Atlanta

In 1837, the honor of pounding the first stake into what was to become the city of Atlanta went to Stephen Long 1807, an explorer turned railroad surveyor. The stake marked the terminus of a new rail line. A century and a half later, historians discovered that Long was a better explorer than surveyor; the stake was a quarter mile from where he had intended to put it.

This was not the only time that history-would prove Long slightly wrong. During a journey to the Rockies, he passed through Kansas and dubbed it the "Great American Desert," convincing the United States government that Kansas was bad for Anglos but a good place to establish reservations for eastern Indians. In 1820 Long was the first white man to spot a sizable peak in northern Colorado, and he promptly named it after himself. Long concluded that the Colorado Rockies were uninhabitable; his opinion inhibited setdement in the region for the next four decades.

After his retirement from field work, Long became his era's preeminent railroad engineer. He registered a patent for cross-bracing wooden trestles. He developed a set of tables that eliminated the need for engineers to do on-site calculations for laying uphill or curving track. And his manual on railroad operations became the industry bible.