The Silver Comet Trail is a rail trail in west-northwestern Georgia , United States.
27-596: Map Trail's Path Map Trail's Path The Silver Comet Trail is named for the Silver Comet passenger train that traversed the same route from 1947 to 1969. It begins in Smyrna, Georgia , runs west through Cobb , Paulding and Polk counties, and continues as Alabama 's Chief Ladiga Trail at the state line. The Silver Comet and Chief Ladiga trails join to form one continuous 94-mile (151 km) trail from Smyrna, Georgia to Anniston, Alabama , which together form
54-716: A dining car between New York and Birmingham, along with through coaches and Pullmans to or from Portsmouth, Virginia , connecting at Raleigh, North Carolina . A 48-seat observation car brought up the rear of the train. Owing to declining passenger and mail revenues, the Silver Comet was discontinued in stages in 1969: the last trip between Atlanta and Birmingham was made on January 18; between Washington and Richmond, May 7; and between Richmond and Atlanta, October 14. It lost its section that ran from Portsmouth's Seaboard Terminal in early 1968. The last through sleeper had run on December 31, 1968. Following abandonment of
81-680: A Class 1 railroad again. The former SAL/SCL line is 78 miles shorter than the line CSXT now uses, the former ACL , and Atlanta & West Point lines, which run well south of the former SAL/SCL line. In September 2019 the James M. Cox Foundation gave $ 6 million to the PATH Foundation , which will connect the Silver Comet Trail to the Atlanta Beltline . This project has been split into two parts. The PATH Foundation
108-629: A precursor before the time of Pangaea . Wilson also noticed that the Atlantic had opened at roughly the same place where its precursor ocean had closed. This led him to his Wilson cycle hypothesis. In many spots in Scandinavia basaltic dikes are found with ages between 670 and 650 million years. These are interpreted as evidence that by that time, rifting had started that would form the Iapetus Ocean. In Newfoundland and Labrador ,
135-523: Is believed to have opened around 700 Ma as Laurentia drifted away from Amazonia, with the Iapetus Ocean being separated from the Puncoviscana Ocean by the ribbon-shaped Arequipa-Antofalla terrane . However, the formation of both oceans seems unrelated. Southwest of the Iapetus, a volcanic island arc evolved from the early Cambrian (540 million years ago) onward. This volcanic arc
162-444: Is in flux due to legal challenges from railroad right of way easement holders. In 2013, a detailed study was done on the trail to determine the economic impact of the trail. It was estimated that the trail had 1.9 million uses in 2013. 400,000 of those uses were from out of state. The direct spending of residents and tourists was $ 57 million. The $ 118 million economic impact was found to support 1,310 jobs. The tax revenue generated by
189-707: Is responsible for the section from the current Silver Comet Trail terminus at the Mavell Road trailhead and then following the abandoned railroad right of way to Plant Atkinson Road. The Cobb DOT is responsible for the section from Plant Atkinson road to the Atlanta Road/Marietta Boulevard bridge over the Chattahoochee river, following an easement along Atlanta Road. Cobb expects to let its section for bid in Spring 2023. PATH's section
216-689: The Long Range dikes are also thought to have formed during the formation of the Iapetus Ocean. It has been proposed that both the Fen Complex in Norway and the Alnö Complex in Sweden formed as consequence to mild extensional tectonics in the ancient continent of Baltica that followed the opening of the Iapetus Ocean. The eastern Iapetus Ocean is believed to have opened around 590 Ma with
243-534: The continental shelves of Baltica and Laurentia are still very different in the Ordovician, but Silurian faunas show progressive mixing of species from both sides, because the continents moved closer together. In the west, the Iapetus Ocean closed with the Taconic orogeny (480-430 million years ago), when the volcanic island arc collided with Laurentia. Some authors consider the oceanic basin south of
270-752: The Atlanta to Birmingham segment of the Silver Comet right-of-way by SAL-SCL successor CSX in 1989, portions were converted to the Silver Comet Trail in Georgia and the Chief Ladiga Trail in Alabama. Iapetus Ocean The Iapetus Ocean ( / aɪ ˈ æ p ɪ t ə s / ; eye- AP -ih-təs ) existed in the late Neoproterozoic and early Paleozoic eras of the geologic timescale (between 600 and 400 million years ago). It
297-586: The Iapetus Ocean was positioned between continental masses that would at a much later time roughly form the opposite shores of the Atlantic Ocean , it can be seen as a sort of precursor of the Atlantic, and the process by which it opened shares many similarities with that of the Atlantic's initial opening in the Jurassic . The Iapetus Ocean was therefore named for the titan Iapetus , who in Greek mythology
SECTION 10
#1732765016183324-727: The PCF are believed to be remnants of the sort of so-called "accreted terranes" described above, and exposures of PCF rocks can be found on the Silver Comet Trail near the Allatoona Fault. Silver Comet (train) The Silver Comet was a streamlined passenger train inaugurated on May 18, 1947, by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad ( Seaboard Coast Line after merger with the Atlantic Coast Line on July 1, 1967). Before its inaugural run,
351-644: The eastern parts had closed too: the Tornquist Sea between Avalonia and Baltica already during the late Ordovician, the main branch between Baltica-Avalonia and Laurentia during the Grampian and Scandian phases of the Caledonian orogeny (440–420 million years ago). At the end of the Silurian period (c. 420 million years ago) the Iapetus Ocean had completely disappeared and the combined mass of
