On July 30, 2024, divers from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Coastal Resources Division went underwater to check on two old train cars from Atlanta, according to a DNR release published that August. The two train cars were sunk off the coast of Georgia seven months earlier. However, what they saw surprised them. Soft coral was beginning to grow, and the wreck was home to nine species of game fish. A subway car designed for commuters was slowly becoming habitat for marine life.
From rush hour to reef floor
These cars belong to MARTA, Atlanta's transit system. Stripped down for deployment, each car weighs about 55,000 pounds. In fall 2023, MARTA retired two of its railcars, and crews spent weeks stripping hazardous materials from them before the U.S. Coast Guard signed off on the cars for deployment. Only after this process was completed were the railcars taken by barge out to sea.
They were deployed at a site called Artificial Reef L, located approximately 23 nautical miles east of Ossabaw Island, in about 55 to 65 feet of water. This was not a random disposal site. Artificial Reef L was established in 1976 and is one of 32 offshore reefs that Georgia's Coastal Resources Division has worked for over 40 years to construct and maintain. The reef itself covers about two square miles of seafloor.
