1st Avenue South railway cut
The 1st Avenue South railway cut was a sunken rail corridor extending 1,830 feet through the center of 1st Avenue South, between 24th and 20th Streets. It was built between the 1890s and 1904 to accommodate tracks of the Atlanta & Birmingham Air Line Railway, a subsidiary of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad.
The railway company faced several challenges in making their approach into Birmingham from Atlanta. While most of the 1st Avenue South corridor could be constructed at grade, the grade had to be lowered as much as 16 feet below street level to accommodate the existing viaducts crossing Birmingham's Railroad Reservation at 22nd and 21st Streets. That work created its own drainage problems which had to be solved.
The sides of the excavated area are supported by thick reinforced concrete walls. The walls were poured monolithically of concrete mixed on site with crushed slag aggregate. The tops of the walls were capped by a steeply-sloped coping, described as "an uninviting seat for loafers," and "boy-proof, offering no temptation as a walkway."
Seaboard's extension from Atlanta to Birmingham was completed in 1904, with trains stopping at a new Seaboard Air Line Railroad freight depot which opened at 20 20th Street South on December 3.
Redevelopment proposals
In the early 1990s a produce stand occupied the 20th Street end of the cut. When Compass Bank purchased the adjoining Daniel Building in 1993, it considered paving over the adjacent areas of the cut.
The presentation of the City Center Master Plan in 2005 showed the possibility of filling the cut to create a tree-lined boulevard. Some residents, vocally represented by then-City Councilor Elias Hendricks, expressed their view that the cut should be preserved for its interpretive and nostalgic value, but "cleaned up" to make it an asset to the area. The Central City neighborhood sponsored a clean-up day for the cut in June, 2005.
The cut, now redeveloped as the "Rotary Trail", is part of the Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System, connecting Railroad Park with Sloss Furnaces and beyond. That project, originally billed as "Line Park", was taken up by the Rotary Club of Birmingham as their centennial project. Auburn University's Master of Landscape Architecture program participated in an Urban Design Studio focusing on how to re-work the cut as a pedestrian corridor. The Rotary Club partnered with the city of Birmingham, Freshwater Land Trust, Operation New Birmingham and the Railroad Park Foundation on the final plans.
It is also at the center of significant recent redevelopment, including the Corporate Realty Building, Jackson Galleries, the Seaboard Yard townhomes, Golden Construction, Williams-Blackstock Architects, and other new or renovated uses along those four blocks.