Grand CentralTerminal一瞥(A)

黄安年文  黄安年的博客/2015年8月18日下午美东时间;19日凌晨北京时间发布

从5月28日到8月7日,我20次来曼哈顿,其中18次是乘坐火车到Grand CentralTerminal转向曼哈顿各地的,加上回程实际上经Grand CentralTerminal有36次,但是每次都来去匆匆,为了赶路而非刻意观察,只是随意拍摄了一些片断。

（A）26张,（B）11张。

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Grand Central Terminal

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This article is about Grand Central Terminal. For the New York City Subway station that isunderneath the terminal, see Grand Central – 42ndStreet (New York City Subway). For other stations with the name, see Grand Central Station(disambiguation).

Grand Central Terminal (GCT) is a commuter(and former intercity) railroad terminalat 42nd Street and Park Avenue in MidtownManhattan in New York City, UnitedStates.^{[N 1]} Built by and named for the New York Central Railroad in the heydayof American long-distance passenger rail travel, it covers 48 acres(19 ha) and has 44 platforms, more than any other railroad station inthe world.^[5] Its platforms, all below ground, serve 41 tracks on the upper leveland 26 on the lower, though the total number of tracks along platforms and in rail yardsexceeds 100.

The terminal 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.Until 1991, the terminal served Amtrak, which moved to nearby Pennsylvania Station uponcompletion of the Empire Connection. The EastSide Access project is underway to bring Long Island Rail Road service to theterminal.

Although the terminal has been properly called "Grand CentralTerminal" since 1913, it has "always been more colloquially andaffectionately known as Grand Central Station", which is the name of theprevious rail station on the same site, and also the name of the U.S.Post Office station next door which is not part of the terminal.^[6] "Grand Central Station" is also sometimes used to refer to the Grand Central – 42ndStreet subway station, which serves the terminal.

Grand Central Terminal features both monumental spaces and meticulouslycrafted detail.^[7] In a February 2013 BBC News article, historian David Cannadine described itone of the most majestic buildings of the twentieth century.^[8] In 2013, Grand Central Terminal hosted 21.6 million visitors, rendering itone of the ten most-visited tourist attractions worldwide.^[9]

In 2006, Argent Ventures transferred ownership of thestation to Midtown TDR Ventures. The MetropolitanTransportation Authority, the state agency that is the parent ofMetro-North, holds a lease until 2274.^[10]

Contents

[hide]

• 1     Layout

• 1.1      Main Concourse

• 1.1.1       Display board

• 1.1.2       Ceiling

• 1.2      Dining Concourse and lower level tracks

• 1.3      Vanderbilt Hall and Campbell Apartment

• 1.4      Subway station

• 1.5      Grand Central North

• 1.6      Platforms and tracks

• 2     History

• 2.1      Grand Central Depot

• 2.2      Grand Central Station

• 2.3      Grand Central Terminal

• 2.3.1       Covering Park Avenue

• 2.3.2       Terminal City

• 2.3.3       Grand Central Art Galleries

• 2.3.4       Proposals for demolition and towers

• 2.4      Bombing

• 2.5      Restorations and expansion

• 2.5.1       Donald Trump restoration

• 2.5.2       Metro-North operation and centennial

• 2.5.3       Long Island Rail Road access

• 2.6      Miscellaneous events

• 3     Influence on design of transit centers

• 4     In popular culture

• 5 See     also

• 6     References

• 7     External links

Layout[edit]

Grand Central Terminal, on 42nd  Street

Diagram of the Upper Level of the main Terminal (1939)

The tracks are numbered according to their location in the terminalbuilding. The upper-level tracks are numbered 11 to 42 east to west. Tracks22 and 31 were removed in the late 1990s to build concoursesfor Grand Central North. Track 12 was removed to expand the platform betweentracks 11 and 13 and track 14 is only used for loading a garbage train.

The lower level has 27 tracks, numbered 100 to 126, east to west;currently, only tracks 102–112, and 114–116 are used for passenger service.Odd-numbered tracks are usually on the east side (right side facing north) ofthe platform; even-numbered tracks on the west.

The public timetables for April 3, 2011, show 286 weekday departures: 74 Hudson, 101 Harlem and 111 New Haven Line.

