Railroad Airlines Before Human Flight Was Possible

Hey there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, I’m Amy in Atlanta.

Hey Amy.

We’re glad to have you.

What made you take time out of your busy day to give us a call?

So I’m an historian.

I do walking tours and I really like walking around the city and pointing out details in the city to folks to see how the way they’re clues in the landscape that remind us of history.

Mm-

So one of the tours I do, we go on a little tiny street called Airline Street.

But Airline Street’s nowhere near the airport.

Atlanta’s famous for its airport today, but the street name goes back before that.

It goes back to w it’s adjacent to the rail line that is a block away.

And there used to be a train called the Airline Bell.

So my guests never make that connection when I point out airline street to the idea that it’s about railroads.

So I’ve always been curious how did the term airline became used for that new industry of railroads and then how did that term transition to the aviation industry as it got started?

Oh Amy this is such an interesting question because it leads us to such interesting things.

One of them is that when you look in digitized newspapers and journals, you can find the word airline many, many years before airplanes were ever invented before anyone could fly.

You know, almost before Icarus, but not quite, but really far back.

And your connection of that airline railway to the name of that street is exactly on the money.

When you did that and there was a ding ding ding that went off in my head and it wasn’t just because you said the airline bell and I assume that’s B-E-L-L-E, the meaning the you know the the beautiful one, right?

Beautiful lady.

And this is because there’s this thing, a particular usage of airline that they use in construction, but particularly for railways.

And all it means is as the crow flies, a straight shot, airline.

But if you took this path in the air and not on the ground, there’d be and with nothing in your way straight through.

And so when we’re talking about railways in particular, they used airline or airline route for the shortest distance between two points, but they used it kind of as a marketing tool as well because people wanted to know that their train wasn’t gonna meander all over the landscape.

It was gonna go to A to B, straight as could be, with nothing in between.

Okay, that makes great.

So it’s a line through the air, literally.

Yeah, it’s like a bee line.

A beeline, yeah.

Yeah.

A beeline.

So then when the aviation industry got started, they were really focused on that same idea that it’s an airline, not that it is you are in the air?

No, they weren’t.

That actually has a different source.

Think of think of ocean liners and airliners.

So airline is kind of a reduction of the idea of the term of of airliner.

Yeah.

So it’s more connected to the idea of a liner.

It’s something that has a a line, a point it it’s still a line, it’s still a connection from point A to point B, but it’s less about the directness of it.

And it was often two words, right?

And then airline.

Sometimes it’s one a open compound or closed pound compound, hyphen or space in there.

But yeah.

So look for both.

Mm-

Well that’s great.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Yeah, take care.

Thanks, Amy.

We really appreciate it.

And fun have fun on those tours.

That’s if I get to Atlanta, I’m gonna look you up.

I me too.

That’s great.

What a town with deep history.

I’d love to find out more.

Take care of yourself.

All right, you too.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Amy.

Bye-bye.

Well, we know that happens to you all the time.

You find you’ve been using a word every day.

And you’re like, wait a second, do I even know what I’m saying?

Well, this is the place to figure it out.

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