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Grand Central: How a Train Station Transformed America / Sam Roberts

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Train stations are the cathedrals of the modern age. And there is no better example than Grand Central in New York City. Enter through the stone portals from the bustling sidewalks of 42nd Street to the main concourse and you can’t help but be awed-- your gaze will be pulled to the celestial heavens, which in the case of Grand Central are reproduced in cerulean blue on the vaulted ceiling.

February 2013 marks one hundred years since the beaux arts train temple in the middle of Park Avenue emerged as an elegant gateway to Midtown Manhattan (the present edifice replaced earlier buildings). The evolution of Grand Central reflects the history of the modern city itself. At one time an open gash of dangerous rails traveled by smoke-belching locomotives burned through NYC from 125th to 42nd Street, and pedestrians and other traffic risked life and limb to cross from one side of Manhattan to the other. Nearby inhabitants inhaled the fumes of the coal-powered machines and endured the noise and chaos of the near-continuous rail traffic. Later, the rail beds were sunk below street level and viaducts carried traffic safely across the train lines. Still later, the rail lines leading to Grand Central were completely decked over and Park Avenue was created, turning the once Stygian landscape into a very tony address. Grand Central’s function as a commuter railhead was largely responsible for nurturing the prosperity of the surrounding neighborhoods and giving birth to the monumental skyscrapers of Midtown, whose offices it filled with its daily tidal wave of commuters from the hinterland.

Grand Central almost met the same fate as the monumental Pennsylvania Station, whose loss will forever be mourned. Grand Central’s rehabilitation during the most recent decades again is a reflection of the city’s historical development. The resurrection of Grand Central parallels the turnaround and renaissance that New York has experienced since the 70s.

This book is a gem. Full of history and trivia, personal stories, and chock full of photos and illustrations, it appeals on so many levels— there's something for everybody-- the train enthusiast, New York aficionado, architecture buff, urbanist, and preservationist. The subtitle may be a little overblown— though it’s certainly undisputed that GC had a role in transforming NYC.

Here’s just one of the many fascinating tidbits of information in the book, this one regarding the railroad’s role in standardizing time and creating time zones:

Cities served by multiple lines were especially vulnerable to chronological chaos…

A passenger traveling from Portland, Maine, to Buffalo could arrive in Buffalo at 12:15 according to his own watch set by Portland time. He might be met by a friend at the station whose watch indicated 11:40 Buffalo time. The Central clock said noon. The Lake Shore clock said it was only 11:25. At Pennsylvania Station in Jersey City, New Jersey, one clock displayed Philadelphia time and another New York time. When it was 12:12 in New York, it was 12:24 in Boston, 12:07 in Philadelphia, and 11:17 in Chicago. “Had there been stretched across the Continent yesterday a line of clocks extending from the extreme eastern point of Maine to the extreme western point on the Pacific Coast,” the Times mused, “and had each clock sounded an alarm at the hour of noon, local time, there would have been a continuous ringing from the east to the west lasting three-and-a-quarter hours.” p152.
The main concourse in November 2012, picture by K.Vesey

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