Grand Central has restaurants, such as the Oyster Barand various fast food outlets surrounding the Dining Concourse on the levelbelow the Main Concourse, as well as delis, bakeries, newsstands, a gourmet andfresh food market, an annex of the New York Transit Museum, and more than 40retail stores. Among them are chain stores, including a Starbuckscoffee shop, a RiteAid pharmacy and, as of December 2011, an AppleStore.^[11][12] Other chain restaurants include a ShakeShack,^[13] which is open as of October 2013^[update].^[14]

A "secret" sub-basement known as M42 lies under the Terminal,containing the AC to DC converters used to supply DC traction current to the Terminal.The exact location of M42 is a closely guarded secret and does not appear onmaps, though it has been shown on television, most notably, the History Channel program Cities of the Underworld and also a National Geographic special. Two of theoriginal rotary converters were not removed in the late20th century when solid-state ones took over their job, and they remain as ahistorical record. During World War II, this facility was closely guardedbecause its sabotage would have impaired troop movement on the Eastern Seaboard.^[15][16][17] It is said that any unauthorized person entering the facility during thewar risked being shot on sight; the rotary converters could have easily beencrippled by a bucket of sand.^[18]Abwehr (aGerman espionage service) sent two spies to sabotage it; they were arrested bythe FBI before they could strike.

The basements were 49 acres (20 ha), and Grand Central Terminal'sbasements are among the largest basements in the city.^[15]

From 1924 through 1944, the attic of the east wing contained a7,000-square-foot (650 m²) art school and gallery space called the Grand Central School of Art.^[19]

Main Concourse[edit]

Main Concourse (2013)

Ticket windows

The Main Concourseis the center of Grand Central. The space is cavernous – 275 ft(84 m) long, 120 ft (37 m) wide and 125 ft (38 m) high^[20]:74 – and usually filled with bustling crowds. The ticket booths are in theConcourse, although many now stand unused or have been repurposed since theintroduction of ticket vending machines. The large American flag was hung in Grand CentralTerminal a few days after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The maininformation booth is in the center of the concourse. This is a perennialmeeting place, and the four-faced clock on top of the information booth isperhaps the most recognizable icon of Grand Central. The clock, designed by Henry Edward Bedford and cast in Waterbury Connecticut, is made from brass.^[21] Each of the four clock faces is made from opalescent glass (now oftencalled opal glass or milk glass), though urban legend has it that the facesare made of opal and that Sotheby's and Christie'shave estimated their value to be between $10 million and $20 million. A 1954 New York Timesarticle^[22] on the restoration of the clock notes that "Each of the glass faceswas twenty-four inches in diameter...". Within the marble and brass pagodalies a "secret" door that conceals a spiral staircase leading to thelower-level information booth.

Hercules,Minerva and Mercury, statuary by Jules-Félix Coutan, atop the terminal, with the MetLifeBuilding behind

Outside the station, the 13-foot (4.0 m) clock in front of the GrandCentral façade facing 42nd Streetcontains the world's largest example of Tiffany glass. It is surrounded by sculpturesof Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury. The sculptures were designed by French sculptor Jules-Felix Coutan and carved by the JohnDonnelly Company. At its unveiling in 1914, the 48-foot (14.6 m)- high trio was considered the largestsculptural group in the world.

The upper level tracks are reached from the Main Concourse or from varioushallways and passages branching off from it. On the east side of the MainConcourse is a cluster of food purveyor shops called Grand Central Market.

Display board[edit]

The original blackboard with arrival and departure information by Track 36was replaced by an electromechanical display in the main concourse overthe ticket windows that displayed times and track numbers of arriving anddeparting trains.^[when?] It contained rows offlip panels that displayed train information, and became a New York institution, as its many displayswould flap simultaneously to reflect changes in train schedules, an indicatorof just how busy Grand Central was. A small example of this type of devicehangs in the Museum of Modern Art as an example ofoutstanding industrial design.

The flap-board destination sign was replaced with high-resolution mosaicLCD modules^[23] manufactured by Solari Udine of Italy, the maker of the original flap boards for train stations andairports. Similar modules are now also used on the trains, both on the sides todisplay the destination, and on the interior to display the time, next station,calling points, and other passenger information.

Ceiling[edit]

Grand Central Terminal ceiling, design conceived by Paul César Helleu

The Main Concourse has an elaborately decorated astronomicalceiling,^[24] conceived in 1912 by Warren with his friend, French portrait artist Paul César Helleu, and executed by James MonroeHewlett and Charles Basing of Hewlett-Basing Studio, with Helleu consulting.^[25] Corps of astronomers and painting assistants worked with Hewlett andBasing.

