ATLANTA — It was a dramatic image that went viral through social media on Thursday - rows of tanks being transported along rail lines in Atlanta, an ominous sight as Russia wages war on Ukraine and Americans wait to see if the situation in Europe will escalate to U.S. military involvement.
So are the tanks being moved through Atlanta on their way to Ukraine, or as part of some other military preparation?
We can't say for certain, but we can say this is not an unprecedented sight in Atlanta.
First, 11Alive reached out to the military on Thursday to ask about the tank transport, and they responded: "We are not able to identify who the vehicles belong to."
That's not untypical for the military - if there's information they're not allowed to share, they don't share it.
The response is a bit cryptic, but what they mean is they're not at liberty to tell news organizations if those tanks belong to, say, the National Guard, or the Army, or how else they might be used.
There are three significant military bases in Georgia, two Air Force bases, an Army airfield and a Marines logistics base. Any one of those could conceivably be a destination for the military equipment seen being transported through Atlanta, and we know that some troops are being moved out of Georgia on their way to Europe. Tanks could be involved in those movements.
But it could also have nothing to do with Europe.
Have tanks been transported through Atlanta before?
Yes they have, it's not a completely uncommon sight.
Here's an example of the posts that went viral on Thursday:
Pretty striking, right?
But there's plenty of examples in the past of tanks traveling through Atlanta on rail lines.
There's a significant Army depot just across Georgia's border in Anniston, Alabama, and when equipment is being sent there, it travels through Atlanta.
Here, for example, is a Reddit post from June 2019 about tanks moving through the rail lines at the old Hulsey Yard, and a tweet from that same month with a video of the tanks:
The Hulsey Yard is an old rail yard on the east side of town, most visibly running down DeKalb Avenue in Inman Park, and is part of the CSX railroad.
Here's another video of tanks on Atlanta rail lines in September 2019.
July 2018:
Here's a tanks-in-Atlanta post from March 2020:
And here's another tweet from June 2021 about tanks in north Georgia.
We don't know where these most recent tanks are going, because the military isn't in a position to share that information, but the possibility is at least strong that it's just a routine equipment transport the likes of which we occasionally see in Atlanta.