Pace's Ferry
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Through much of the 19th century, Pace's Ferry was an important ferry across the Chattahoochee River near Atlanta. Started in the early 1830s near Peachtree Creek, it was run by Hardy Pace, one of the city's founders. It was an important transportation link to northwestern Georgia, especially prior to the construction of the State Road (the Western & Atlantic Railroad) to Chattanooga.
In Vinings (formerly Paces), Pace's Mill was a gristmill begun by Hardy Pace, founded to diversify his holdings after the railroad was built. The short Paces Mill Road still exists today.
During the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War, the Battle of Pace's Ferry was fought July 5, 1864.
[edit] Paces Ferry Road
The original Pace's Ferry Road was begun during the Georgia Gold Rush as a stage coach bringing people from Decatur to Vinings where they could continue on to gold country. The road went southeast from the river to Buckhead then following what is now called "Old Decatur Road", then Cheshire Bridge Road, through Emory University on Clifton, along Haygood Dr then North Decatur Road until that hits Clairmont Road, which was then known as the Shallowford Road.
In modern times, Paces Ferry Road (dropping the apostrophe), along with West Paces Ferry Road, is still an important east-west route across northern Atlanta. Paces Ferry Road runs as far west as Vinings in Cobb County, where it is the address for the world headquarters of Home Depot. Beginning at Atlanta Road and going east, it crosses I-285 at mile 18, and heads into historic Vinings where it crosses the Chattahoochee River. This river crossing is very near the old ferry location, just down from the 1904 bridge that replaced the ferry. That first wooden bridge had been used for pedestrians since being replaced by a concrete one in the early 1970s.
At the river, Paces Ferry Road enters Fulton County and the Atlanta city limits and continues to its terminus at the western end of Atlanta's Buckhead area. Here, West Paces Ferry Road continues under I-75 at mile 255, and heads east through some of Atlanta's oldest and wealthiest Buckhead neighborhoods. It serves as the address of the Georgia Governor's Mansion as well many of Atlanta's other stately older mansions and estates. Unlike many of metro Atlanta's newer suburbs, the area along this street has maintained most of its forest cover, also making it a pleasant and scenic drive. It emerges from this canopy at the center of Buckhead, meeting Peachtree Road at the southern end of Roswell Road.
After passing State Route 9 and U.S. 19 (both routed on Peachtree to the south and Roswell to the north), it becomes East Paces Ferry Road. The toll section of State Route 400, built in 1993, made this a dead-end road. It resumes on the other side of the tollway, along the southeastern edge of Lenox Square, the city's first indoor shopping mall. The road then ends just east of Lenox Road at Roxboro Road.
Pace's Ferry is just one of the many historic ferries of the Atlanta area.
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