The starry ceiling is astronomically inaccurate in a complicated way. Whilethe stars within some constellations appear correctly as they would from earth,other constellations are reversed left-to-right, as is the overall arrangementof the constellations on the ceiling. For example, Orion is correctly and beautifully rendered,but the adjacent constellations Taurus and Gemini are reversed both internally and intheir relation to Orion, with Taurus near Orion's raised arm where Geminishould be. One possible explanation is that the overall ceiling design mighthave been based on the medieval custom of depicting the sky as it would appearto God looking in at the celestialsphere from outside, but that would have reversed Orion as well. A morelikely explanation is partially mistaken transcription of the sketch suppliedby Columbia Astronomy professor Harold Jacoby. Though the astronomicalinconsistencies were noticed promptly by a commuter in 1913, they have not beencorrected in any of the subsequent renovations of the ceiling.^[26]

The original ceiling was replaced in the late 1930s to correct fallingplaster.

The Redstone missile, 1957

There is a small dark circle amid the stars above the image of Pisces. In a 1957 attempt to counteractfeelings of insecurity spawned by the Sovietlaunch of Sputnik, an American Redstonemissile was set up in the Main Concourse. With no other way to erect themissile, the hole was cut so the rocket could be lifted into place. Historicalpreservation dictated that this hole remain (as opposed to being repaired) as atestament to the many uses of the Terminal over the years.

By the 1980s, the ceiling was obscured by decades of what was thought to becoal and dieselsmoke. Spectroscopic examination revealed that it was mostlytar and nicotinefrom tobaccosmoke. A 12-year restoration effort completed in autumn 1996 restored theceiling to its original luster. A single dark patch above the Michael Jordan Steakhouse was leftuntouched by renovators to remind visitors of the grime that once covered theceiling.

Dining Concourse and lower level tracks[edit]

The OysterBar, Grand Central's oldest business

The Dining Concourse, below the Main Concourse and connected to it bynumerous stairs, ramps, and escalators, provides access to the lower-leveltracks. It has central seating and lounge areas, surrounded by restaurants.Among them is the Oyster Bar, the oldest business within Grand Central,whose decor includes vaults of Guastavinotile.

Vanderbilt Hall and CampbellApartment[edit]

Vanderbilt Hall, formerly the main waiting room, now used for specialexhibitions and rented for private functions

Vanderbilt Hall, named for the familythat built and owned the station, serves as the entrance area from 42nd Street at Pershing Square. It sits next to theMain Concourse. Formerly the main waiting room for the terminal, it is now usedfor the annual Christmas Market and special exhibitions, and is rented forprivate events.

The Campbell Apartment is an elegantly restoredcocktail lounge, just south of the 43rd  Street/Vanderbilt  Avenue entrance, that attracts a mix of commutersand tourists. It was at one time the office of 1920s tycoon John W. Campbell and replicates thegalleried hall of a 13th-century Florentine palace.^[27][28]

Subway station[edit]

Ramp to the subway, 1912

Main article: Grand Central – 42ndStreet (New York City Subway)

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 subwayareas of the station lack the majesty that is present throughout most of therest of Grand Central, although the subway station's track levels are insimilar condition to the terminal proper's track levels.

The IRT 42nd Street Shuttle platforms wereoriginally an express stop on the original IRT subway, opened in1904. Once the IRT Lexington Avenue Line was extendeduptown in 1918, the original tracks were converted to shuttle use. One trackremains connected to the downtown Lexington  Avenue local track but the connection is not inrevenue service. A fire in the 1960s destroyed much of the shuttle station,which has been rebuilt. The only signs of the fire damage are truncated steelbeams visible above the platforms.^[29] There are also two other platform levels: the IRT Lexington Avenue Line'splatforms, which are directly below the shuttle platforms, as they were builtsoon after the shuttle opened; and the IRTFlushing Line platform, which was built last, and is deeper than the IRTLexington Avenue Line's platforms.

