18 Miles & Counting

Atlanta Beltline readies to meet the world in 2026

David Caraviello

Three years after the 1996 Olympic flame was extinguished, Georgia Tech graduate student Ryan Gravel wrote a master’s thesis on the prospect of using former rail lines to create a connective loop around Atlanta. Now, as the Georgia capital prepares to host its largest international sporting event since those games, that loop isn’t just a reality—it also promises to be a principal route to and from the matches of next summer’s World Cup.

Since its beginnings two decades ago, the Atlanta Beltline has evolved into a transportation and economic development corridor that’s gradually winding its way around the city—providing not just avenues for walking, bicycling, and recreation, but also commercial development and affordable housing. By the time the matches of the 2026 World Cup kick off, 18 of the Beltline’s planned 22 miles will be completed, while a connector trail will lead to the hub of the action around Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Atlanta will host eight matches in the World Cup—tied for second among all host cities in the competition, spread across the U.S., Mexico, and Canada—spanning June 15 to July 15, 2026. With over 70,000 people expected for each match, the world’s most popular sporting event could bring unprecedented user volume to the Beltline.

“That’s what we’re anticipating,” said Clyde Higgs, Atlanta Beltline President and CEO. “In 2024, we recorded over 2.5 million visits on the Beltline, and the warm months are when we have our highest traffic use. We’re talking about 300,000 people on the Beltline in June or July. You add a half a million people visiting the city of Atlanta during the World Cup, and that’s going to impact the Beltline, clearly. And we’ve done a lot of work to prepare for that.”

For the Beltline, the timing is ideal—in June officials cut the ribbon on Westside Trail 4, which extends a Westside Trail that is currently the Beltline’s longest at 6.7 miles. The segment picks up at Lena Street and continues north to Law Street, where it connects with the Westside Beltline Connector—the spur route that can be used to get within a half-mile of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

“If you're staying somewhere on the on the Westside, you'll be able to get pretty close to the stadium from there,” Higgs said. By next summer, the Beltline on the map will look like an extended capital U wrapping around three sides of the city, “so you’ll be able to access Mercedes-Benz Stadium from the east, from the south, from the west. You'll have lots of options to get into the stadium, and that is the part that excites me.”

OFF THE RAILS

For the Beltline, though, Westside Trail 4 was the key piece of the puzzle as officials looked ahead to the 2026 World Cup. Of course, that was hardly a concern when planning for the route began in earnest in 2019—Atlanta and the 15 other host cities for the combined U.S./Mexico/Canada event weren’t formally announced until three years later. The most pressing issue was how to continue a railroad trail in areas where no old railroads existed.

Indeed, Westside Trail 4 quite literally went off the rails.

“A lot of people forget that the Beltline is a rail trail project. It’s a brownfield development. And while I would say about 70 percent of segment 4 was on rail, there was about 30 percent that was not,” said Britt Storck, director of landscape architecture at Alta Planning and Design, which developed the trail. “We had to use a lot of structural intervention, and coming up with those solutions was something our team did really well.”

While old railbeds aren’t flat, Storck added, their infrastructure tends to be fairly predictable, with bridges and other pieces of important connective tissue already in place. But in the case of Westside Trail 4, the old railbeds ended in a more urban area “that’s not necessarily set up for a shared-use path,” she added.

The lack of an existing rail corridor meant “we’re going to have to weave through streets and neighborhoods to make this a reality,” Higgs recalled. Early on, the Alta team spent lots of time vetting different route alternatives, with the final result skirting past a skate park and through a series of residential areas along Washington Park, a historically significant neighborhood established over a century ago as one of Atlanta’s first planned Black suburbs.

The Westside Trail 4 project includes a 14-footwide concrete multi-use path as well as vertical connections to adjoining streets, stainless steel handrails and guardrails, storm drainage, lighting and security cameras. The Alta team put in 168 different types of plants, and was able to show off its creative side in crafting hardscaped plazas and access points.

