Download or read book Gastonia and Gaston County, North Carolina written by Piper Peters Aheron and published by Arcadia Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Located west of the Catawba River in the fertile North Carolina Piedmont, Gaston County brims with neighborly people and majestic vistas. With the advent of railroads in a Reconstructed South, the county united from High Shoals to Crowders Mountain and from Mount Holly to Bessemer City. Gastonia Station was born at the crossroads, and by 1910 the city's economy thrived and its population boomed. In 1926, Gaston residents again embraced progress as they witnessed the completion of the state's first four-lane highway through the area. While it eased the crowded trains and trolleys, the boulevard, now known as Franklin, would forever alter the rural landscape.