A newly envisioned and magnificent Grand Central Terminal brought jaw-dropping prosperity to the heart of New York City after 10 years of reconstruction when it opened on this day in history, February 2, 1913.
Its spectacular Beaux-Arts design, sky-high rooftops, shopping and dining options, multiple rail and subway lines, mysterious “whispering walls” and the centerpiece of America’s largest city make Grand Central a major tourist attraction. Makes — as well as an important means of transportation. The center
“There are so many great train stations in the world, nothing like Grand Central,” said Greg Young, co-host and producer of “The Bowery Boys” podcast, a popular chronicle of New York City history.
On this day in history, Feb. 1, 1790, the United States Supreme Court meets for the first time in NYC
“When it opened, it took everyone’s breath away.”
It still does. An estimated 150,000 gawkers passed through Grand Central for its opening in 1913 — a mere fraction of the roughly 400,000 people, about the population of New Orleans, who now use the terminal every day.
Excavations for Grand Central Terminal, New York City, USA, Detroit Publishing Company, 1908.
(Photo by: GHI/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
According to various sources, Grand Central is, among many other claims to fame, the world’s largest train station in terms of area (49 acres) and train services (40 platforms, 67 tracks), according to multiple sources.
According to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the terminal handles 768 passenger train arrivals and departures each day, while subway trains make 2,400 stops at Grand Central each day.
“Grand Central took everyone’s breath away when it opened.” – Greg Young, “The Bowery Boys” podcast
And yet it continues to grow to serve the city, and serve the nation by proxy.
Grand Central Medicine, a massive expansion that was 16 years in the making, opened on January 25. It incorporates 16 acres and eight lines of the Long Island Railroad into the Grand Central complex, deep beneath the existing network of railroad tracks — about 140 feet. Below street level.
Wild video captures Grand Central escalator fight and mayhem after suspect allegedly punches victim
The new concourse will handle an additional 296 arrivals and departures daily with full service.
“Grand Central Terminal is not only a station, but a monument, a civic center, or, if one will, a city,” declared the New York Times on February 3, 1913, the day after it opened.
Grand Central Madison opened on January 25, 2023 at Grand Central Terminal in New York City, greatly expanding access to Long Island for the world’s largest train station.
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
“Without exception, it is not only the largest station in the United States, but the largest of any kind in the world.”
The media outlet called the previous Grand Central “a cruel disgrace” in 1899, as it grew so fast that a city bursting at the edges was turned into a new world-class transportation hub. was
On this day in history, November. 18, 1883, North American Railroads Create Time Zones, Reshape Global Life
The original Grand Central Depot was built in 1871 by railroad titan Cornelius Vanderbilt. It was replaced in 1899 by the much larger but widely panned Grand Central Terminal.
Construction began in 1903 on the current historic site.
A spectacular new city skyline rose around the new Grand Central after it opened in 1913.
After Grand Central Terminal opened in 1913, a spectacular new skyline sprang up around it, including the Chrysler Building in 1930. It was the tallest building in the world at that time.
(Kerry J. Byrne/)
The Chrysler Building was the tallest building in the world when it opened in 1930, just east of Grand Central.
The new skyscraper One Vanderbilt, which opened in 2020, towers over the terminal’s west entrance.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams on Empire State Building Lighting Firestorm: ‘It got away from us’
At 1,401 feet tall, One Vanderbilt is the fourth tallest building in New York City, 150 feet taller than the world-famous Empire State Building.
Its four-story observatory, a popular tourist attraction, is accessible via Grand Central.
The lavish terminal paved the way, quite literally, for one of America’s most lavish routes.
Young of “The Bowery Boys” podcast said Park Avenue sits atop what were once open-air tracks that created “a disgusting little gash” polluted by steam engines in midtown Manhattan.
Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan opened in 1913, just 30 years after the railroads introduced the creation of time zones.
(Kerry J. Byrne/)
The advent of electric trains in the late 1800s made it possible to close the gash and place the entire infrastructure of Grand Central underground.
Park Avenue and his magnificent high-rises for New York City’s nouveau riche eclipsed the eyes.
The terminal is located between 42nd and 45th Streets on the east side of Midtown Manhattan. Park Avenue is actually elevated between these cross streets to wrap around the east and west sides of the terminal.
“Jackie Kennedy Onassis led an effort to get landmark status for the terminal in the 1970s – taking the fight all the way to the Supreme Court.”
Grand Central once again fell into disrepair and disrepair in the 1970s when a developer proposed tearing down the main concourse and replacing it with a skyscraper.
Jackie Kennedy Onassis led an effort to get historic status for the terminal – taking the fight to the Supreme Court.
Sunlight at Grand Central, 1937.
(Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
The high court ruled in favor of New York City in 1978, allowing it to block development in the name of historic preservation.
“Grand Central Terminal stands as a universal symbol between New York City’s past and present,” Onassis is often quoted as saying.
It is rightly known as Grand Central. terminal – Not a station, as it is commonly called.
Visitors also marvel at the whispering walls below the main concourse where visitors can quietly converse with each other over great distances, as sound travels up through the corrugated ceiling.
Passenger train routes that go up New York, Long Island and Connecticut originate and terminate at Grand Central. No one passes.
Grand Central serves as a station, however, for the five New York City subway lines that run deep beneath it – creating an extraordinary network of tracks on multiple levels, which is Grand Central Madison. It got more complicated as the final week began.
Click here to sign up for our lifestyle newsletter.
One of these subway lines, the S (Shuttle) train, stops only about four blocks west of Times Square. It then makes the two-minute return trip to Grand Central. The shuttle runs back and forth between the two Midtown hubs 18 hours a day.
Detail of the facade of Grand Central Terminal on June 15, 2012 in New York City.
(Victor Friel/Corbis via Getty Images)
Grand Central’s decorative highlights include its vast celestial ceiling of more than 2,500 stars, including astrological constellations such as Aquarius and Cancer, set in gold against a turquoise background.
Visitors are also amazed by the whispering walls below the main concourse where visitors can quietly converse with each other over great distances as the sound travels up to the corrugated ceiling. and Grand Central’s signature 14-foot central Tiffany clock.
it was The world’s largest Tiffany clock 1914 when it was installed.
“Grand Central Terminal is a story of great engineering, survival and rebirth,” says the website of Grand Central Terminal, which is operated by Metro-North Railroad, which serves New York and Connecticut.
Adds “Bowery Boys” co-host Young, “Grand Central symbolizes New York City as this world-renowned symbol of incredible wealth coming out of the Gilded Age, and in many ways the capital city of the United States. “
Read full article here