Biloxi Visitors Center — L&N Depot

The Louisville & Nashville Railroad depot on Main Street went up in 1929, mission-style arches and Spanish Revival bones built to handle passenger traffic on a line the L&N had opened in 1870. The tracks still run, but the depot changed jobs. It survived Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Katrina in 2005, and now it houses the Coastal Mississippi Visitor Center and the Mardi Gras Museum under the same tile roof. This is where you start. Maps, brochures, and locals behind the counter who know which direction you should actually head. Admission is free. The building earns the stop on its own — the architecture held when other things didn't — but the real value is orientation. The Gulf Coast runs wider and older than most visitors expect, and this depot sits at the center of it, doing the work depots have always done: helping people figure out where they're going next. The Amtrak Mardi Gras Service stops nearby now, closing the same passenger loop the L&N opened more than a century ago. The rails came back. Start here, then follow them.