In 1836, the Georgia General Assembly voted to build the Western and Atlantic Railroad to connect Georgia with Midwestern trading partners. The initial plan was to run the rail from Chattanooga to somewhere east of the Chattahoochee River.
After viewing multiple possible routes, Surveyor Colonel Stephen Long drove a stake near present-day Forsyth Street, just a few blocks from today’s Five Points, indicating where the W&A line would terminate.
The “zero mile post” gave birth to a community of homes and a general store. As the community grew, it began calling itself “Terminus,” which literally means end of the line.
– Mark C. McDonald, Georgia Trust