- Ferry
- Early
- in use by 1834; Hardy Pace arrived in the 1820s
- City of Atlanta
- Location approximate
Pace's Ferry and the road from Decatur
Hardy Pace, who moved to the area in the 1820s, ran a ferry on the Chattahoochee reached by a road from Decatur through Buckhead. A DeKalb court order of May 5, 1834, for a bridge over Nancy Creek 'on the road to Pace's Ferry' shows it was already in use.
The record
The 1962 GHS marker, at the Lovett School on the original road trace, says the road ran from Decatur via Buckhead to the ferry, about 50 feet upstream of today's bridge. Pace built his home on (West) Paces Ferry Road between today's Northside Drive and Randall Mill Road, later served as postmaster of the Pace's Ferry post office, and moved across the river to Vinings in 1839. On July 17, 1864, Federal engineers laid two pontoon bridges here.
Today: Paces Ferry Rd bridge between Atlanta and Vinings.
Where on the map: Decatur to Buckhead (course not documented here), then West Paces Ferry Rd NW and Paces Ferry Rd NW to the river crossing.