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Grand Central Terminal

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Architecture; Railway
transport

   The main concourse
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   The main concourse
   Grand Central Terminal at Night
   Enlarge
   Grand Central Terminal at Night

   Grand Central Terminal (GCT, often still called Grand Central Station)
   is a terminal rail station at 15 Vanderbilt Avenue ( 42nd Street and
   Park Avenue) in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Built by the New
   York Central Railroad (for which it was named) in the heyday of
   American long-distance passenger trains, it is the largest train
   station in the world by number of platforms: 44, with 67 tracks along
   them. They are on two underground levels, with 41 tracks on the upper
   level and 26 on the lower.

   It serves commuters traveling on the Metro-North Railroad to
   Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties in New York State, and
   Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut.

   Although it has been properly called "Grand Central Terminal" for a
   century, many people continue to refer to it as "Grand Central
   Station". Technically, that is the name of the nearby post office, as
   well as the name of a previous rail station on the site.

Layout

   Besides train platforms, Grand Central contains restaurants (the most
   famous of which is the Oyster Bar) and fast food outlets (surrounding
   the Dining Concourse on the level below the Main Concourse), delis,
   bakeries, newsstands, a gourmet and fresh food market, an annex of the
   New York Transit Museum and over 40 retail stores.

Main Concourse

   The clock in the Main Concourse.© 2004 Metropolitan Transportation
   Authority
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   The clock in the Main Concourse.
   © 2004 Metropolitan Transportation Authority
   Grand Central Terminal, along 42nd Street, next to the Grand Hyatt New
   York and the Chrysler Building.
   Enlarge
   Grand Central Terminal, along 42nd Street, next to the Grand Hyatt New
   York and the Chrysler Building.

   The Main Concourse is the center of Grand Central. The space is
   cavernous and usually filled with bustling crowds. The ticket booths
   are here, although many now stand unused or repurposed since the
   introduction of ticket vending machines. The large American flag was
   hung in Grand Central Terminal a few days after the attacks on the
   World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The unusual ceiling of the
   Main Concourse is described below. The main information booth is in the
   centre of the concourse. This is a perennial meeting place, and the
   four-faced clock on top of the information booth is perhaps the most
   recognizable icon of Grand Central. Each of the four clock faces are
   made from opal, and both Sotheby's and Christie's have estimated the
   value to be $10m-$20m. Within the marble and brass pagoda lies a secret
   door that conceals a spiral staircase leading to the lower level
   information booth.

   Outside the station, the clock in front of the Grand Central facade
   facing 42nd Street contains the world's largest example of Tiffany
   glass and is surrounded by sculptures carved by the John Donnelly
   Company of Minerva, Hercules and Mercury. For the terminal building
   French sculptor Jules-Alexis Coutan created what was at the time of its
   unveiling (1914) considered to be the largest sculptural group in the
   world. It was 48 feet (14.6 m) high, the clock in the centre having a
   circumference of 13 feet (4 m).

   The upper level tracks are reached from the Main Concourse or from
   various hallways and passages branching off from it.

Ceiling

   In fall 1998, a 12-year restoration of Grand Central revealed the
   original lustre of the Main Concourse's elaborately decorated
   astronomical ceiling. The original ceiling, painted in 1912 by French
   artist Paul César Helleu, was eventually replaced in the late 1930s to
   correct falling plaster of the original ceiling. This new ceiling had
   been obscured by decades of what people thought was coal and diesel
   smoke. Spectroscopic examination revealed that it was actually tar and
   nicotine from tobacco smoke. A single dark patch remains above Michael
   Jordan's Steak House, left untouched by renovators to remind visitors
   of the grime that once covered the ceiling.

   There are two peculiarities to this ceiling: the sky is backwards, and
   the stars are slightly displaced. One explanation is that the ceiling
   is based on a medieval manuscript, which visualized the sky as it would
   look from outside the celestial sphere: this is why the constellations
   are backwards. Since the celestial sphere is an abstraction (stars are
   not all at equal distances from Earth), this view does not correspond
   to the actual view from anywhere in the universe. The reason for the
   displacement of the stars is that the manuscript showed a (reflected)
   view of the sky in the Middle Ages, and since then the stars have
   shifted due to precession of the equinoxes. Most people, however,
   simply think that Helleu reversed the image by accident. Embarrassed,
   the Vanderbilts explained it away by saying that the ceiling depicted
   the heavens as they would look outside the celestial sphere, from God's
   vantage point.
   The Redstone missile making a guest appearance.
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   The Redstone missile making a guest appearance.

