Union Station

The L & N Station (originally Union Passenger Station or Birmingham Passenger Station) was a passenger rail station for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad's service to Birmingham.

It was constructed on the site of the former Relay House hotel by the L&N Railroad for $134,163. It was Birmingham's first true railway station, taking the place of a series of wood-framed shelters over the passenger platforms that preceded it. It opened on April 1, 1887 and L&Ns Engine No. 95, under the control of W. L. Rosser was the first locomotive to pull in. The station master was C. E. Meglemry.

When it opened the station served not only the L&N Railroad, but also the Alabama Great Southern Railroad and the Georgia-Pacific Railway. Over the years it also served the Birmingham Mineral Railroad, the Southern Railway, the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham Railroad, the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railway, and the Central of Georgia Railway. All service except for the L&N and AB&A trains moved to the Birmingham Terminal Station in 1909, prompting the Union Station to become known as the L&N Station.

The station's large train shed was dismantled in the 1930's to accommodate Birmingham's downtown grade separation project, allowing foot and automobile traffic to make safe crossings of the Railroad Reservation. At the site of the station the railroad was elevated above grade level, permitting an underpass at 20th Street North.

The station, past its prime and serving only a fraction of the passenger traffic it once hosted, was relocated in 1960 to a smaller facility one block west in advance of the construction of the 1962 Bank for Savings Building. That passenger station was taken over by AmTrak in the 1970s and remains in use until the Birmingham Central Station is expanded to handle passenger rail traffic.