Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central Terminal serves some 67 million passengers a year, more than any other Metro-North station.[2][12] At morning rush hour, a train arrives at the terminal every 58 seconds.[13]

Three of Metro-North's five main lines terminate at Grand Central:[14]

• Harlem Line to Wassaic, New York
• Hudson Line to Poughkeepsie, New York (Amtrak connection to Albany)
• New Haven Line to New Haven, Connecticut (Amtrak connection to Hartford, Springfield, Boston; Shore Line East to New London)
  • New Canaan Branch to New Canaan, Connecticut
  • Danbury Branch to Danbury, Connecticut
  • Waterbury Branch to Waterbury, Connecticut

Through these lines, the terminal serves Metro-North commuters traveling to and from the Bronx in New York City; Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties in New York; and Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut.[14]

The New York City Subway's adjacent Grand Central–42nd Street station serves the following routes:[11]

• 4, ​5, ​6, and <6> trains (IRT Lexington Avenue Line), situated diagonally under the Pershing Square Building/110 East 42nd Street, 42nd Street, and Grand Hyatt New York
• 7 and <7>​ trains (IRT Flushing Line), under 42nd Street between Park Avenue and west of Third Avenue
• S train (42nd Street Shuttle), under 42nd Street between Madison Avenue and Vanderbilt Avenue

These MTA Regional Bus Operations buses stop near Grand Central:[1][15]

• NYCT Bus:
  • M1, M2, M3, M4 and Q32 local buses at Madison Avenue (northbound) and Fifth Avenue (southbound)
  • X27, X28, X37, X38, SIM4C, SIM6, SIM8, SIM8X, SIM11, SIM22, SIM25, SIM26, SIM30, SIM31 and SIM33C express buses at Madison Avenue (northbound)
  • X27, X28, X37, X38, SIM4C, SIM8, SIM8X, SIM25, SIM31 and SIM33C express buses at Fifth Avenue (southbound)
  • M42 local bus at 42nd Street
  • M101, M102 and M103 local buses at Third Avenue (northbound) and Lexington Avenue (southbound)
  • X27, X28, X63, X64 and X68 express buses at Third Avenue (northbound)
  • SIM6, SIM11, SIM22 and SIM26 express buses at Lexington Avenue (southbound)
• MTA Bus:
  • BxM3, BxM4, BxM6, BxM7, BxM8, BxM9, BxM10, BxM18, BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4 and BM5 express buses at Madison Avenue (northbound) and Fifth Avenue (southbound)
  • BxM1 express bus at Lexington Avenue (southbound)
  • BxM1, QM21, QM31, QM32, QM34, QM35, QM36, QM40, QM42 and QM44 express buses at Third Avenue (northbound)
• Academy Bus:
  • SIM23 and SIM24 express buses at Madison Avenue (northbound) and Fifth Avenue (southbound)

The terminal and its predecessors were designed for intercity service, which operated from the first station building's completion in 1871 until Amtrak ceased operations in the terminal in 1991. Through transfers, passengers could connect to all major lines in the United States, including the Canadian, the Empire Builder, the San Francisco Zephyr, the Southwest Limited, the Crescent, and the Sunset Limited under Amtrak. Destinations included San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, New Orleans, Chicago, and Montreal.[16] Another notable former train was New York Central's 20th Century Limited, a luxury service that operated to Chicago's LaSalle Street Station between 1902 and 1967 and was among the most famous trains of its time.[17][18]

From 1971 to 1991, all Amtrak trains using the intrastate Empire Corridor to Niagara Falls terminated at Grand Central; interstate Northeast Corridor trains used Penn Station.[19] Notable Amtrak services at Grand Central included the Lake Shore, Empire Service, Ethan Allen Express, Adirondack, Niagara Rainbow, Maple Leaf, and Empire State Express.[20][21][22]

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority plans to bring Long Island Rail Road commuter trains to a new station beneath Grand Central as part of its East Side Access project.[23] The project will connect the terminal to the railroad's Main Line,[24] which connects to all of the LIRR's branches and almost all of its stations.[25] As of 2018, service is expected to begin in late 2022.[26][27]

Midday pedestrian traffic in the Main Concourse

The Main Concourse, originally known as the Express Concourse, is located on the upper platform level of Grand Central, in the geographical center of the station building. The 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m²) concourse[33] leads directly to most of the terminal's upper-level tracks, although some are accessed from passageways near the concourse.[34] The Main Concourse is usually filled with bustling crowds and is often used as a meeting place.[35]

The terminal's ticket booths are located in the Main Concourse, although many have been closed or repurposed since the introduction of ticket vending machines. The concourse's large American flag was installed there a few days after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.[35][7] The Main Concourse is surrounded on most of its sides by balconies. The east side is occupied by an Apple Store, while the west side is occupied by the Italian restaurant Cipriani Dolci (part of Cipriani S.A.), the Campbell Palm Court, and the Campbell Bar, a former financier's office-turned-bar.[34] Underneath the east and west balconies are entrances to Grand Central's passageways, with shops and ticket machines along the walls.[36]

The Main Concourse information booth (left) and the Dining Concourse information booth (right). The two are connected by a spiral staircase.

