Grand Central Terminal

Main Concourse

Main Concourse

Ticket windows

The Main Concourse is the center of Grand Central. At 275 ft (84 m) long by 120 ft (37 m) wide by 125 ft (38 m) high,^{[23][24][25]:74} the cavernous Main Concourse is usually filled with bustling crowds. and is often used as a meeting place.^[26] The ticket booths are here, although many now stand unused or have been repurposed since the introduction of ticket vending machines.^[26] The large American flag was hung in Grand Central Terminal a few days after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. The main information booth is in the center of the concourse.^[26] The four-faced brass clock on top of the information booth, perhaps the most recognizable icon of Grand Central, was designed by Henry Edward Bedford and cast in Waterbury, Connecticut.^[26] Each of the four clock faces is made from opalescent glass (now often called opal glass or milk glass), though urban legend has it that the faces are made of opal and that Sotheby's and Christie's have estimated their value to be between $10 million and $20 million. A 1954 New York Times article^[27] on the restoration of the clock notes that "Each of the glass faces was twenty-four inches in diameter...." Within the marble and brass pagoda lies a "secret" door that conceals a spiral staircase leading to the lower-level information booth.

Glory of Commerce, a sculptural group by Jules-Félix Coutan featuring Hercules, Minerva and Mercury, sits atop the terminal. In the middle of the grouping is the 13-foot (4.0 m) clock, the world's largest example of Tiffany glass.

Outside the station, the 13-foot (4.0 m) clock in front of the Grand Central façade facing 42nd Street contains the world's largest example of Tiffany glass. It is surrounded by the Glory of Commerce sculptural group, which includes representations of Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury. The sculptures were designed by French sculptor Jules-Felix Coutan and carved by the John Donnelly Company. At its unveiling in 1914, the 48-foot-high (15 m) trio was considered the largest sculptural group in the world.

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

Ceiling

Main Concourse ceiling, design conceived by Paul César Helleu

The Main Concourse has an elaborately decorated astronomical ceiling,^[32]:57 conceived in 1912 by Warren with his friend, French portrait artist Paul César Helleu, and executed by James Monroe Hewlett and Charles Basing of Hewlett-Basing Studio, with Helleu consulting.^[33] Corps of astronomers and painting assistants worked with Hewlett and Basing. The original ceiling was replaced in the late 1930s to correct falling plaster.

The Redstone missile in 1957

There is a small dark circle amid the stars above the image of Pisces. In a 1957 attempt to counteract feelings of insecurity spawned by the Soviet launch of Sputnik, an American Redstone missile was set up in the Main Concourse. With no other way to erect the missile, the hole was cut to allow a cable to be lowered to lift the rocket into place. Historical preservation dictated that this hole remain (as opposed to being repaired) as a testament to the many uses of the Terminal over the years.

By the 1980s, the ceiling was obscured by decades of what was thought to be coal and diesel smoke. Spectroscopic examination revealed that it was mostly tar and nicotine from tobacco smoke. A 12-year restoration effort, completed in autumn 1996, restored the ceiling to its original design. A single dark patch above the Michael Jordan Steakhouse was left untouched by renovators to remind visitors of the grime that once covered the ceiling.

The starry ceiling is astronomically inaccurate in a complicated way. While the stars within some constellations appear correctly as they would from earth, other constellations are reversed left-to-right, as is the overall arrangement of the constellations on the ceiling. For example, Orion is correctly rendered, but the adjacent constellations Taurus and Gemini are reversed both internally and in their relation to Orion, with Taurus near Orion's raised arm where Gemini should be. One possible explanation is that the overall ceiling design might have been based on the medieval custom of depicting the sky as it would appear to God looking in at the celestial sphere from outside, but that would have reversed Orion as well. A more likely explanation is partially mistaken transcription of the sketch supplied by Columbia Astronomy professor Harold Jacoby. Though the astronomical inconsistencies were noticed promptly by a commuter in 1913, they have not been corrected in any of the subsequent renovations of the ceiling.^[34]

Dining Concourse and lower level tracks

The Oyster Bar, Grand Central's oldest business

The Dining Concourse, below the Main Concourse and connected to it by numerous stairs, ramps, and escalators, provides access to the lower-level tracks. 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 Guastavino tile.

