June 30, 1979
The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), which had been established in 1971 as a bus network only, opened the first part of its rapid rail system. This new transit service — built on a section known at the time as the East Line — made Atlanta the first city in the southeastern United States to have a rapid rail system.
Jeff Prugh of the Los Angeles Times reported on the formal Saturday debut of this system in Georgia’s capital city and the overall exuberance marking the occasion. He wrote, “It hardly mattered that only 6.7 miles [10.8 kilometers] of the city’s planned 53-mile [85.3-kilometer] rail system was complete, along the East Line, which runs high above auto junkyards and old cemeteries, through underground tunnels, from Avondale and Decatur on the east side to the Georgia state capitol area downtown. The city was enthusiastic.” Prugh also noted, “A military band played ‘Georgia on My Mind,’ the state’s new official song. Ribbons were cut by dignitaries.”
MARTA’s rapid rail system now covers a total of 48 miles (77 kilometers) and has 38 stations altogether. This system is the eighth largest of its kind in the United States. (The accompanying photo of a MARTA train at College Park Station was taken in 2006.)
Photo Credit: DeKalb at the English Wikipedia (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)
For more information on MARTA’s rapid rail system, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MARTA_rail
Additional information on the history of MARTA is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Metropolitan_Atlanta_Rapid_Transit_Authority
Transportation History 
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