Grand Central North[edit]

Play media

Video architectural tour of Grand Central Terminal
(High-resversion on Internet Archive)

Grand Central North, opened on August 18, 1999, provides access to GrandCentral from 45th Street,47th Street, and 48th Street.^[30] It is connected to the Main Concourse through two long hallways that runparallel to the tracks on the upper level: the 1,000-foot Northwest Passage and1,200-foot Northeast Passage.^[31] 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 theeast and west sides of 230 Park Avenue (HelmsleyBuilding) between 45th and 46th Streets. A fifth entrance opened in early2012 on the south side of 47th  Street between Park and Lexington Avenues.^[32] The 47th Streetpassage provides access to the upper level tracks and the 45th Street passage provides access tothe lower-level tracks. Elevator access is available to the 47th Street (upper level) passage fromstreet level on the north side of E.  47th Street, between Madison and VanderbiltAvenues. There is no elevator access to the actual train platforms from GrandCentral North; handicapped access is provided through the main terminal.

Throughout these passages, there is an Artsfor Transit mosaic installation by Ellen Driscoll, an artist from Brooklyn.^[31]

The entrances to Grand Central North were originally open from6:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday andSunday. In summer 2006, Grand Central North was closed on weekends, with the MTA citing lowusage and the need to save money.^[33] Before it was closed, about 6,000 people used Grand Central North on atypical weekend,^[34] and about 30,000 on weekdays.

Ideas for a northern entrance to Grand Central had been discussed since atleast the 1970s. Construction on Grand Central North lasted from 1994 to 1999and cost $75 million.^[31] Delays were attributed to the incomplete nature of the original blueprintsof Grand Central and previously undiscovered groundwater beneath East 45th Street.As of 2007, the passages are not air-conditioned.

The passages in the terminal are the Metro-North Railroad upper level; theNorthwest and Northeast passages; the cross-passages at 47th and 45th Streets;and the Metro-North Railroad lower level.

Platforms and tracks[edit]

The terminal has 44 platforms, the most in any railway station in theworld;^[35] 67 tracks are in regular passenger use.^[36] The upper level has 42 tracks overall. A balloonloop track circles around 40 of these tracks; ten tracks are used only forstorage.^[37] The lower level is smaller, having only 27 tracks, but is also circled byseveral balloon loops.^[38]

Tracks 116-125 on the lower level will be demolished to make room for the Long Island Rail Road concourse being builtas part of the East Side Access project.^[39] The East Side Access project consists of eight new tracks numbered 301through 304 and 401 through 404.^[40]

Underneath the rest of Grand Central Terminal is a private platform, Track 61, which was built mainly forformer United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt.^[41] He would travel into the city using his personal train into Track 61, thentake a specially designed elevator to the surface. After Rooseveltdied, it was used occasionally.^[42][43] This platform was part of the original design of the Waldorf Astoria.^[18][44] It was mentioned in The New York Times in 1929 but was first usedby General Pershing in 1938.^[45]

Outline of the general location of Grand Central Terminal tracks andplatforms showing that this underground infrastructure encompasses an area ofroughly 15 city blocks between 42nd and 49th Streets and Lexington and Madison Avenues. The caverns,vent buildings, and concourse referred to in the map are for the EastSide Access project. The GCT building, the only above ground level portionof the complex open to the public, is marked in green. (Federal Transit Administration,March 2006)

History[edit]

Looking out the north end of the Murray Hill Tunnel toward the stationin 1880. Note the labels for the New York and Harlem and New York andNew Haven Railroads; the New York Central and Hudson River was offto the left. The two larger portals on the right allowed some horse-drawntrains to continue further downtown.

Three buildings serving essentially the same function have stood on thissite. The original large and imposing scale was intended by the New York Central Railroad to enhancecompetition and compare favorably in the public eye with the archrival Pennsylvania Railroad and smaller lines.

Grand Central Depot[edit]

Grand Central Depot brought the trains of the New York Central and HudsonRiver Railroad, the New York and Harlem Railroad, and the New York and New Haven Railroadtogether in one large station. The station was designed by JohnB. Snook and opened in October 1871. The original plan was for the HarlemRailroad to start using it on October 9, 1871 (moving from their 27th Street depot), the NewHaven Railroad on October 16, and the Hudson River Railroad on October 23, withthe staggering done to minimize confusion. However, the Hudson River Railroaddid not move to it until November 1, which puts the other two dates in doubt.^{[46][47][48][49]}