Vanderbilt Hall and Campbell Apartment

Vanderbilt Hall, c. 1910 and 2015

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

The Campbell Apartment is an elegantly restored cocktail lounge, just south of the 43rd Street/Vanderbilt Avenue entrance, that attracts a mix of commuters and tourists. It was at one time the office of 1920s tycoon John W. Campbell and replicates the galleried hall of a 13th-century Florentine palace.^[35][36]

Vanderbilt Tennis Club and former studios

From 1939 to 1964, CBS Television occupied a large portion of the terminal building, particularly above the main waiting room. The space contained two production studios (41 and 42), two "program control" facilities (43 and 44), network master control, and facilities for local station WCBS-TV. In 1958, the world's first major videotape operations facility opened in a former rehearsal room on the seventh floor of the main terminal building. The facility used 14 Ampex VR-1000 videotape recorders. Douglas Edwards with the News broadcast from there for several years, covering among other events John Glenn's 1962 Mercury-Atlas 6 space flight. Edward R. Murrow's "See It Now" originated from Grand Central, including his famous broadcasts on Senator Joseph McCarthy. The Murrow broadcasts were recreated in George Clooney's movie Good Night, and Good Luck, although the CBS News and corporate offices were not actually in the same building as the film implies. The long-running panel show "What's My 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.^[37][38]

In 1966, the former studio space was converted to Vanderbilt Tennis Club, a sports club with two tennis courts.^[39][37][38] It was once deemed as the most expensive place to play tennis, with tenants charged $58 an hour to play, until financial troubles forced the club to lower its fees to $40 an hour.^[40] The club is so named because it is above the Vanderbilt Hall. Real estate magnate Donald Trump bought the club in 1984 after discovering the space while renovating the terminal's exterior.^[41] Trump operated the club until 2009. The space is currently occupied by a conductor lounge and a smaller sports facility with a single tennis court.^[37][38]

Subway station

Ramp to the subway, 1912

The subway platforms at Grand Central are reached from the Main Concourse. Built by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT), the subway station consists of platforms for three lines, now operated by the MTA as part of the New York City Subway.

The IRT 42nd Street Shuttle platforms were originally an express stop on the original IRT subway, opened in 1904.^[42] When the IRT Lexington Avenue Line was extended uptown in 1918, the original tracks were converted to shuttle use.^[43] One track remains connected to the downtown Lexington Avenue local track but the connection is not in revenue service.^[44] A fire in the 1960s destroyed much of the shuttle station, and it was later rebuilt.^[45] There are also two other platform levels. The Lexington Avenue Line's platforms are located under the southeastern corner of the Metro-North terminal building, to the east of and at a lower level than the shuttle platforms.^[46] The platforms are sometimes called the "diagonal station" because they are oriented 45° from the rest of the Manhattan street grid.^[47] The IRT Flushing Line platform is deeper than the IRT Lexington Avenue Line's platforms because it is part of the Steinway Tunnel, which descends under the East River to the east of Grand Central. It opened in 1915, three years before the Lexington Avenue Line platforms did.^[48]

Grand Central North

Grand Central North, opened on August 18, 1999, provides access to Grand Central from 45th Street, 47th Street, and 48th Street.^[49] It is connected to the Main Concourse through two long hallways that run parallel to the tracks on the upper level: the 1,000-foot (300 m) Northwest Passage and 1,200-foot (360 m) Northeast Passage.^[50] 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 the east and west sides of 230 Park Avenue (Helmsley Building) between 45th and 46th Streets. A fifth entrance opened in early 2012 on the south side of 47th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues.^[51] The 47th Street passage provides access to the upper level tracks and the 45th Street passage provides access to the lower-level tracks. Elevator access is available to the 47th Street (upper level) passage from street level on the north side of E. 47th Street, between Madison and Vanderbilt Avenues. There is no elevator access to the actual train platforms from Grand Central North; handicapped access is provided through the main terminal.

Throughout these passages, there is an Arts for Transit mosaic installation by Ellen Driscoll, an artist from Brooklyn.^[50]

The entrances to Grand Central North were originally open from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. In summer 2006, Grand Central North was closed on weekends, with the MTA citing low usage and the need to save money.^[52] Before it was closed, about 6,000 people used Grand Central North on a typical weekend,^[53] and about 30,000 on weekdays.

Ideas for a northern entrance to Grand Central had been discussed since at least the 1970s. Construction on Grand Central North lasted from 1994 to 1999 and cost $75 million.^[50] Delays were attributed to the incomplete nature of the original blueprints of 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; the Northwest and Northeast passages; the cross-passages at 47th and 45th Streets; and the Metro-North Railroad lower level.