“We’re super thrilled with how it turned out,” Storck said. “Beltline staff are extremely dialed into their projects, ensuring their standards are met. “Our design team, Alta’s landscape architects and engineers, the construction team, and the builder, they all did a great job. We all work together as sort of this three-legged team to make sure that we’re all a part of this project.”

SLICING THE PIE

Clyde Higgs calls them the “Beltline ambassador force.” They’re men and women wearing green shirts and khaki pants who will be a regular presence on the Beltline— helping residents and visitors not only use the trail system to get to the 2026 World Cup matches, but also take advantage of the shops, cafes, coffee houses, and other commercial establishments that have sprung up alongside it.

“Let's say you're a visitor from Argentina or from Ghana, and you want to know where to get a good cup of coffee, or where there’s good shopping. The ambassador force will actually help you in that sense,” Higgs said. “Or if there is a concern that you might have, these men and women will help to create a better experience along the Beltline. Our priority is safety and security, and then also making sure that our businesses along the Beltline get a significant slice of this pie.”

Indeed, a key element of the Beltline from the very beginning has been the fact that it’s not just a trail—it’s also a driver of economic development. And there have been real successes on that front; located off the Eastside Trail, MailChimp estimates that a third of its workforce uses the Beltline to commute to work, Higgs said, taking 900 cars off the street. Through land purchases and partnerships, the Beltline is at nearly 77 percent of its goal of having 5,600 affordable housing units built within its Tax Allocation District by the end of 2030.

“When I joined the Beltline, our annual budget was about $33 million. Our board just allowed us to pass a $240 million budget,” said Higgs, who came aboard as chief operating officer in September of 2015. “We are literally in the throes of our heavy construction years for the Beltline. There's a lot of good activity going on there.”

And it will all be amped up during the 2026 World Cup, which, according to organizer FIFA, is expected to attract 3.7 million fans to the 11 host cities in the United States. Higgs envisions fans perhaps accessing the trail at Lee + White, a Lee Street development along the Beltline with a food hall and brewery. Or perhaps they’ll access Ponce Street Market, the former Sears building at Ponce de Leon Avenue, which features a wealth of shopping and dining options along the Eastside Trail.

“As the city of Atlanta experiences growth, and more international events like the World Cup are drawn to Atlanta, the Beltline is a key ingredient,” said Storck, an Atlanta native who sold lemonade and collectible pins as a high school student at the 1996 Olympics. “It provides a way to get around, allowing for this connectivity without needing a car. But then, it's also a destination in and of itself. The businesses, the restaurants, the parks along the way, the people who use the trail—it’s all just this beautiful cross-section of Atlanta.”

BEYOND 2026

The 2026 World Cup will come and go, but the Beltline will continue. With the Westside Trail in place, work will soon begin to focus on the northwest section of the oval—where the topography can be challenging, some bridges may need to be shored up, and like Westside Trail 4 there’s not always an existing railbed to build on. “That’s going to take significant effort,” Higgs said.

Even so, Higgs is confident that the Beltline remains on target to complete the full 22-mile loop by 2030, which was its original goal. After that, though, he envisions something even grander. Once the circle is finished, Higgs wants to start filling in the spokes in the middle.

“Beyond 2030, we'll have created this significant piece of infrastructure for the community, and we're very proud of the 45 neighborhoods that we will initially connect. But how beneficial would it be if we could connect to every single neighborhood in the city of Atlanta?” Higgs said. “Now that's ambitious, and we're having conversations about the appropriate funding mechanisms to make that happen.”

After all, the World Cup will hardly be the last major sporting event to visit Atlanta. The NFL’s Super Bowl is returning for the fourth time in 2019, and the men’s college basketball Final Four in 2031. With each year, each mile completed, each economic development success, and each big event awarded to the capital of the Peach State, the Atlanta Beltline becomes even more integral to the city’s transportation framework.

“We're improving how people move without needing a car, and that is what makes a city more of an international city,” Storck said. “So it's really cool to see that Beltline is such a huge, huge part of that inherent connectivity, and not just for transportation. It's something else to do while you're here. It's a way to see Atlanta beyond just sports.”