   There is a small dark circle in the midst of the stars right above the
   image of Pisces. In a 1957 attempt to counteract feelings of insecurity
   spawned by the Soviet launch of Sputnik, Grand Central's Main Concourse
   played host to an American Redstone missile. With no other way of
   erecting the missile, the hole had to be cut in order to lift it into
   place. Historical Preservation dictated that this hole remain (as
   opposed to being repaired) as a testament to the many uses of the
   Terminal over the years.

Dining Concourse and lower level tracks

   The Dining Concourse is below the Main Concourse. It contains many fast
   food outlets and restaurants, including the world-famous Oyster Bar
   with its Guastavino tile vaults, surrounding central seating and lounge
   areas and provides access to the lower level tracks. The two levels are
   connected by numerous stairs, ramps, and escalators.

Vanderbilt Hall and Campbell Apartment

   Vanderbilt Hall, named for the Vanderbilt family who built and owned
   the station, is just off the Main Concourse. It is used and rented out
   for various events. The Campbell Apartment is an elegantly restored
   cocktail lounge located, just south of the 43rd Street/Vanderbilt
   Avenue entrance, that attracts a mix of commuters and tourists. It was
   not only the office of 1920s tycoon, John W. Campbell, but for a time
   his home, and is designed to replicate the galleried hall of a
   13th-century Florentine palace.

Omega Board

   The Omega Board was an electromechanical display used to display the
   times and track numbers of arriving and departing trains. It contained
   rows of flip panels to display train information. It became a New York
   institution, as its many displays would flap simultaneously to reflect
   changes in train schedules, an indicator of just how busy Grand Central
   was. A small example of this type now hangs in the Museum of Modern Art
   as an example of outstanding industrial design.

   It was replaced with an LED display during renovation in the 1990s.

Subway station

   The subway platforms at Grand Central are reached from the Main
   Concourse. Built by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) rather
   than the New York Central Railroad, the subway areas of the station
   lack the majesty that is present throughout most of the rest of Grand
   Central, although they are in similar condition to its track levels.
   The shuttle platforms were originally the express stop on the original
   IRT line, opened in 1904. Once the IRT Lexington Avenue Line was
   extended uptown in 1918, the original tracks were converted to shuttle
   use. One track remains connected to the downtown Lexington Avenue local
   track but is not in revenue service. A fire in the 1960s destroyed much
   of the shuttle station, which has been rebuilt. The only sign of the
   fire damage is truncated steel beams visible above the platforms.

Grand Central North

   Grand Central North, opened on August 18, 1999, provides access to
   Grand Central from 47th and 48th streets. It is connected to the Main
   Concourse through two long hallways, the Northwest Passage (1000 feet
   long) and Northeast Passage (1200 feet long), which run parallel to the
   tracks. Entrances are at the northeast corner of East 47th Street and
   Madison Avenue (Northwest Passage), northeast corner of East 48th
   Street and Park Avenue (Northeast Passage) and on the east and west
   sides of 230 Park Avenue ( Helmsley Building). Ellen Driscoll, an
   artist from Brooklyn, designed the mosaics in Grand Central North.

   The entrances to Grand Central North were originally open from 6:30 AM
   to 9:30 PM Monday through Friday and 9 AM to 9:30 PM on Saturday and
   Sunday. As of summer 2006, Grand Central North was closed on weekends,
   with the MTA citing low usage and the need to save money by the
   shutdown . Prior to the closing, about 6,000 people used Grand Central
   North on a typical weekend , and about 30,000 on weekdays.

   Ideas for a northern entrance to Grand Central were floated around
   since at least the 1970s. Construction on Grand Central North lasted
   from 1994 to 1999 and cost $112 million. It was originally scheduled to
   be completed within three years on a budget of $70 million. Delays were
   attributed to the incomplete nature of the original blueprints of Grand
   Central and previously undiscovered groundwater underneath East 45th
   Street. As of 2006, the passages are not air-conditioned.

   The depths of the passages in relation to the terminal are:
     * Metro-North Railroad upper level, 20 feet below street
     * Northwest and Northeast passages, 20 feet
     * 47th Street cross-passage, 30 feet
     * 45th Street cross-passage, 50 feet
     * Metro-North Railroad lower level, 60 feet

History

   Three buildings serving essentially the same function have stood on
   this site. The original large and imposing scale was intended by the
   New York Central Railroad to enhance competition and compare favorably
   in the public eye with the arch-rival Pennsylvania Railroad and smaller
   lines.