Platforms and tracks

Layout of the upper-level mainline tracks (top) and lower-level suburban tracks (bottom), showing balloon loops

The terminal has the most platforms in any railway station in the world, with 44 platforms.^[54][55] As of 2016, there are 67 tracks in regular passenger use, serving the Metro-North.^[56] The upper level has 42 tracks, including ten tracks currently used only for storage. A balloon loop track encircles 40 of these tracks.^[57] The lower level has 27 tracks circled by several balloon loops.^[58] Tracks 116–125 on the Metro-North's lower level are being demolished to make room for the Long Island Rail Road concourse being built under the Metro-North station as part of the East Side Access project.^[59]

East Side Access is building an additional four platforms and eight tracks numbered 201–204 and 301–304 in two double-decked caverns 100-foot-deep (30 m) underneath the ground.^[60] The new LIRR station will have four tracks and two platforms in each of two caverns, and each cavern would contain two tracks and one platform on each level. A concourse will be located between the LIRR's two track levels.^[61][62]

Underneath the Waldorf-Astoria (and connected to Grand Central via the tracks) is a private platform, Track 61, which was built mainly for former United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt.^[63] He would travel into the city using his personal train into Track 61, then take a specially designed elevator to the surface. It has been used occasionally since Roosevelt's death.^[64][65] This platform was part of the original design of the Waldorf Astoria.^[17][32]:67 It was mentioned in The New York Times in 1929 and first used by General Pershing in 1938.^[66]

Grand Central Depot

Looking out the north end of the Murray Hill Tunnel toward the original Grand Central Depot in 1880. The two larger portals on the right allowed some horsecars to continue further downtown.

Inside the train shed of Grand Central Depot

Grand Central Depot brought the trains of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, the New York and Harlem Railroad, and the New York and New Haven Railroad together in one large station. The station was designed by John B. Snook and financed by Cornelius Vanderbilt. Grand Central Depot first opened in October 1871. The original plan was for the Harlem Railroad to start using it on October 9, 1871 (moving from their 27th Street depot), the New Haven Railroad on October 16, and the Hudson River Railroad on October 23, with the staggering done to minimize confusion. However, the Hudson River Railroad did not move to it until November 1, which puts the other two dates in doubt.^{[67][68][69][70]}

The head house containing passenger service areas and railroad offices was an "L" shape with a short leg running east-west on 42nd Street and a long 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 balloon shed with a clear span over all of the tracks, and only passengers with tickets were allowed on the platforms (a rule enforced by ticket examiners). The Harlem, Hudson, and New Haven trains were initially in different stations that were adjacent to each other, which created chaos in baggage transfer. The combined Grand Central Depot serviced all three railroads.^[70]

Grand Central Station

Grand Central Station, c. 1902

The exterior of Grand Central Station, c. 1904

The interior of Grand Central Station, c. 1904

Between 1899 and 1900, the head house was renovated extensively.^[23][24] It was expanded from three to six stories with an entirely new façade, on plans by railroad architect Bradford Gilbert. The train shed was kept, but the tracks that previously continued south of 42nd Street were removed and the train yard reconfigured in an effort to reduce congestion and turn-around time for trains.^[71] The reconstructed building was renamed Grand Central Station.^[23][24]

On January 8, 1902, a fatal train crash occurred in the Park Avenue Tunnel, north of the station. A southbound train had overrun several signals and collided with another southbound train, killing 15 people and injuring many more.^[23][24][72] This event prompted William J. Wilgus, the chief engineer of New York Central, to think about alternatives to running a large railway yard in a growing metropolis.^[23][24]

On December 22 of that year, Wilgus wrote a letter to New York Central president W. H. Newman, recommending that Grand Central Station, which served steam trains at the time, be completely replaced with a terminal for electric trains. Wilgus stated that electric trains were cleaner, faster, and cheaper to repair.^[23][24] In addition, real estate could be built over the 16-block open cut in which Grand Central Station was located. Wilgus proposed a 12-story, 2,300,000-square-foot (210,000 m²) building over the terminal to offset the cost of the station, for a total profit of $2.3 million per year from rents.^[23][24] The terminal was to cost $35 million and New York Central made most of its profit from freight, but the railroad's board of directors, including Cornelius Vanderbilt II, William K. Vanderbilt, William Rockefeller, and J. P. Morgan, approved the project on June 30, 1903.^[23][24]

