If you spend any time in downtown Opelika, sooner or later you are going to hear it.
A train rolls straight through the middle of downtown, stopping traffic and cutting between North and South Railroad Avenue as though someone decided to build railroad tracks through an already-established downtown.
The funny thing is, it was basically the other way around.
The railroad came first
In 1848, the Montgomery & West Point Railroad reached Opelika. Three years later, the line extended to West Point, Georgia, connecting Opelika toward Atlanta.
That rail connection became an important trade route, and more tracks followed. A route to Columbus was added in 1855, and Opelika developed into a true railroad junction.
The railroad helped drive enough growth that Opelika was officially incorporated in 1854.
In fact, the railroad was so central to the young town that Opelika’s original city limits were defined as extending one mile in every direction from the Montgomery and West Point railway station. The station wasn’t something added to downtown. It was essentially the point around which downtown formed.
It shaped the buildings around it, too
Rail access turned Opelika into a commercial and shipping center. Warehouses and businesses developed around the tracks, and the area that is now the Railroad Avenue Historic District became the commercial center of the city.
The rail lines were important enough strategically that they were targeted during the Civil War. In July 1864, Union forces under General Lovell Rousseau damaged railroad tracks, depots and supply facilities in and around Opelika.
So why are the trains still here?
Because these aren’t simply historic tracks.
Rail traffic still moves through Opelika today. What can feel unusual now — a freight train moving right through an active downtown — is also one of the clearest reminders of why downtown Opelika exists where it does.
Even the street names tell the story: North Railroad Avenue and South Railroad Avenue run alongside the tracks.
One of my favorite Opelika details
There are plenty of prettier pieces of downtown history to notice: brick storefronts, old buildings, renovated interiors and the courthouse square.
But the train may be the most authentic one.
It can be inconvenient when you are sitting at a crossing waiting for it to pass, but it is also a piece of Opelika’s history that is still doing exactly what it was built to do.
The town didn’t grow despite the railroad running through its center. It grew because of it.