Grand Central Depot

   Looking out the north end of the Murray Hill Tunnel towards the station
   in 1880. Note the labels for the New York and Harlem and New York and
   New Haven Railroads; the New York Central and Hudson River was off to
   the left. The two larger portals on the right allowed some horse-drawn
   trains to continue further downtown.
   Enlarge
   Looking out the north end of the Murray Hill Tunnel towards the station
   in 1880. Note the labels for the New York and Harlem and New York and
   New Haven Railroads; the New York Central and Hudson River was off to
   the left. The two larger portals on the right allowed some horse-drawn
   trains to continue further downtown.

   Grand Central Depot was designed to bring the trains of the New York
   Central and Hudson River Railroad, the New York and Harlem Railroad,
   and the New York and New Haven Railroad together in one large station.
   The station opened in October 1871. The original plan was for the
   Harlem Railroad to start using it on October 9, 1871 (moving from their
   27th Street depot), the New Haven Railroad on October 16, and the
   Hudson River Railroad on October 23, with the staggering done to
   minimize confusion. However the Hudson River Railroad did not move to
   it until November 1, which puts the other two dates in doubt. The
   headhouse building containing passenger service areas and railroad
   offices was an "L" shape with a short leg running east-west on 42nd
   Street and a long leg running north-south on Vanderbilt Avenue. The
   train shed, north and east of the headhouse, had two innovations in
   U.S. practice: the platforms were elevated to the height of the cars,
   and the roof was a balloon shed with a clear span over all of the
   tracks.

   The New Haven and New York Central trains were initially in side by
   side different stations creating chaos in baggage transfer. The
   combined Grand Central Station service both railroads.

   Cornelius Vanderbilt died on the same day that a blizzard caused a
   collapse of the glass roof.

Grand Central Station

   The exterior of Grand Central Station c. 1904.

   The interior of Grand Central Station c. 1904.

   Between 1899 and 1900, the headhouse was essentially demolished (it was
   expanded from three to six stories and an entirely new facade put on
   it) but the train shed was kept. The tracks that had previously
   continued south of 42nd Street were removed and the train yard
   reconfigured in an effort to reduce congestion and turn-around time for
   trains. The reconstructed building was renamed Grand Central Station.

Grand Central Terminal

Construction

   View in the excavation for the new Grand Central Station, Sept. 1907
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   View in the excavation for the new Grand Central Station, Sept. 1907

   Between 1903 and 1913, the entire building was torn down in phases and
   replaced by the current Grand Central Terminal, which was designed by
   the architectural firms of Reed and Stern and Warren and Wetmore, who
   entered an agreement to act as the associated architects of Grand
   Central Terminal in February 1904. Reed & Stern were responsible for
   the overall design of the station, Warren and Wetmore added
   architectural details and the Beaux-Arts style. Charles Reed was
   appointed the chief executive for the collaboration between the two
   firms, and promptly appointed Alfred T. Fellheimer as head of the
   combined design team. This work was accompanied by the electrification
   of the three railroads using the station and the burial of the approach
   in the Park Avenue tunnel. The result of this was the creation of
   several blocks worth of prime real estate in Manhattan, which were then
   sold for a large sum of money. The new terminal opened on February 2,
   1913.

   French sculptor Jules-Alexis Coutan created what was at the time of its
   unveiling (1914) considered to be the largest sculptural group in the
   world. It was 48 feet high, the clock in the centre having a
   circumference of 13 feet. It depicted Mercury flanked by Hercules and
   Minerva and was carved by the John Donnelly Company.

Covering Park Avenue

   In order to accommodate ever-growing rail traffic into the restricted
   Midtown area, William J. Wilgus, chief engineer of the New York Central
   Railroad took advantage of the recent electrification technology to
   propose a novel scheme: a bi-level station below ground.

   Arriving trains would go underground under Park Avenue, and proceed to
   an upper-level incoming station if they were mainline trains, or to a
   lower-level platform if they were suburban trains. In addition, turning
   loops within the station itself obviated complicated switching moves to
   bring back the trains to the coach yards for servicing. Departing
   mainline trains reversed into upper-level platforms in the conventional
   way.

   Burying electric trains underground brought an additional advantage to
   the railroads: the ability to sell above-ground air rights over the
   tracks and platforms for real-estate development. With time, all the
   area around Grand Central saw prestigious apartment and office
   buildings being erected, which turned the area into the most desirable
   commercial office district of Manhattan.