The headhouse building containing passenger service areas and railroadoffices was an "L" shape with a short leg running east-west on 42nd Street and along leg running north-south on Vanderbilt  Avenue. The train shed,north and east of the head house, had three innovations in U.S. practice:the platforms were elevated to the height of the cars, the roof was a balloonshed with a clear span over all of the tracks, and only passengers with ticketswere allowed on the platforms (a rule enforced by ticket examiners). TheHarlem, Hudson and New Haven trains were initially in side byside different stations, which created chaos in baggagetransfer. The combined Grand Central Depot serviced all three railroads.^[49]

Grand Central Station[edit]

Between 1899 and 1900, the head house was essentially demolished. It wasexpanded from three to six stories with an entirely new façade, on plans byrailroad architect Bradford Gilbert. The train shed was kept. Thetracks that previously continued south of 42nd Street were removed and the trainyard reconfigured in an effort to reduce congestion and turn-around time fortrains. The reconstructed building was renamed Grand Central Station.

Grand Central Terminal[edit]

Excavation for new Grand Central Terminal, September 1907

New York Central & Hudson River RR 4 1/2% Refunding & ImprovementBond Series A, prominently featuring the then-new Grand Central Terminal.

Eagle from Grand Central Station, now perched on Grand Central Terminal

Between 1903 and 1913, the entire building was torn down in phases andreplaced by the current Grand Central Terminal, which was designed bythe architectural firms of Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore, who entered an agreement toact as the associated architects of Grand Central Terminal in February 1904.Reed & Stem were responsible for the overall design of the station, Warren and Wetmore addedarchitectural details and the Beaux-Arts style. Charles Reed wasappointed the chief executive for the collaboration between the two firms, andpromptly appointed Alfred T. Fellheimer as head of the combineddesign team. This work was accompanied by the electrification of the threerailroads using the station and the burial of the approach in the Park Avenue tunnel. The result ofthis was the creation of several blocks worth of prime real estate in Manhattan, which were thensold for a large sum of money. In addition, the terminal itself containssupport structures for a possible future tower to be built above it. The newterminal opened on February 2, 1913.^[50]

The terminal is made primarily from granite. In fact, so much granite isused, the building emits relatively high levels of radiation on a regularbasis.^[51]

Covering Park Avenue[edit]

To accommodate ever-growing rail traffic into the restricted Midtown area, WilliamJ. Wilgus, chief engineer of the New York Central Railroad took advantageof the recent electrification technology to propose a novel scheme: a bi-levelstation below ground.

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

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

The terminal also did away with bifurcating Park Avenue by introducing a"circumferential elevated driveway" that allowed Park Avenue trafficto traverse around the building and over 42nd Street without encumbering nearbystreets. The building was also designed to eventually reconnect both segmentsof 43rd Streetby going through the concourse if the City of New York demanded it.

Terminal City[edit]

View of Grand Central around 1918

Grand Central Terminal Clock

The construction of Grand Central created a mini-city within New York, including theCommodore Hotel and various office buildings. It spurred constructionthroughout the neighborhood in the 1920s including the ChryslerBuilding.

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 1939 to 1964 CBSTelevision occupied a large portion of the terminal building, particularlyabove the main waiting room. The space contained two production studios (41 and42), two "program control" facilities (43 and 44), network mastercontrol, and facilities for local station WCBS-TV. In1958, the first major videotape operations facility in the world opened in aformer rehearsal room on the seventh floor of the main terminal building. Thefacility used fourteen Ampex VR-1000 videotape recorders. The CBSEvening News began its broadcasts there with DouglasEdwards. Many historic news events were broadcast from this location, suchas JohnGlenn's Mercury-Atlas 6 space mission and WalterCronkite's coverage of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. EdwardR. Murrow's "See It Now" originated from Grand Central,including his famous broadcasts on Senator JosephMcCarthy. The Murrow broadcasts were recreated in GeorgeClooney's movie Good Night, and Good Luck, althoughthe CBS News and corporate offices were not actually in the same building asthe film implies. The long-running panel show "What'sMy Line?" was first broadcast from the GCT studios, as were "The Goldbergs" and "Mama".The facility's operations were later moved to the CBS Broadcast Center. In 1966, the formerstudio space was converted to a sports club with two tennis courts and wasoperated by Donald Trump from 1984 to 2009. The space is currentlyoccupied by a conductor lounge and a smaller sports facility with a singletennis court.^[52][53]

