Peachtree Center is an underground train station on the Red and Gold lines of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority rail system. It is the deepest station in the MARTA rail system, at below Peachtree Street. It serves the Peachtree Center neighborhood of downtown Atlanta, and is the first station north-northeast of the rail system hub at Five Points. Peachtree Center is one of the busiest stations on the Red/Gold Lines, handling over 15,000 people per weekday. Passengers should exit at Peachtree Center Station for the following attractions and important places:
The station has an island platform serving two tracks. The floor is made of gray tile, the "walls" are made of solid gneiss rock, and the ceiling panels are made of steel. Four escalator banks are used to access the station, with the Carnegie Way/Ellis Street entrance having the longest escalators in the system, which MARTA claims are also the longest in the Southeast U.S.. The freestanding escalator at the CNN Center is longer at 205 feet. The Ellis Street entrance was closed for more than two years for renovation. It re-opened on August 24, 2012. The Harris Street entrance has a map of the MARTA system with proposed lines on it. The station was featured in the 1985 movie The Heavenly Kid.
Although the operation of the North Line began between the Garnett and North Avenue stations on December 4, 1981, the Peachtree Center station between them did not open until September 11, 1982. A poster dating to 1982 on the station platform describes how the station was built. The poster reads: An exploratory tunnel was initially driven at the crown of the tunnel to provide input into rock quality. This gave the designer excellent information to finish the design. The cavern was constructed using a heading and bench approach, first excavating the heading and following with the bench excavation. All excavation on the cavern was accomplished using drill and blast methods. Vibration monitoring stations were established in buildings along Peachtree Street to monitor the vibrations and compare to contract limits. 's building, located near the station's entrance. The location the station was built on was originally the home to "The House That Jack Built", an eccentric commercial building built by Jasper Newton "Jack" Smith in the late 1800s. As part of a lease agreement Smith made with later leaseholders of the property, two inscribed marble slabs were to be displayed prominently in any future building constructed on the site. When Peachtree Center station opened in 1982, these two marble slabs were relocated to a fenced-off area near the subway station entrance.
