Old Penn Station

---

Read more about the context of this extraordinary picture here.

The Samuel Rea statue that once greeted commuters from the original Penn Station loggia. In his hands are blueprints to the old Penn Station and a model of the station to his side.

Tom and Untapped Cities guide Justin Rivers walking down one of the original Penn Station departure staircases, still in operation. The story of Pennsylvania Station involves more than just nostalgia for the long-gone temple of transportation as designed by the great McKim, Meade and White. February 16, Bowery Boys Views 3 Comments. Greg Young An original arrivals staircase.

Cassatt's design for New York Penn Station was inspired by the Gare d'Orsay , a Beaux-Arts style station in Paris , though he planned for the new terminal to be twice as large. Cassatt and McKim collaborated closely to define the structure of the station. As part of the terminal's construction, the PRR proposed that the United States Postal Service construct a post office across from the station. In February , the U. The yard's purpose was to store passenger-train cars at the beginning or end of their trips, as well as to reverse the direction of the locomotives that pulled these train cars.

Land purchases for the station started in late or early This site was chosen over other sites further east, such as Herald Square , because these parts of Manhattan were already congested. Penn Station proper would be located along the eastern part of the site between Seventh and Eighth Avenue.

The northwestern block, bounded by Eighth Avenue, Ninth Avenue. The PRR planned to turn over the air rights to the blocks between Eighth and Ninth Avenues to the federal government once excavations were completed. However, the PRR would still own the land below the post office, and so some Congress members opposed the post office plan, as they believed that the government would only own "a chunk of space in the air" above the tracks.

MORE FROM RETRONAUT

By this time, the excavations were near completion and the structural steel for the post office building were being laid. Construction was completed on the Hudson River tunnels on October 9, , [30] and on the East River tunnels on March 18, Workers began laying the stonework for the station in June , and they had completed thirteen months later. New York Penn Station was officially declared complete on August 29, When Penn Station first opened, it had a capacity of trains per hour on its 21 tracks and 11 platforms.

At the start of operations, there were 1, trains scheduled every weekday: The station was so heavily used that the PRR soon added 51 trains to its daily schedule. Louis , where passengers could make connection to other railroads. A side effect of the tunneling project was to open the city up to the suburbs, and within 10 years of opening, two-thirds of the daily passengers coming through Penn Station were commuters.

The station put the Pennsylvania Railroad at comparative advantage to its competitors offering service to the west and south. Such was the station's status that whenever the President of the United States arrived in New York by rail, he would arrive and depart on tracks 11 and Over the next few decades, alterations were made to Penn Station in order to increase its capacity. However, within a decade, the bus terminal had gone into decline, and was frequented by low-level criminals and the homeless.

The Greyhound bus terminal soon saw competition from the Port Authority Bus Terminal , located seven blocks north of Penn Station, which opened in The dispute continued for almost a decade afterward, and by , Greyhound had closed the Penn Station bus terminal and moved to the Port Authority Bus Terminal. The station was busiest during World War II: A layer of dirt covered the interior and exterior of the structure, and the pink granite was stained with gray.

Zeckendorf had previously suggested that the two-block site of the main building could be used for a "world trade center".

Navigation menu

The underground platforms and tracks of the station would not be modified, but the station's mezzanines would be reconfigured. Felt , the president of Graham-Paige , the company that purchased the air rights to Penn Station. In exchange for the air rights, the Pennsylvania Railroad would get a brand-new, air-conditioned, smaller station completely below street level at no cost, and a 25 percent stake in the new Madison Square Garden Complex.

A story hotel and story office building, now part of Penn Plaza , would be built on the eastern side of the block, facing Seventh Avenue. The arena proper would take up most of the block, facing Eighth Avenue to the west. At the time, one argument made in favor of the old Penn Station's demolition was that the cost of maintaining the structure had become prohibitive.

Those who opposed demolition considered whether it made sense to preserve a building, intended to be a cost-effective and functional piece of the city's infrastructure, simply as a monument to the past. As a New York Times editorial critical of the demolition noted at the time, a "city gets what it wants, is willing to pay for, and ultimately deserves. They called the station a treasure and chanted "Don't Amputate — Renovate" at rallies.

Saunders who later headed Penn Central Transportation , demolition of the above-ground station house began on October 28, Around five hundred columns were sunk into the platforms, while passengers were routed around work areas surrounded by plywood. There were three new entrances: Permanent electronic signs were being erected, shops were being renovated, new escalators were being installed, and platforms that were temporarily closed during renovations had been reopened.

Pennsylvania Station (1910–1963)

Although the demolition of the head house was justified as progressive at a time of declining rail passenger service, it also created international outrage. Roe to salvage some of the sculptures. The Grand Central Terminal was ultimately preserved through the city's landmarks act, despite an unsuccessful challenge from Penn Central in The station spans three levels underground with the concourses located on the upper two levels and the train platforms located on the lowest level.

The two levels of concourses, while original to the station, were extensively renovated during the construction of Madison Square Garden, and expanded in subsequent decades. Comparing the new and the old Penn Station, Yale architectural historian Vincent Scully once wrote, "One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat. Grynbaum wrote that Penn Station was "the ugly stepchild of the city's two great rail terminals.

New York's original Penn Station

It covered an area of 8 acres 3. The exterior of Penn Station was marked by an imposing, sober colonnade of Roman unfluted columns based on the classical Greek Doric order. These columns, in turn, were modeled after landmarks such as the Acropolis of Athens. The rest of the facade was modeled from St. In plans were revealed to demolish the terminal and build entertainment venue Madison Square Garden on top of it.

The new train station would be entirely underground and boast amenities such as air-conditioning and fluorescent lighting.

The outrage was a major catalyst for the architectural preservation movement in the United States. Since the demolition of the old Penn Station, train ridership has grown tenfold.

The new station, a tangle of subway lines and commuter rail, is the busiest terminal in the country and bursting at the seams. Plans are currently underway to renovate and expand the station, and restore a modicum of its original glory. Jane Jacobs, left, in gloves, and architect Philip Johnson, right, stand with picketing crowds outside Penn Station to protest the building's demolition.

Demolition commences with the removal of a 5,pound granite eagle sculpture by Adolph Alexander Weinman.

Commuters wait in a cordoned area while the station is demolished piece by piece. Penn Station did not make you feel comfortable; it made you feel important. Vocal backlash and protests ensued, but the plan moved forward and Penn Station was demolished. It is a poor society indeed that has no money for anything except expressways to rush people out of our dull and deteriorating cities.

• Moll Flanders (Oxford Worlds Classics)
• Weihnachtliche Herzenswärmer: Wahre und fantastische Kurzgeschichten (German Edition)
• Health Hints for Four-Fold health 2nd Edition
• Die römische Republik: Staatsangelegenheiten sind Volksangelegenheiten (German Edition)
• Moral Psychology: The Cognitive Science of Morality: Intuition and Diversity (MIT Press)