Replacement

Between 1903 and 1913, the entire building was torn down in phases and replaced by the current Grand Central Terminal. It was to be the biggest terminal in the world, both in the size of the building and in the number of tracks.^[23][24] Before construction even started, objections were raised about the fact that dozens of buildings, on a 17-acre (6.9 ha) plot of land, had to be razed to build the terminal. Wilgus was to head the project.^[23][24] Wilgus started to figure out ways to build the new terminal efficiently.^[23][24] His solution was to demolish the old Grand Central Station and build the new terminal in sections, while some station operations were shifted to the Grand Central Palace Hotel for a while. This doubled the cost of construction, but obviated the need to suspend all rail service for the duration of construction.^[23][24]

Construction

Excavation for new Grand Central Terminal, September 1907

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

The construction project was enormous. About 3,200,000 cubic yards (2,400,000 m³) of the ground were excavated at depths of up to 10 floors, with 1,000 cubic yards (760 m³) of debris being removed from the site on 300 cars every day. The average construction site was 45 feet (14 m) deep, with the lower level being 40 feet (12 m) below ground.^[23][24] Over 10,000 workers were assigned to put 118,597 short tons (107,589 t) of steel and 33 miles (53 km) of track inside the final structure. In addition, a 0.5-mile-long (0.80 km), 6-foot-wide (1.8 m) drainage tube was sunk 65 feet (20 m) under the ground to the East River.^[23][24]

In 1906–7, the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad and the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad electrified their tracks with third rail on the approaches to Grand Central Terminal. This allowed electric trains to enter the then-future Grand Central Terminal upon its completion.^[23][24] On September 30, 1906, the first electric train departed for the soon-to-be-demolished Grand Central Station from Highbridge, Bronx.^[23][24]

To accommodate ever-growing rail traffic into the restricted Midtown area, Wilgus took advantage of the recent electrification technology to propose a novel scheme: a bi-level station below ground. Arriving trains would go underground under Park Avenue, and proceed to an upper-level incoming station if they were mainline trains, or to a lower-level platform if they were suburban trains.^[23][24] In addition, turning loops within the station itself obviated complicated switching moves to bring back the trains to the coach yards for servicing. Departing mainline trains reversed into upper-level platforms in the conventional way.^[23][24] New track infrastructure allowed maximum train speeds of 52 miles per hour (84 km/h), as well as a massive four-floor, 400-lever signal tower to control the suburban trains.^[23][24]

Burying electric trains underground brought an additional advantage to the railroads: the ability to sell above-ground air rights over the tracks and platforms for real-estate development. The result of this was the creation of several blocks worth of prime real estate in Manhattan, which were then sold for a large sum of money. In addition, the terminal itself contains support structures for a possible future tower to be built above it.^[23][24] The terminal also did away with bifurcating Park Avenue by introducing a "circumferential elevated driveway" that allowed Park Avenue traffic to traverse around the building and over 42nd Street without encumbering nearby streets. The building was also designed to accommodate reconnecting both segments of 43rd Street by going through the concourse had the City of New York demanded it.^[23][24]

The last train left Grand Central Station at midnight on June 5, 1910, and workers promptly began demolishing the old station.^[23][24] Plans for the new terminal were filed in January 1911. At the time, the proposals for Grand Central Terminal were spread out among 55 architects' drawings, marking one of the most comprehensive sets of plans that had ever been submitted to the New York City Department of Buildings.^[73]

On December 20, 1910, a gas explosion at the station killed 10 people and injured 117 more.^[74]

On February 2, 1913, the new terminal was opened, with passengers boarding the first train at one minute past midnight.^{[75][23][24][76][77]} Within sixteen hours of opening, there were an estimated 150,000 visitors.^[23][24]

"Grand Central Zone"

Postcard of Grand Central Terminal, c. 1915

"Grand Central Terminal" from "The Gateway to a Continent: Grand Central Zone" (1939)

The construction of Grand Central created a mini-city called the "Grand Central Zone", which stretched from 42nd to 51st Streets between Madison and Lexington Avenues. This area included the Commodore, Biltmore, Roosevelt, Marguery, Chatham, Barclay, Park Lane and Waldorf Astoria Hotels, luxury apartment houses along Park Avenue, and various new office buildings. Prestigious apartment and office buildings were erected around Grand Central, which turned the area into the most desirable commercial office district in Manhattan.^[79][80][81] It spurred construction throughout the neighborhood in the 1920s, including that of skyscrapers such as the Chrysler Building.

