta to Atlanta established |
1846 |
Marthasville (Atlanta) linked to Savannah by railroad |
1871 |
Atlanta's first mass transit system consisting of rail trolleys pulled by horses and mules opens |
1877 |
Georgia General Assembly creates Railroad Commission to regulate passenger rates and rail service
|
1890 |
Bicycle enthusiasts launch "Good Roads Movement" for paved roads |
1894 |
Southern Railroad Company created with headquarters in Atlanta |
1901 |
William Alexander purchases the first car in Atlanta - a Locomobile |
1903 |
Atlanta's first auto dealership opens |
1905 |
Terminal Station was opened in Atlanta |
1907 |
Ben Epps of Athens makes the first flight in Georgia before crashing |
1910 |
General Assembly provides for state licensing of automobiles |
1912 |
Atlanta Chamber of Commerce launches new Atlanta Convention Bureau to attract tourists and conventions |
1915 |
Henry Ford build Model T factory in Atlanta |
1916 |
Federal-Aid Road Act passed by Congress authorizing federal funds to states for road construction; Georgia Highway Department created |
1924 |
Delta Air Lines gets its start in Macon as a crop dusting company; its name was a reminder of its first successful crop dusting operation in the Mississippi delta |
1925 |
Atlanta leases Candler Field racetrack for use as city's first airport |
1928 |
Atlanta selected as a stopping point on the air mail route between New York and Miami |
1929 |
Air passenger service begins; paving of U.S. 41 completed making it possible to drive on paved roads from Georgia's northern to southern border |
1930 |
Candler Field purchased by city of Atlanta for an airfield; Union Station built; Eastern Airlines begins passenger service between Atlanta and New York; Atlanta's airport becomes the third busiest in the nation, with a total of 16 flights per day |
1937 |
Only three Georgia counties remain without any paved highways; General Assembly creates the Department of Public Safety, which includes Georgia State Patrol to enforce state motor vehicle laws |
1938 |
Fist four-lane highway links Atlanta and Marietta |
1941 |
Delta moves its headquarters to Atlanta |
1943 |
State agency to promote tourism and commerce created |
1945 |
General Assembly creates Georgia Ports Authority; Atlanta experiences peak in rail service, with 162 trains and 30,000 passengers daily |
1946 |
Atlanta voters approve spending $16 million to begin purchasing land for the Downtown Connector |
1953 |
State Tollway Authority created |
1954 |
Eugene Talmadge Bridge over Savannah River at Savannah opens |
1956 |
Dowtown Connector opens; Congress decides to build 41,000-mile interstate highway system with Atlanta as the hub of five interstate legs and an outer loop highway |
1957 |
The first jet lands at the Atlanta airport |
1958 |
First interstate highway construction in Georgia begins - the conversion and extension of the Northeast Expressway to become I-85 |
1959 |
Lenox Square, the first major shopping mall in the Southeast, opens |
1961 |
Atlanta Airport opens a new $18 million terminal; transcontinental flights begin between Atlanta and Los Angeles |
1964 |
MARTA authorized; Georgia voters approve a constitutional amendment making the State Highway Board a constitutional agency; the interstate interchange near the State Capitol, one of the largest in the nation, opens |
1970 |
I-285 completed, giving drivers a 64-mile perimeter around Atlanta |
1971 |
Atlanta's last downtown passenger rail station closed; Atlanta Airport becomes international as Eastern Airlines begins service to Mexico City; Atlanta airport renamed William B. Hartsfield International Airport; Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority created to serve Fulton and DeKalb counties - now the ninth largest public transit system in the United States |
1972 |
Georgia Department of Transportation created, replacing former State Highway Department |
1977 |
Construction is completed on Georgia's border-to-border interstates - I-20, I-75, I-85, and I-95 |
1979 |
MARTA begins first rapid rail service with its east-west line |
1980 |
Hartsfield Airport opens a new $400 million terminal |
1981 |
MARTA launches rapid rail service on its north-south line |
1999 |
General Assembly creates Georgia Regional Transportation Authority |
2003 |
Sidney Lanier Bridge, Georgia's longest, opens at Brunswick |
2004 |
Atlanta airport renamed Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport honoring two former Atlanta mayors responsible for its creation and expansion |
2005 |
General Assembly creates Georgia Department of Driver Services, whose duties include issuing drivers licenses |
