When Elwyn Tomlinson founded Capital Automobile Company back in 1931, he had no way of knowing that he was launching a family business that would thrive for generations to come. What he did know was how very important customer service was, especially when selling high-end automobiles and he insisted that every customer would be treated like family. Over the next 80 years Capital Automobile Company evolved into Georgia’s largest Cadillac dealer, Capital Cadillac.
As you can imagine, over 90 years of family history is full of intriguing events, including a love story, family tragedy and success and growth beyond imagination. When Mr. Tomlinson died in 1964, his son, Elwyn C. Tomlinson became president of the company. Tragically, the young Tomlinson was killed in an automobile accident in 1977. At that time, Billy Bridges, the elder Tomlinson’s son-in-law took over the company. At 19 years of age, young Bridges, a freshman at Georgia Tech began his illustrious career in the automobile business when he worked at Capital as a car jockey. He fell in love with and married Tomlinson’s daughter, Kathryn, and the rest is history.
Through the decades, Capital Cadillac has served a who’s who of Atlanta political and social celebrities. Robert Woodruff, Bobby Jones, Ivan Allen, Maynard Jackson and even Evil Kneivel, along with thousands of other customer have enjoyed the superior customer service and incredible buying experience provided by Capital Cadillac.
Kathryn and Billy Bridges have five children and now have 12 grandchildren. All of them live in Atlanta. Their oldest son, William, joined the business in 1980, Elwyn a few years later and Walter in 1986. William Bridges has been the President of Capital Cadillac since 1998. After having run our Saturn Operations for the last 20 years, Elwyn moved back to Capital Cadillac in 2010 and is now our General Manager. Walter is the General Manager of our newest acquisition, Capital Buick GMC. Capital Cadillac employs 110 people and offer a vast selection of new and pre-owned Cadillacs, a Service, Parts, and Collision Center to maintain and repair these vehicles, plus a personalization department that offer both GM accessories, as well as those from Vogue and other independent accessory providers.