Grand Central Art Galleries[edit]

Medals commemorating the Grand Central Art Galleries' foundation

Main article: Grand Central Art Galleries

From 1922 to 1958, Grand Central Terminal was the home of the Grand Central Art Galleries, which wereestablished by John Singer Sargent, EdmundGreacen, Walter Leighton Clark, and others.^[54] The founders had sought a location in Manhattanthat was central and easily accessible, and Alfred Holland Smith, president of the New York Central Railroad, made the topof the terminal available. A 10-year lease^[55] was signed, and the galleries, together with the railroad company, spentmore than $100,000 to prepare the space.^[56] The architect was William Adams Delano, best known for designingYale Divinity School's Sterling Quadrangle.

At their opening, the galleries extended over most of the terminal's sixthfloor, 15,000 square feet (1,400 m²), and offered eight main exhibitionrooms, a foyer gallery, and a reception area.^[57] A total of 20 display rooms were planned for what was intended as"...the largest sales gallery of art in the world."^[56] The official opening was March 22, 1923,^[57] and featured paintings by Sargent, Charles W. Hawthorne, CeciliaBeaux, Wayman Adams, and Ernest Ipsen. Sculptors included Daniel Chester French, Herbert Adams, Robert Aitken, GutzonBorglum, and Frederic MacMonnies. The eventattracted 5,000 people and received a glowing review from The New York Times.

A year after they opened, the galleries established the Grand Central School of Art, whichoccupied 7,000 square feet (650 m²) on the seventh floor of the eastwing of the terminal. The school was directed by Sargent and Daniel Chester French. Its first-yearteachers included painters Jonas Lie and NicolaiFechin, sculptor Chester Beach, illustrator DeanCornwell, costume designer HelenDryden, and muralist Ezra Winter.^[58][59]

The Grand Central Art Galleries remained in theterminal until 1958, when they moved to the BiltmoreHotel.^[60] They remained at the Biltmore for 23 years, until it was converted into anoffice building.^[61] When the Biltmore was demolished in 1981, they moved to 24 West 57th Street.^[62] They ceased operations in 1994.

Proposals for demolition and towers[edit]

In 1947, over 65 million people, the equivalent of 40% of the population ofthe United States,traveled through Grand Central. However, railroads soon fell into a majordecline with competition from government subsidized highways and intercityairline traffic.

The MetLife Building was completed in 1963 above theGrand Central Terminal.

Grand Central was designed to support a tower built above it. In 1954, William Zeckendorf proposed replacing GrandCentral with an 80-story, 4,800,000-square-foot (450,000 m²) tower, 500 feet (150 m)taller than the Empire State Building. I. M. Peicreated a pinched-cylinder design that took the form of a glass cylinder with awaspwaist. The plan was abandoned. In 1955, Erwin S. Wolfson made his firstproposal for a tower north of the Terminal replacing the Terminal's six-storyoffice building. A revised Wolfson plan was approved in 1958 and the Pan Am Building (now the MetLifeBuilding) was completed in 1963.

Although the Pan Am Buildingbought time for the terminal, the New York Central Railroad continued itsprecipitous decline. In 1968, facing bankruptcy, it merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad to form the PennCentral Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad was in its own precipitousdecline and in 1964 had demolished the ornate Pennsylvania Station (despitepleas to preserve it) to make way for an office building and the new Madison Square Garden.

In 1968, Penn Central unveiled plans for a tower designed by MarcelBreuer even bigger than the Pan Am Buildingto be built over Grand Central. Since Grand Central was designed to support atower above it, the Marcel Breuer design would have utilized the existing towersupport structure but would not have preserved the facade or the Main WaitingRoom. The plans drew huge opposition, most prominently from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

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

—Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Six months prior to the unveiling of the Breuer plans, however, the New York City LandmarksPreservation Commission designated Grand Central a "landmark."Penn Central was unable to secure permission from the Commission to executeeither of Breuer's two blueprints and filed suit against the city, alleging a taking.^[63] The resulting case, Penn CentralTransportation Co. v. New York City (1978), was the first time that theSupreme Court ruled on a matterof historic preservation. The Court saved theterminal, holding that New York City'sLandmarks Preservation Act did not constitute a "taking" of PennCentral's property under the Fifth Amendment and was a reasonable use ofgovernment land-use regulatory power.

