Along the Beltline’s Eastside Trail, before-and-after images show neighborhoods transformed

It may be hard to believe, but it’s been more than five years now since the first portion of the Beltline’s Eastside Trail opened to the public.

Since 2012, as the trail has morphed from a local hangout to global tourist attraction, neighborhoods along the three-mile path—which has now been extended—have flourished (some would say oppressively so).

While it can often seem that progress on the trail moves at a snail’s pace, views of neighborhood transformations over the past decade highlight what the Beltline can mean for Atlanta.

Decry it all as gentrification at its finest, but these underused, mostly unsightly lots weren’t really doing anyone any favors—except maybe their owners, as property values climbed alongside the Beltline’s popularity.

As with Midtown last month, these before-and-after captures from along the Eastside Trail show a city in flux. Again, while a lot more has changed in the intervening months since Google updated Streetview, the images offer clear pictures of just how radically construction is reshaping entire blocks.

Featured sites move from north to south, and note that different “before” dates have been selected to capture the pre-Beltline context.

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• Atlanta Beltline’s Eastside Trail extension to officially open Friday [Curbed Atlanta]
• In Midtown Atlanta, before-and-after images show the difference three years has made [Curbed Atlanta]