In 1928, 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.

Grand Central Art Galleries

Medals commemorating the Grand Central Art Galleries' foundation

From 1922 to 1958, Grand Central Terminal was the home of the Grand Central Art Galleries, which were established by John Singer Sargent, Edmund Greacen, Walter Leighton Clark, and others.^[82] The founders had sought a location in Manhattan that was central and easily accessible, and Alfred Holland Smith, president of New York Central, made the top of the terminal available. A 10-year lease^[83] was signed, and the galleries, together with the railroad company, spent more than $100,000 to prepare the space.^[84] The architect was William Adams Delano, best known for designing Yale Divinity School's Sterling Quadrangle.

At their opening, the galleries extended over most of the terminal's sixth floor, 15,000 square feet (1,400 m²), and offered eight main exhibition rooms, a foyer gallery, and a reception area.^[85] A total of 20 display rooms were planned for what was intended as "... the largest sales gallery of art in the world".^[84] The official opening was March 22, 1923,^[85] and featured paintings by Sargent, Charles W. Hawthorne, Cecilia Beaux, Wayman Adams, and Ernest Ipsen. Sculptors included Daniel Chester French, Herbert Adams, Robert Aitken, Gutzon Borglum, and Frederic MacMonnies. The event attracted 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, which occupied 7,000 square feet (650 m²) on the seventh floor of the east wing of the terminal. The school was directed by Sargent and Daniel Chester French. Its first-year teachers included painters Jonas Lie and Nicolai Fechin, sculptor Chester Beach, illustrator Dean Cornwell, costume designer Helen Dryden, and muralist Ezra Winter.^[86][87] The Grand Central School of Art remained in the east wing until 1944.^[88]

The Grand Central Art Galleries remained in the terminal until 1958, when they moved to the Biltmore Hotel.^[89] They remained at the Biltmore for 23 years, until it was converted into an office building.^[90] When the Biltmore was demolished in 1981, they moved to 24 West 57th Street.^[91] They ceased operations in 1994.

Musical performances

Beginning during the Christmas season of 1928 and continuing on certain holidays until 1958, an organist performed in Grand Central's North Gallery. The organist was Mary Lee Read, who initially performed on a borrowed Hammond organ. Grand Central management eventually bought an organ and a set of chimes for the station and began paying Read an annual retainer.^[92] In addition to the weeks before Christmas, Read played during the weeks before Thanksgiving and Easter and on Mother's Day. On one Easter, a choir composed of Works Progress Administration employees performed with her.^[92] Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, she attempted to lift spirits by playing "The Star-Spangled Banner", which brought the main concourse to a standstill. The stationmaster subsequently asked her to avoid selections that would cause passengers to miss their trains, and Read became known as the only organist in New York who was forbidden to play the United States' national anthem.^[92] On September 7, 2018, Paul McCartney performed a secret live show at Grand Central Terminal on the premiere date of his new album Egypt Station.^[93]

Proposals for demolition and towers

In 1947, over 65 million people, or equivalent to 40% of the United States' population at the time, traveled through Grand Central. However, railroad traffic soon declined with competition from highways and intercity airline traffic.

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

Grand Central was designed to support a tower built above it. In 1954, William Zeckendorf proposed replacing Grand Central 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. Pei created a pinched-cylinder design that took the form of a glass cylinder with a wasp waist. The plan was abandoned. In 1955, Erwin S. Wolfson made his first proposal for a tower north of the Terminal replacing the Terminal's six-story office building. A revised Wolfson plan was approved in 1958 and the Pan Am Building (now the MetLife Building) was completed in 1963 even though that section of the superstructure was not designed to support a tower above it.