Penn Central went into bankruptcy in 1970 in what was then the biggest corporate bankruptcyin American history. Title to Grand Central passed to Penn Central's corporatesuccessor, American Premier Underwriters (APU) (which in turn was absorbed by American Financial Group). The MetropolitanTransportation Authority (MTA) signed a 280-year lease in 1994 and began amassive restoration. Midtown TDR Ventures, LLC, an investment group controlledby Argent Ventures,^[64] purchased the station from American Financial in December 2006.^[65] As part of the transaction the lease with the MTA was renegotiated throughFebruary 28, 2274. The MTA pays $2.24 million in rent and has an option to buythe station and tracks in 2017, although Argent could extend the date another15 years to 2032.^[64] The transferable air rights remain the property of Midtown TDR Ventures.

Bombing[edit]

See also: 1975 LaGuardia Airport bombing

On September 11, 1976, a group of Croatian nationalistsplanted a bomb in a coin locker at Grand Central Terminal. The group also hijackeda plane. After stating their political demands, they revealed the locationand provided the instructions for disarming the Grand Central Terminal bomb.The disarming operation was not executed properly and the resulting explosionwounded over 30 and killed one NYPDbomb squad specialist.^[66][67] This was related to a 1975 bombing of LaGuardiaAirport, which was never solved.

Restorations and expansion[edit]

Donald Trump restoration[edit]

Main Concourse

Lower Concourse

Lower Concourse – Food Court

Grand Central and its neighborhood fell on hard times during the financialcollapse of its host railroads and the near bankruptcy of New York City itself.

In 1975, Donald Trump bought the Commodore Hotel to the east ofthe terminal for $10 million and then worked out a deal with JayPritzker to transform it into one of the first Grand Hyatt hotels.^[68] Trump negotiated various tax breaks and, in the process, agreed torenovate the exterior of the terminal. The complementary masonry from theCommodore was covered with a mirror-glass "slipcover" façade – themasonry still exists underneath. In the same deal, Trump optioned PennCentral's rail yards on the Hudson River between 59th and 72nd Streets thateventually became Trump Place, the biggest private development in New York City.

The Grand Hyatt opened in 1980 and the neighborhood immediately began atransformation.^[69] Trump sold his interest in the hotel for $142 million, establishing him asa big-time player in New Yorkreal estate.

Throughout this period, the interior of Grand Central was dominated by hugebillboard advertisements, with perhaps the most famous being the giant KodakColorama photos that ran along the entire eastside, and the Westclox"Big Ben" clock over the south concourse.

Metro-North operation and centennial[edit]

Amtrakstopped services in the station on April 7, 1991, with the completion of the EmpireConnection, which allowed trains from Albany,Toronto, and Montreal to usePenn Station. Previously, travelers had to change stations via subway, bus, orcab. Since then, Grand Central has exclusively served Metro-North Railroad.

In 1994, the MTA signed a long term lease on the building and began massiverenovations. All billboards were removed. These renovations were mostlyfinished in 1998, though some of the minor refits (such as replacement ofelectromechanical train information displays with electronic displays at trackentries) were not completed until 2000. The most striking effect was therestoration of the Main Concourse ceiling, revealing the paintedskyscape and constellations. The original baggage room, later convertedinto 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 roomhad been designed by the original architects, the restoration architects foundevidence that a set of stairs mirroring those to the West was originallyintended for that space. Other modifications included a complete overhaul ofthe Terminal's superstructure and the replacement of the electromechanicalOmega Board train arrival/departure display with a purely electronic displaythat was designed to fit into the architecture of the Terminal aesthetically.The original quarry in Tennesseewas located and reopened specifically to provide matching stone to replacedamaged stone and for the new East Staircase. Each piece of new stone islabeled with its installation date and the fact that it was not a part of theoriginal Terminal building.

The exterior was again cleaned and restored, starting with the west facadeon Vanderbilt Avenueand gradually working counterclockwise. The project involved cleaning thefacade, rooftop light courts, and statues; filling in cracks, repointingstones on the facade, restoring the copper roof and the building's cornice,repairing the large windows of the Main Concourse, and removing the remaining blackout paint applied to the windows during WorldWar II. The result of the restoration, which was completed in 2007, was acleaner, more attractive, and structurally sound exterior, and the windows nowallow much more light into the Main Concourse.