   The terminal also did away with bifurcating Park Avenue by introducing
   a "circumferential elevated driveway" that allowed Park Avenue traffic
   to traverse around the building and over 42nd Street without
   encumbering nearby streets. The building was also designed to be able
   to eventually reconnect both segments of 43rd Street by going through
   the concourse if the City of New York demanded it.
   Upper level (mainline) layout
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   Upper level (mainline) layout
   Lower level (suburban) layout
   Enlarge
   Lower level (suburban) layout

Terminal City

   View of Grand Central around 1918.
   Enlarge
   View of Grand Central around 1918.

   The construction of Grand Central created a mini-city within New York,
   including the Commodore Hotel and various office buildings. It spurred
   construction throughout the neighbourhood in the 1920s including the
   Chrysler Building.

   In 1928, the New York Central built its headquarters in a 34-story
   building (now called the Helmsley Building) straddling Park Avenue on
   the north side of the Terminal.

   From 1948 to 1964 CBS headquartered its intial television broadcasting
   centre in the station in "Studio 40". The CBS Evening News began its
   broadcasts there with Douglas Edwards. Many of the historic events
   during this period, such as John Glenn's Mercury Atlas 6 space mission,
   were broadcast from this location (although the Walter Cronkite
   broadcasts were from studios in Washington, D.C.). Broadcasts from the
   studio were famed for shaky videos caused by train arrivals.

Proposals for demolition and towers

   In 1947, over 65 million people, the equivalent of 40% of the
   population of the United States, traveled through Grand Central.
   However railroads soon fell into a major decline with competition from
   automobiles and intercity plane traffic.

   In 1954 William Zeckendorf proposed replacing Grand Central with an
   80-story, 4.8-million square foot tower, 500 feet taller than the
   Empire State Building. I. M. Pei created a pinched-cylinder design that
   took the form of a glass cylinder with a wasp waist. The plan was
   abandoned. In 1955 Erwin S. Wolfson made his first proposal for a tower
   north of the Terminal replacing the Terminal's six-story office
   building. A revised Wolfson plan was approved in 1958 and the Pan Am
   Building (now the MetLife Building) was completed in 1963.

   Although the Pan Am Building bought time for the terminal, the New York
   Central Railroad continued its precipitous decline. In 1968, facing
   bankruptcy, it merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad to form the Penn
   Central Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad was in its own precipitous
   decline and in 1964 had demolished Pennsylvania Station to make way for
   an office building and the new Madison Square Garden.

   In 1968 Penn Central unveiled plans for a tower designed by Marcel
   Breuer even bigger than the Pan Am Building to be built over Grand
   Central.

   The plans drew huge opposition including most prominently Jacqueline
   Kennedy Onassis. She said

          "Is it not cruel to let our city die by degrees, stripped of all
          her proud monuments, until there will be nothing left of all her
          history and beauty to inspire our children? If they are not
          inspired by the past of our city, where will they find the
          strength to fight for her future? Americans care about their
          past, but for short term gain they ignore it and tear down
          everything that matters. Maybe… this is the time to take a
          stand, to reverse the tide, so that we won't all end up in a
          uniform world of steel and glass boxes."

   New York City filed a suit to stop the construction. The resulting
   case, Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City (1978), was the
   first time that the Supreme Court ruled on a matter of historic
   preservation. The Court saved the terminal, basing its decision on the
   notion that only if a change to a historic structure prevented said
   structure's owner from bankruptcy could such an alteration be made.

   Penn Central went into bankruptcy in 1970 in what was then the biggest
   corporate bankruptcy in American history. Its successor, American
   Premier Underwriters, continues to own the station. The Metropolitan
   Transportation Authority (MTA) via Metro North in 1993 signed a long
   term lease and began a massive restoration.

Restorations

Donald Trump

   Grand Central both inside and outside and its neighbourhood fell on
   hard times during the financial collapse of its host railroads as well
   as the near bankruptcy of New York City itself.

   In 1974 Donald Trump bought the Commodore Hotel to the east of the
   terminal for $10 million and then worked out a deal with Jay Pritzker
   to transform it into one of the first Grand Hyatt hotels. Trump
   negotiated various tax breaks and in the process agreed to renovate the
   exterior of the terminal. The complementary masonry from the Commodore
   was replaced with glass. In the same deal Trump optioned Penn Central's
   rail yards on the Hudson River between 59th and 72nd Streets that would
   eventually become Trump Place—the biggest private development in New
   York City.

   The Grand Hyatt opened in 1980 and the neighbourhood immediately began
   a transformation. Trump sold his interest in the hotel for $142
   million, establishing him as a big-time player in New York real estate.

Metro-North

   Throughout this period the interior of Grand Central was characterized
   by huge billboard advertisements, with perhaps the most famous being
   the giant Kodak Colorama photos running along the entire east side and
   the Westclox "Big Ben" clock over the south concourse.