378-689: The emplacement of the Central Iapetus Magmatic Province between Laurentia and Baltica. The southern Iapetus Ocean opened between Laurentia and southwestern Gondwana (now South America) about 550 Ma, close to the end of the Ediacaran period. At the time it did so the Adamastor Ocean further east closed . The opening of the Iapetus Ocean probably postdates the opening of the Puncoviscana Ocean , which
405-583: The former Silver Comet route from Cobb County through Paulding and Polk counties in 1989. In 1992, the Georgia Department of Transportation initially purchased the former roadbed for future use as a high-speed transit route, but later that year, Ron Griffith, Director of Cobb County Parks, requested a lease agreement between the county and the Georgia DOT to use the rail line as a multi-use trail. The Cobb County Board of Commissioners approved
432-586: The height of passenger rail use. Due to declining ridership, the Silver Comet was downgraded in the 1960s, losing its sleeper-lounger cars. In 1969, the Silver Comet was downgraded again and finally discontinued in June of that year, by SAL successor Seaboard Coast Line (SCL). By 1986 SCL had gradually merged with several nearby railroads, forming the Seaboard System, which had become CSX Transportation by July 1987. CSX abandoned 36 miles (58 km) of
459-540: The island arc also a part of the Iapetus, this branch closed during the later Acadian orogeny , when Avalonia collided with Laurentia. It has been suggested that the southern Iapetus Ocean closed during a continental collision between Laurentia and Western Gondwana (South America). If factual the Taconic orogen would be the northward continuation of the Famatinian orogen exposed in Argentina. Meanwhile,
486-508: The multi-use trail plan in November. Construction began in July 1998, with the initial section between Nickajack Creek and Hicks Road opening by that November. The former SAL/SCL right of way is rail banked. This means at any time in the future, if rail traffic increases to the point where an old line exists, it could be purchased and track put back down. The right of way would thus become
513-593: The new train was christened by actress Jean Parker at Pennsylvania Station in New York City . The train succeeded the SAL's Cotton States Special, which took the same route and which like the Silver Comet left the northeast at midday and arrived at Birmingham in the late morning. Daily service extended from New York City via Washington, D.C. , Richmond, Virginia , Raleigh, North Carolina , and Atlanta to Birmingham, Alabama . From New York to Washington,
540-419: The second-longest paved rail trail in the U.S. U.S. Bicycle Route 21 follows a 52-mile (84 km) portion of Silver Comet Trail from Cedartown to the east end of the trail. The trail is locally known as an ideal destination for bikers and runners to train or relax. Google map here . Path Foundation's map here . In 1947, the Silver Comet was introduced by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) during
567-550: The southern parts of the British Isles and eastern Newfoundland. Geologists of the early 20th century presumed that a large trough, a so-called geosyncline , had existed between Scotland and England in the early Paleozoic, keeping the two sides separated. With the development of plate tectonics in the 1960s, geologists such as Arthur Holmes and John Tuzo Wilson concluded that the Atlantic Ocean must have had
SECTION 20
#1732765016183594-475: The trail was estimated to be about $ 3.5 million in income tax, sales tax, and business taxes. The study suggested an 4 to 7 increase in property taxes for homes within a quarter mile of the trail, resulting in an increase of $ 0.5 million in revenue for municipalities and school districts. In Paulding County, the Silver Comet Trail crosses over the Allatoona Fault ; where the trail intersects the fault in
621-604: The train was handled by the Pennsylvania Railroad ; from Washington, D.C. to Richmond, by the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad ; and by Seaboard from Richmond to points south. Under its original schedule, the New York City to Birmingham trip took 23 hours at an average speed of 48 miles per hour. The consist of the Silver Comet included baggage cars , coaches , Pullman sleepers, and
648-729: The vicinity of Willow Springs Road, the fault serves to divide the distinctive Eastern Blue Ridge rocks from those that most characterize the Western Blue Ridge Province . One rock formation of particular note in Paulding County is the Ordovician-age Pumpkinvine Creek Formation (PCF), primarily composed of metamorphosed volcanic rocks thought to have originated out in the now-vanished, ancient ocean that geologists generally refer to as Iapetus . The meta-volcanic rocks of
675-530: Was formed above a subduction zone where the oceanic lithosphere of the Iapetus Ocean subducted southward under other oceanic lithosphere . From Cambrian times (about 550 million years ago) the western Iapetus Ocean began to grow progressively narrower due to this subduction. The same happened further north and east, where Avalonia and Baltica began to move towards Laurentia from the Ordovician (488–444 million years ago) onward. Trilobite faunas of
702-499: Was in the southern hemisphere , between the paleocontinents of Laurentia , Baltica and Avalonia . The ocean disappeared with the Acadian , Caledonian and Taconic orogenies , when these three continents joined to form one big landmass called Euramerica . The "southern" Iapetus Ocean has been proposed to have closed with the Famatinian and Taconic orogenies, meaning a collision between Western Gondwana and Laurentia. Because
729-480: Was the father of Atlas , after whom the Atlantic Ocean was named. At the start of the 20th century, American paleontologist Charles Walcott noticed differences in early Paleozoic benthic trilobites of Laurentia (such as Olenellidae , the so-called "Pacific fauna"), as found in Scotland and western Newfoundland , and those of Baltica (such as Paradoxididae , often called the "Atlantic fauna"), as found in
#182817