On February 1, 2013, numerous displays, performances and events were heldto celebrate the terminal's centennial.^[70][71]

In 2014, the One Vanderbiltsupertall skyscraper was proposed across thestreet. Its construction would include more improvements to Grand CentralTerminal.

Long Island Rail  Road access[edit]

East Side Access progress in 2014

Main article: East Side Access

The MTA is in the midst of a large-scale project to bring Long Island Rail Road trains into theterminal via the East Side Access Project. The project was spurredby a study that showed that more than half of LIRR riders work closer to GrandCentral than to the current terminus at Penn Station.^[72] The East Side Access has resulted in major blasting work under GrandCentral Terminal. Since March 2007, about 1000 workers have completed more than2,400 controlled blasts ending about October 4, 2013.^[73]

A new bi-level, eight-track tunnel was excavated under Park Avenue, more than 90 feet (27 m)below the Metro-North tracks and more than 140 feet (43 m) below thesurface. Reaching the street from the lowest level, more than 175 feet(53 m) deep, will take about 10 minutes.^[74] LIRR trains will access Park Avenue via the existing lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel, connecting to its main linerunning through Sunnyside Yard in Queens. Extensionswere 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 said that some small buildings on the route in Manhattan will be torn down to make way forair vents.^[75] Cardinal Edward Egan criticized the plan, noting concerns aboutthe tracks, which will largely be on the west side of Park Avenue, and their impact on St. Patrick's Cathedral.^[75] The new LIRR terminal may be operational between 2019^[76][77] and September 2023.^[78]

Miscellaneous events[edit]

Beginning during the Christmas season of 1928 and continuing on selectholidays until 1958, an organist performed in Grand Central's North Gallery.Mary Lee Read initiated recitals on a borrowed Hammondorgan. Grand Central management eventually bought an organ and a set ofchimes for the station and began paying Mrs. Read an annual retainer.^[79] In addition to the weeks before Christmas, Mrs. Read would play during theweeks before Thanksgiving and Easter and on Mother's Day. A choir composed of Works Progress Administrationemployees performed with her one Easter.^[79] Following Pearl Harbor she attempted to lift spirits by playing TheStar Spangled Banner, which brought themain concourse to a standstill. The stationmaster subsequently asked her toavoid selections that would cause passengers to miss their trains, and Mrs.Read became known as the only organist in New York who was forbidden to playthe UnitedStates' national anthem.^[79]

After Buddy Holly's death in a plane crash on February 3,1959, his bassist and future country singer WaylonJennings put Buddy's guitar and amplifier into a locker and mailed the keysto Buddy's wife Maria Elena.^[80]

Influence on design of transit centers[edit]

Ramp to the Lower Concourse

Colonnade

Grand Central Terminal was an innovation in transit-hub design andcontinues to influence designers. One new concept was the use of ramps, ratherthan staircases, to conduct passengers and luggage through the facility.Another was wrapping Park Avenue around theTerminal above the street, creating a second level for picking up and droppingoff of passengers. As airline travel replaced railroads in the latter half ofthe 20th century, Grand Central design innovations were later incorporated intothe hub airport.

Grand Central Terminal was listed on the National Register of HistoricPlaces and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976.^[2][81][82]

The Grand Central Terminal ParkAvenue Viaduct was added to the National Register in 1983.^[1]

In popular culture[edit]

Grand Central Terminal has been used in numerous novels, and film and TVproductions over the years. Kyle McCarthy, who handles production at GrandCentral Terminal for MTA Metro-North Railroad, said: "GrandCentral is one of the quintessential New  York places. Whether filmmakers need an establishingshot of arriving in New Yorkor transportation scenes, the restored landmark building is visually appealingand authentic."^[83]

Live television broadcasts from Grand Central Terminal once originated inthe area now occupied by the Vanderbilt Tennis Club, including news broadcasts,such as The CBS Evening News and See It Now,and live dramas, such as Mama.The first four episodes of What'sMy Line also originated from Grand Central before the show moved tovarious Manhattantheaters which could accommodate studio audiences. In 1964, CBS movedtelevision operations to the CBS Broadcast Center.

Many films also did location shooting in Grand Central Terminal. Filmsfeaturing Grand Central include:

Additionally, the title sequence of the television series Damages features The Glory of Commercepublic sculpture atop Grand Central Terminal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Central_Terminal