Atlanta (Peachtree Streets)

[minor7flat5]

@VinylTurnip

Every tenth visitor gets knifed and entombed in the drywall ceiling of a Vine City crackhouse. You just beat the odds.

There were five of us :eek:

[Slow_Moving_Vehicle]

@monstro

Peachtree Street turns into Peachtree Road. Just so you know.

Yeah, but do you know where? That’s my favorite little bit of Atlanta trivia.

Collier Road, in Buckhead.

[Lamar_Mundane]

@HMS_Irruncible

OK, seriously…

1. No, there is not a street called “W Peachtree St NW”. It’s just West Peachtree street. The NW/NE thing is a called a directional suffix. Many cities use this scheme because street numbers can be repeated. I don’t know why this is the case; I guess in hindsight somebody felt like 5-digits would be too long for a street address, so they’d just reuse numbers in a completely different part of town.

It’s different out West, where I am. Denver, for example, is split into quadrants. Broadway runs north and south and splits the city into east and west. So 25 East Colfax is one block away from 25 W Colfax. 2500 E Colfax is 25 blocks east of Broadway. They also more or less alphabetize their N-S streets (Elm, Forest, Glencoe, etc.) so if you can count and know your alphabet, it makes it easy to get around. Same for E-W streets. 12500 Huron is 125 blocks north of 1st Street, even though it passes through a half dozen towns along the way.

Salt Lake City must have been laid out by an engineer. The N-S divider is always called Temple. I forget what the E-W divider is called. Every address is called, for example, 3500 S, 2200 W. 35 blocks south of Temple, 22 blocks west of that other road. That’s it. No fancy street names. For someone with a rational, analytical mind, this makes navigating a piece of cake. For others, they just see a string of random numbers and their brains fall out.

[Skywatcher]

@Doctor_Jackson

It’s all one street, or was. When the original road contractor in Atlanta built the first road it was to be called Peachtree Street, to honor the famous GA crop. There really was no city, folk decided to it made sense to build a road first on the theory of “If you build it, they will come” (if you stroke it, they will come also - but that’s another story). These fine folk made the mistake of paying the contractor by the hour, and at a pretty good rate. Being no dummy, he made the job last as long as possible. When he was done Peachtree Street was one mighty fine 10 mile long road. The problem was that, in order to milk the job as long as possible, the contractor also built it 10 miles wide. By the time the pride wore off among the natives, Mr. Contactor had retired to LA, CA. Now a 10 square mile road is a thing of beauty, indeed, but does create a problem with where the buildings would go. Every proper city needs buildings, and preferably close together. The locals got together, noodled on the issue and determined that the best way to go would be to dig up the beautiful road wherever they needed a building. They did not, however, have the heart to change the name of the resulting asphalt between the buildings any more than necessary. Hence, a big city and many variations on Peachtree.

One problem with this: Peachtree Street called Whitehall Street prior to 1867.

[Skywatcher]

nvm

[Slow_Moving_Vehicle]

@HMS_Irruncible

Now here’s a rant I can get behind. Peachtree-Dunwoody Road, Chamblee-Dunwoody Road, and Chamblee-Tucker road. The hell?

Hang on - we’ve got streets that are based on bison trails, streets that change names arbitrarily, streets that make 90° turns at intersections (if you’re on Chamblee-Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody, and you come to the intersection with Peeler Road, you’d expect that you’d stay on Chamblee-Dunwoody if you went straight through the light, right? Nope. That’s North Shallowford; you have to take a right to stay on Chamblee-Dunwoody.)

All this, but you’re boggled by a road that connects the communities of Chamblee and Tucker being called “Chamblee-Tucker Road”? :dubious:

[ftg]

Years ago, all the Peachtree’s went to war over use of the name. It was bloody but in the end achieved nothing. But in honor of the great confrontation, the site was named in memorium: Peachtree Battle Ave.

One interesting intersection is the corner of Chamblee Tucker Road and Chamblee Tucker Road.

[HMS_Irruncible]

@Slow_Moving_Vehicle

Hang on - we’ve got streets that are based on bison trails, streets that change names arbitrarily, streets that make 90° turns at intersections (if you’re on Chamblee-Dunwoody Road in Dunwoody, and you come to the intersection with Peeler Road, you’d expect that you’d stay on Chamblee-Dunwoody if you went straight through the light, right? Nope. That’s North Shallowford; you have to take a right to stay on Chamblee-Dunwoody.)

All this, but you’re boggled by a road that connects the communities of Chamblee and Tucker being called “Chamblee-Tucker Road”? :dubious:

If it were just one of them, it wouldn’t bother me. It’s confusing to have 3 such similar names in such close proximity, especially when 90% of the time I’m not using them to reach Chamblee, Dunwoody, or Tucker (which are fairly large areas, making them even less useful as endpoints).

But yeah, all that other stuff you mentioned as well.

[Lsura]

@ftg

One interesting intersection is the corner of Chamblee Tucker Road and Chamblee Tucker Road.

Lawrenceville Highway does the same thing. The first time I had to go up that way I didn’t know it did that and completely missed the turn (it was before I had any GPS in my car or phone).

[Doctor_Jackson]

@Skywatcher

One problem with this: Peachtree Street called Whitehall Street prior to 1867.

What do you call someone who would ruin a good story with facts? A non-native southerner.

[Lamar_Mundane]

At least I know where I’m going this time.

I’d like to meet you Atlantans sometime (some bar on Peachtree St?) but this trip is all meetings and dinners. I should be back again in summer for a less crowded trip.

[Doctor_Jackson]

ATL Dopefest!

[WildBlueYonder]

@monstro

It’s a black people thing. White people hang out inside. But black people like to be outside.

no no…black people hang out on the corners and white people watch them as they peak out between the blinds or the curtains! [(Cops do it too) No laughing matter there]

[Lsura]

@Doctor_Jackson

ATL Dopefest!

I’d be up for one. Lamar Mundane, when you know about upcoming visits that have more time available, let us know. I’m sure we can pull something together.

[HMS_Irruncible]

I keep hearing people mentioning Decatur… I’d humbly suggest the upstairs room at the Brick Store. Seats about 20, good menu & draft, cute waitresses entirely out of your league & sexual orientation.