![]() ![]() In it’s early years, people flocked to the building to take in a movie at its theater, dine at its restaurants and cafes or learn about the history of railroads at an on-site museum. CBS News staff at CBS Studio 41, Grand Central Terminal studios, 1956.įor much of its history, the terminal has served as an important cultural hub for the city of New York. Few people have ever heard of Grand Central’s Track 61, let alone seen it. To this day, M42 has never appeared on any maps of Grand Central, and behind its doors remain the controls of New York’s transportation network. ![]() They were quickly apprehended, but if they had made their way to the station’s secret subbasement, known as M42, they would have been met with an awesome sight-a platoon of armed soldiers, who monitored the super-secret outpost. In 1942, four German spies snuck onto Long Island with plans to destroy key logistical locations in the northeast, including Grand Central. government opened a special branch of the USO inside the station. population traveled through Grand Central every year, and during World War II millions of servicemen passed through Grand Central on their way to and from the front-so many that the U.S. Please don’t call it Grand Central Station.Ī large advertisement for defense bonds and stamps in Grand Central Terminal, 1941.īy the 1940s, the equivalent of 40 percent of the U.S. This allowed both local commuters and long-distance travelers to quickly get from track level to city streets, without lugging luggage up and down crowded steps the feature was soon adopted in transportation centers around the world. Another innovation was the extensive use of ramps, rather than stairs, throughout the station. These bulbs remained a trademark of the station for nearly a century, until a massive retrofitting of the building in 2008, which required six-full time employees to replace the traditional bulbs with energy and cost-efficient fluorescent ones. When it first opened, every one of the stations chandeliers and lighting fixtures featured bare, exposed light bulbs-more than 4,000 of them. In fact, their pride greatly influenced the station’s interior designs. The Vanderbilts were also immensely proud of Grand Central’s status as one of the world’s first all-electric buildings. Its 70-acre compound had 32 miles of track, which fed into 46 tracks and 30 passenger platforms, making it nearly twice the size of the recently-opened (and original) Pennsylvania Station built by the Vanderbilt’s railroad rivals. The building of Grand Central was the largest construction project in New York’s history up to that time. Grand Central was a technical marvel.Įxcavation for Grand Central Terminal in 1908. READ MORE: 8 Secret Features of Grand Central Terminal 3. When the new station went completely underground, it opened up valuable air rights on the streets above, and the resulting business boom created the midtown Manhattan we know today. Grand Central’s design also transformed Manhattan real estate’s practices. ![]() Sensing the shift in the political winds, the Vanderbilt family announced plans to construct a new, state-of-the-art station that would utilize electricity, not steam. When an inquiry revealed that the noxious clouds emanating from the station area had blinded its driver, reformers and politicians acted swiftly, announcing plans to prohibit steam engines from operating in the city. On January 8, 1902, a commuter train traveling from suburban Westchester County crashed into another train waiting in the station’s entrance tunnel, killing 15 passengers. For decades, New Yorkers had complained about the unhealthy soot and smog coughed up by the steam locomotives crisscrossing the city, but it took a fatal accident to create lasting change. ![]()
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