   Amtrak left the station on April 7, 1991, with the completion of the
   Empire Connection, which allowed trains from Albany, Toronto and
   Montreal to use Penn Station. Previously, travellers would have to
   change stations via subway, bus, or cab. Since then, Grand Central has
   exclusively served Metro-North Railroad.

   In 1993 the MTA and Metro-North signed a long term lease on the
   building and began massive renovations. All the billboards were
   removed. These renovations were mostly finished in 1998, though some of
   the minor refits (such as the replacement of electromechanical train
   information displays by the entry of each track with electronic
   displays) were not completed until 2000. The most striking effect was
   the restoration of the Main Concourse ceiling, revealing the painted
   skyscape and constellations. The original baggage room, later converted
   into retail space and occupied for many years by Chemical Bank, was
   removed, and replaced with a mirror image of the West Stairs. Although
   the baggage room had been designed by the original architects, the
   restoration architects found evidence that a set of stairs mirroring
   those to the West was originally intended for that space. Other
   modifications included a complete overhaul of the Terminal's
   superstructure and the replacement of the electromechanical Omega Board
   train arrival/departure display with a purely electronic display that
   was designed to fit into the architecture of the Terminal
   aesthetically.

   The original quarry in Tennessee was located and reopened specifically
   for the purpose of providing matching stone for not only replacement of
   damaged stone, but also the new East Staircase. Each piece of new stone
   was required to carry a marking on it denoting its installation date,
   and the fact that it was not a part of the original Terminal building.

   The exterior is once again being cleaned and restored, starting with
   the west façade on Vanderbilt Avenue and gradually working
   counterclockwise. The northern facade, abutting the MetLife Building,
   will be left as is. The project involves cleaning the facade, rooftop
   light courts and statues; filling in cracks, repointing the stones on
   the façade, restoring the copper roof and the building's cornice,
   repairing the large windows of the Main Concourse, and removing the
   remaining blackout paint that was applied to the windows during World
   War II. The result will be a cleaner, more attractive and structurally
   sound exterior, and the windows will allow much more light into the
   Main Concourse. The work should be finished in 2007; as of 2006,
   restoration of the west and south façades has been completed.

LIRR's East Side Access Project

   The MTA is in the midst of an ambitious project to bring Long Island
   Rail Road trains into the terminal via the East Side Access Project.
   The project was spurred by a study that showed that more than half of
   the LIRR riders work closer to Grand Central than Penn Station.

   A new bi-level, eight-track tunnel will be excavated under Park Avenue,
   more than 90 feet below the Metro-North track and more than 140 feet
   below the surface. Commuters on the lowest level, more than 175 feet
   deep, will take about 10 minutes to reach the street.

   LIRR trains will access Park Avenue via the existing lower level of the
   63rd Street Tunnel, connecting to its main line running through
   Sunnyside Yards in Queens. Extensions are being added on both the
   Manhattan and Queens sides.

   Cost estimates jumped from $4.4 billion in 2004 to $6.4 billion in
   2006. The MTA has said that some small buildings on the route in
   Manhattan will be torn down to make way for air vents. Edward Cardinal
   Egan has criticized the plan, noting concerns about the tracks, which
   will largely be on the west side of Park Avenue, and their impact on
   St. Patrick's Cathedral.

   The project is scheduled for completion by 2012.

Impact on design of transit centers

   The design for Grand Central was an innovation in the way transit hubs
   were designed, and continues to influence designers to this day. One
   new concept was the use of ramps (as opposed to staircases) for
   conducting the flow of traffic through the facility (as well as aiding
   with the transport of luggage to and from the trains). Another was the
   wrapping of Park Avenue around the Terminal above the street, creating
   a second level for the picking up and dropping off of passengers. As
   airline travel superseded the railroads in the latter half of the 20th
   century, the design innovations of Grand Central were later
   incorporated into the hub airports that were built.

Grand Central Terminal in popular culture

Statistics

   Size
          Covers 49 acres (20 ha) of land, 33 miles (53 km) of track, 44
          platforms

   Trains
          660 Metro-North commuter trains

   Commuters
          About 125,000 a day

   Visitors
          575,000 a day

   Cost of renovation 1996–98
          $250 million

   Retail Businesses
          95

   Oldest Business
          Oyster Bar, opened 1913

   Meals served in terminal daily
          10,000

   Percentage of trains on time
          98

   Items in lost and found
          19,000

   Most frequently lost item
          Coats [up to 2,000 a year]

   Return Rate
          Over 60%, close to 98% for computers and iPods

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