Although the Pan Am Building's completion averted the terminal's imminent destruction, New York Central continued its precipitous decline. In 1968, facing bankruptcy, it merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad to form the Penn Central Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad was in its own precipitous decline, and in 1964, despite efforts to save the ornate Penn Station from destruction, the station was demolished and completely rebuilt to make way for an office building and the new Madison Square Garden. In 1968, Penn Central unveiled plans to build over Grand Central a tower even bigger than the Pan Am Building. The Marcel Breuer design would have used the existing building's tower support structure but would have destroyed the facade and the Main Waiting Room. 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 proud monuments, until there will be nothing left of all her history and beauty to inspire our children? If they are not inspired by the past of our city, where will they find the strength to fight for her future? Americans care about their past, but for short term gain they ignore it and tear down everything that matters. Maybe... this is the time to take a stand, to reverse the tide, so that we won't all end up in a uniform world of steel and glass boxes.^[94]

— Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Six months before the Breuer plans were unveiled, however, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Grand Central a city "landmark". Penn Central was unable to secure permission from the Commission to execute either of Breuer's two blueprints. The railroad sued the city, alleging a taking.^[95] The resulting case, Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City (1978), was the first time that the Supreme Court ruled on a matter of historic preservation. The Court saved the terminal, holding that New York City's Landmarks Preservation Act did not constitute a "taking" of Penn Central's property under the Fifth Amendment and was a reasonable use of government land-use regulatory power.

Penn Central went into bankruptcy in 1970 in what was then the biggest corporate bankruptcy in American history. Most of its railroad operations were taken over by Conrail in 1976, but Penn Central retained title to Grand Central Terminal. When Penn Central reorganized as American Premier Underwriters (APU) in 1994, it retained ownership of Penn Central. In turn, APU was absorbed by American Financial Group).

Restorations and expansion

1970s restoration

Lower Concourse

Grand Central Terminal Clock

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

In 1975, Donald Trump bought the Commodore Hotel to the east of the terminal for $10 million and then worked out a deal with Jay Pritzker to transform it into one of the first Grand Hyatt hotels.^[96] Trump negotiated various tax breaks and, in the process, agreed to renovate the exterior of the terminal.^[97] The complementary masonry from the Commodore was covered with a mirror-glass "slipcover" façade – the masonry still exists underneath. In the same deal, Trump optioned Penn Central's rail yards on the Hudson River between 59th and 72nd Streets that eventually became Trump Place, the biggest private development in New York City.

In order to improve passenger flow, a new passageway at Grand Central was opened in May 1975.^[98]

On September 11, 1976, a group of Croatian nationalists planted a bomb in a coin locker at Grand Central Terminal. The group also hijacked a plane. After stating their political demands, they revealed the location and provided the instructions for disarming the Grand Central Terminal bomb. The disarming operation was not executed properly and the resulting explosion wounded over 30 and killed one NYPD bomb squad specialist.^[99][100]

The Grand Hyatt opened in 1980 and the neighborhood immediately began a transformation.^[101] Trump sold his half-share in the hotel for $142 million in 1996.^[102]

Throughout this period, the interior of Grand Central was dominated by huge billboard advertisements, with perhaps the most famous being the giant Kodak Colorama photos that ran along the entire east side, and the Westclox "Big Ben" clock over the south concourse.

Long Island Rail Road access

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 the terminal via the East Side Access Project. The project was spurred by a study that showed that more than half of LIRR riders work closer to Grand Central than to the current terminus at Penn Station.^[116] The East Side Access has resulted in major blasting work under Grand Central Terminal. Since March 2007, about 1000 workers have completed more than 2,400 controlled blasts ending about October 4, 2013.^[117]

A new bi-level, eight-track tunnel with four platforms was excavated under Park Avenue, more than 90 feet (27 m) below the Metro-North tracks and more than 140 feet (43 m) below the surface. Reaching the street from the lowest level, more than 175 feet (53 m) deep, will take about 10 minutes.^[118] There will also be a new 350,000-square-foot retail and dining concourse.^[119] It will initially be accessed via stairwells, 22 elevators, and 47 escalators connecting to Grand Central's existing food court, in comparison to the 19 escalators in the remainder of the LIRR system.^[120] The MTA plans to build and open additional entrances at 45th, 46th, and 48th streets.^[121] The escalators would be up to 180 feet (55 m) long. The escalators and elevators are to be partially privately operated, one of the only such instances in the entire MTA system.^[120]

LIRR trains will access Park Avenue via the existing lower level of the 63rd Street Tunnel, connecting to its main line running through Sunnyside Yard in Queens. Extensions were 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 for air vents.^[122] Cardinal Edward Egan criticized the plan, noting concerns about the tracks, which will largely be on the west side of Park Avenue, and their impact on St. Patrick's Cathedral.^[122] The new LIRR terminal will be open in December 2023.^[123]