ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a firsthand account of the ebbs and flows of the process of making Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) a reality, as an urban planner in Atlanta starting in late 1960s. The Atlanta City Council franchised the city's first public transit company, the Atlanta Street Railway Company, in 1866. The Hurt Building and Georgia Power's Plant Atkinson are existing physical legacies of their namesakes' contributions to Atlanta's landscape. Legislation approved in the 1965 session of the Georgia General Assembly authorized the creation of a public transit system for five counties: Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett. Moving quickly as the public transit agency for the two counties, MARTA negotiated to purchase the Atlanta Transit System (ATS) bus system, and the deal was closed in February 1972. In the early 1960s, the Atlanta Region Metropolitan Planning Commission (ARMPC), later renamed the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) had started planning for a system of rapid transit for the Atlanta region.