The 18-sided main information booth — originally the "information bureau" — is in the center of the concourse. Its attendants provide train schedules and other information to the public;[37] in 2015, they fielded more than 1,000 questions an hour, according to an MTA spokesman.[38] A door within the marble and brass pagoda conceals a spiral staircase down to a similar booth on the station's Dining Concourse.[39][40][38]

Main Concourse clock

The booth is topped by a four-faced brass clock, one of Grand Central's most recognizable icons according to a book by the New York Transit Museum.[41] The clock was designed by Henry Edward Bedford, cast in Waterbury, Connecticut,[35] and designed by the Self Winding Clock Company and built by the Seth Thomas Clock Company, along with several other clocks in the terminal.[42][7] Each 24-inch (61 cm) face[39] is made from opalescent glass, now often called opal glass or milk glass. However, urban legend says the faces are actually opal, valued by Sotheby's or Christie's between $10 million and $20 million.[43] The clock was first stopped for repairs in 1954, after it was found to be losing a minute or two per day.[44]

Along with the rest of the New York Central Railroad system's clocks, it was formerly set to a clock in the train dispatcher's office at Grand Central.[45] Through the 1980s, they were set to a master clock at a workshop in Grand Central.[46] Since 2004, they have been set to the United States Naval Observatory's atomic clock, accurate to a billionth of a second.[47][38]

The terminal's primary departure board is located on the south side of the concourse, installed directly atop the two sets of ticket windows. Colloquially known as the "Big Board", it shows the track and status of arriving and departing trains.[48][49]

1913–1967 blackboard

1967–1985 Solari board

1985–1996 Omega board

1996–2019 LCD board

2019 LED replacement

There have been five departure boards used over the terminal's history: the 1913–1967 chalkboard, the 1967–1985 Solari board, the 1985–1996 Omega board, the 1996–2019 LCD board, and the 2019 fully digital display. For the first 54 years of the terminal's operation, train arrival and departure information was hand-chalked on a blackboard in the Biltmore Room. In 1967, the blackboard was supplanted by an electromechanical display in the main concourse over the ticket windows;[50][51] the original chalkboard remains as a relic in the Biltmore Room. Dubbed a Solari board after its Italian manufacturer Solari di Udine, it displayed train information on rows of flip panels that made a distinctive flapping sound as they rotated to reflect changes.[48][49] In 1985, the Solari board was replaced with the Omega board, designed and installed by Advanced Computer Systems of Dayton, Ohio, and named for its manufacturer, watchmaker Omega SA.[52] This board was removed during a terminal renovation in July 1996; it was replaced several months later with a liquid-crystal display[51] that replicated the analog look of the older boards and which was the first installed over both the east and the west ticket offices.[53] Between March and September 2019,[54] the LCD boards were replaced by LED video wall screens installed in the existing housing.[53][55][56][54] Designed by the MTA and New York's State Historic Preservation Office, the displays are brighter and easier to read, ADA-compliant, are the first to display real-time updates,[57] and are necessary because the old equipment's software was no longer available.[58] Commuter complaints about the new displays were published in the news, as had complaints over the three prior board replacements, in 1967, 1985, and 1996.[53][50][59]

Left to right:
• 1913–1967 train gate display
• 1967–1985 Solari gate display (out of cabinetry)
• 1996–present LCD displays
• 2019–present fully digital displays

There are also arrival and departure displays at each of the platform gates, about 93 in total.[56] Originally these were cloth curtains with train information stitched onto them, posted at the platform entrances.[52] The signs were eventually replaced with flip panels, replaced again with the installation of the Omega Board in 1987,[52] and supplanted again by LCD panels, which are being replaced between 2017 and 2020.[60][54]

