Boat Rock Road

Boat Rock Road SW

One of the rocks along the road
Length 3.8 mi[1] (6.1 km)
Location Northwest of Sandtown, Georgia
West end Dead end northwest of Sandtown
Major
junctions		 SR 70 north-northwest of Sandtown
East end SR 154 / SR 166 in Sandtown

Boat Rock Road is a 3.8-mile-long (6.1 km) road in western Fulton County in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Georgia. The road is located northwest of Sandtown, a suburb of Atlanta. It connects some of the industrial areas of Atlanta with the city's western suburbs.[2]

Route description

One of the rocks

Boat Rock Road begins at a dead end street in an industrial area northwest of Sandtown. The road travels to the north-northeast and curves to the east-southeast and has an intersection with SR 70 (Fulton Industrial Boulevard SW) north-northeast of Sandtown. It crosses over, but does not intersect, SR 6 (Camp Creek Parkway). Then, it curves to a southerly direction and meets its eastern terminus, an intersection with SR 154/SR 166 (Campbellton Road SW) on the northeastern edge of the commonly-accepted boundary of Sandtown.[1]

Boat Rock Road is not part of the National Highway System, a system of roadways important to the nation's economy, defense, and mobility.[3]

History

Boat Rock Road was named after a 1-mile-long (1.6 km) ridge of boulders that were found in Sandtown. The origins of Boat Rock go back as far as 325 million years.[2] The intrusion of magma formed a large dome under the earth. After several million years of cooling, erosive forces slowly began to expose the rocks.[2] These boulders have been used for rock climbing since the late 1960s.[2]

Geologists commonly refer to this area as the Ben Hill Batholith.[2] Boat Rock has one of the five known batholiths in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Three of the others are located at Stone Mountain, Arabia Mountain, and Panola Mountain. The batholiths are protected from developers and are used as parks by the citizens of Atlanta.[2]

In the 1990s, Boat Rock was known as a project area until the city took control and tore it down.

Murders

The case of the Atlanta child murders took place on the Southside of Atlanta. Not too far way from Boat Rock, some bodies were found near a local school, on the side of Union Road. Once of the victims, Timothy Hill, was also found on Jackson Parkway. This caused a lot of the parents to be afraid to let their children play outside, although, while the murders continued, many children continued to go outside. There were about 30 murders in the general area.

Present day

The Boat Rock area has been cleaned up and fundraisers have been held to improve the area. The South Eastern Climbers Organization is the property caretaker of the preserve.[2] The community has built new homes to support the change. They have also rebuilt Westlake High School, in the hopes of giving children in the area a better education. Homeowners in the area have seen property values rise. There has been a decrease in the crime rate since the projects have been torn down. Boat Rock now hosts rock climbing on its many boulders.[2]

Major intersections

The entire route is in Fulton County.

Locationmi[1]kmDestinationsNotes
​0.00.0Dead end streetWestern terminus
​1.62.6 SR 70 (Fulton Industrial Boulevard SW) – Campbellton, Atlanta
Sandtown3.86.1 SR 154 / SR 166 (Campbellton Road SW)Eastern terminus
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Google (September 16, 2013). "Route of Boat Rock Road" (Map). Google Maps. Google. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Boat Rock Preserve". Sandtown Community Association. Retrieved September 16, 2013.
  3. ↑ "National Highway System: Atlanta, GA" (PDF). United States Department of Transportation. October 1, 2012. Retrieved September 16, 2013.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/18/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.