Atlanta Beltline
rail trail under construction in Atlanta, Georgia, USA

The Atlanta Beltline is a 22-mile (35 km) long multi-use trail on a former railway corridor that encircles the core of Atlanta, Georgia. The Atlanta Beltline is designed to reconnect neighborhoods and communities historically divided and marginalized by infrastructure, improve transportation, add green space, promote redevelopment, create and preserve affordable housing, and showcase arts and culture. As of 2026, the Atlanta Beltline is recognized as the world's longest linear arboretum. The project is in varying stages of development, with several mainline and spur trails complete. Since the passage of the More MARTA sales tax in 2016, construction of the light rail streetcar system is overseen by MARTA in close partnership with Atlanta Beltline, Inc.
The Beltline connects to MARTA's first bus rapid transit (BRT) line, which began service on April 18, 2026. The 5-mile (8.0 km) line runs from downtown Atlanta, through Summerhill, and ends at the Beltline. The BRT line named the "MARTA Rapid Summerhill", will utilize new 60-foot (18 m) articulated electric buses.
In June 2026, the Beltline launched ATL Spoke, a 12-month pilot service of an autonomous shuttle. It will connect West End station, the Atlanta Beltline Southwest Trail and destinations throughout the Lee and White streets district.
The public source identifies “Atlanta Beltline” as rail trail under construction in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Atlanta, Beltline and rail.
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A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Atlanta Beltline”, the useful work is to connect “rail trail under construction in Atlanta, Georgia, USA” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q59939083. Authority coordinates are 33.759, -84.424. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2026 and 2016.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Atlanta Beltline” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.