Grand Central Terminal, one of New York City's pre-eminent buildings, stands as a magnificent Beaux-Arts monument to America's Railway Age, and it remains a vital part of city life today. It was completed in 1913 after ten years of construction, and its soaring Grand Concourse still offers passengers a majestic gateway to the wonders beyond 42nd Street. In this volume Kurt C. Schlichting traces the history of this spectacular building, detailing the colourful personalities, bitter conflicts and Herculean feats of engineering that lie behind its construction. He begins with Cornelius Vanderbilt - "The Commodore" - whose railroad empire demanded an appropriately palatial passenger terminal in the heart of New York City. Completed in 1871, the first Grand Central was the largest rail facility in the world and yet - cramped and overburdened - soon proved thoroughly inadequate for the needs of this rapidly expanding city. William Wilgus, chief engineer of the New York Central Railroad, conceived of a new Grand Central Terminal, one that would fully meet the needs of the New York Central line. The terminal's construction proved to be a massive undertaking.
Some of the costs were offset by an ambitious redevelopment project on property above the New York Central's underground tracks. Schlichting writes about the economic and cultural impact of the terminal on midtown Manhattan, from building of the Biltmore and Waldorf-Astoria Hotels to the transformation of Park Avenue. He concludes with an account of the New York Central's decline; the public outcry that prevented Grand Central's new owner, Penn Central, from following through with its 1969 plan to demolish or drastically alter the terminal; the rise of Metro-North Railroad; and the meticulous 1990s restoration project that returned Grand Central Terminal to its original splendour. More than a history of a train station, this book is the story of a city and an age as reflected in a building aptly described as a secular cathedral.