ves about
115,000 bales annually. There are several large warehouses and compresses.
The 12 lines of railroads give ample facilities for collecting the crop
from adjoining territory and forwarding it overland to eastern mills or to
the coast for export. Both of the Round Bale Companies are represented in
this city.

Transportation.

Atlanta is the railroad center of the Southeast. Twelve radiating lines
furnish ample facilities for distribution of manufactures and merchandise
from this point. Five of these lines belong to the Southern Railway. Here
is a list of the lines:

Southern to Washington.
Southern to Knoxville.
Georgia Railroad to Augusta.
Southern to Birmingham.
Southern to Fort Valley.
Southern to Brunswick.
[2]Seaboard Air Line to Birmingham.
Seaboard Air Line to Portsmouth.
Western & Atlantic to Chattanooga.
Atlanta & West Point to Montgomery.
Central of Georgia Railway to Savannah.
Louisville & Nashville to Knoxville.

[Illustration: CARNEGIE LIBRARY.]

The connections of these make many more routes over which there are
through trains, as for example, to Columbus and Albany.

The Southern Railway, Central of Georgia Railway, and Atlanta and West
Point Railway have let the contract for a union passenger station at the
corner of Mitchell and Madison streets, and will spend about a million
dollars on the structure. Altogether they will spend two millions on the
station and terminal facilities connected with it.

Atlanta's hotel accommodations are superior to those of almost any other
city in the South. The Piedmont is a fire-proof building of the best
class, with steel frame. The Kimball, the Aragon, the Majestic, and the
Marion have long enjoyed an enviable reputation with the traveling public.
There are numerous smaller hotels and any number of boarding-houses.
Atlanta is the stop-over point for the Florida winter travel, both going
and coming, and is rapidly becoming a summer resort by reason of its
elevation, bracing atmosphere, and cool climate.

The Radius of Distribution.

Atlanta's advantages as a distributing point are shown by the central
location with reference to Southeastern towns. There are seventy-nine
towns of exceeding 4,000 population in Alabama, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Georgia and Mississippi. The average distances of these towns by
States from Atlanta, Savannah and Nashville are as follows:

ATLANTA SAVANNAH