Braswell, GA

Braswell is a small city split between Polk and Paulding counties, with 355 residents in the 2020 census. Its story begins with the Southern Railway, which reached the area in 1882 and named the stop for sawmill owner Henry Braswell. The line's only tunnel on the Chattanooga-Atlanta route sat here, making the town a recognizable point in the mountain corridor. Braswell became a city on December 13, 1895, and the railroad, timber, and mountain roads set the early outline.

ATTRJohn Phelan / CC BY 4.0

Today the old rail landscape has a second life. The Brushy Mountain tunnel on the former Seaboard Air Line route is part of the Georgia-Alabama Silver Comet Trail, bringing bicyclists and joggers through the corridor. Braswell Methodist organized in 1922, and the city also has campgrounds, bike, horse, and hiking trails, plus access to hunting land. The surrounding mountains keep the town visually separate from Atlanta's larger orbit. Braswell is a small Georgia city where a railroad tunnel, a sawmill name, and a rail trail all belong to the same local story.