The size of the Main Concourse has made it an ideal advertising space.[61] During World War II, a large mural with images of the United States military hung in the concourse,[61] and from the 1950s to 1989, the Kodak Colorama exhibit was a prominent fixture.[62][63][64] A thirteen-and-a-half-foot-diameter (4.1 m) illuminated clock hung in the Main Concourse at the entrance to the main waiting room from the 1960s to the 1990s. The clock, sometimes referred to as "Big Ben", had chimes, and after 1986, news and stock information. The clock was sponsored by at least five companies; its first and most significant was Westclox.[65][66] All of these advertisements and fixtures were removed around the time of the terminal's renovation in the 1990s; only four advertisement screens remain on the concourse, each about 7 x 6 feet.[67]

The Main Concourse has also been used as a gathering venue. In the 1960s, the terminal's tenant CBS installed a CBS News television screen above the ticket offices to follow the spaceflights of Project Mercury;[68] thousands would gather in the Main Concourse to watch key events of the flights.[69][70][71] Politicians such as U.S. presidents Calvin Coolidge and Harry S. Truman; presidential candidates Thomas Dewey and Robert F. Kennedy; and governor Herbert Lehman have also held events within the concourse.[72] The Main Concourse has also been used for memorials, including events to commemorate U.S. ambassador to France Myron T. Herrick and former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis after their deaths; celebrations for Martin Luther King Jr. Day; and an impromptu memorial created after the September 11 attacks in 2001.[73] Several celebrations have also taken place at the terminal, such as a celebration for the New York Giants after they won the NFL championship in 1933;[74] an event for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1941;[74][75] and several large parties and New Year's celebrations.[74][76]

Various special exhibits and events have also been held at the Main Concourse throughout the years.[77]

Floor plan of the main level of the terminal

Graybar Passage

In their design for the station's interior, Reed & Stem created a circulation system that allowed passengers alighting from trains to enter the Main Concourse, then leave through various passages that branch from it.[78] Among these are the north–south 42nd Street Passage and Shuttle Passage, which run south to 42nd Street; and three east–west passageways — the Grand Central Market, the Graybar Passage, and the Lexington Passage — that run about 240 feet east to Lexington Avenue by 43rd Street.[34][79] Several passages run north of the terminal, including the north–south 45th Street Passage, which leads to 45th Street and Madison Avenue,[80] and the network of tunnels in Grand Central North, which lead to exits at every street from 45th to 48th Street.[34]

Each of the east–west passageways runs through a different building. The northernmost is the Graybar Passage,[34] built on the first floor of the Graybar Building in 1926.[81] Its walls and seven large transverse arches are made of coursed ashlar travertine, and the floor is terrazzo. The ceiling is composed of seven groin vaults, each of which has an ornamental bronze chandelier. The first two vaults, as viewed from leaving Grand Central, are painted with cumulus clouds, while the third contains a 1927 mural by Edward Trumbull depicting American transportation.[82][83]

Grand Central Market's interior and its Lexington Avenue facade between the Graybar Building and Grand Hyatt New York

The middle passageway houses Grand Central Market, a cluster of food shops.[34][84] The site was originally a segment of 43rd Street which became the terminal's first service dock in 1913.[85] In the mid-1970s, a savings bank was built in the space,[86] which was converted into the marketplace in 1998, and involved installing a new limestone facade on the building.[87] The building's second story, whose balcony overlooks the market and 43rd Street, was to house a restaurant, but is instead used for storage.[79][88]

The southernmost of the three, the Lexington Passage, was originally known as the Commodore Passage after the Commodore Hotel, which it ran through.[79] When the hotel was renamed the Grand Hyatt, the passage was likewise renamed. The passage acquired its current name during the terminal's renovation in the 1990s.[87]

Grand Central North is a network of four tunnels that allow people to walk between the station building (which sits between 42nd and 44th Street) and exits at 45th, 46th, 47th, and 48th Street.[89] The 1,000-foot (300 m) Northwest Passage and 1,200-foot (370 m) Northeast Passage run parallel to the tracks on the upper level, while two shorter cross-passages run perpendicular to the tracks.[90][91] The 47th Street cross-passage runs between the upper and lower tracks, 30 feet (9.1 m) below street level; it provides access to upper-level tracks. The 45th Street cross-passage runs under the lower tracks, 50 feet (15 m) below street level. Converted from a corridor built to transport luggage and mail,[91] it provides access to lower-level tracks.

The tunnels' street-level entrances, each enclosed by a freestanding glass structure,[91] sit at the northeast corner of East 47th Street and Madison Avenue (Northwest Passage), northeast corner of East 48th Street and Park Avenue (Northeast Passage), on the east and west sides of 230 Park Avenue (Helmsley Building) between 45th and 46th Streets, and (since 2012) on the south side of 47th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues.[92] Pedestrians can also take an elevator to the 47th Street passage from the north side of East 47th Street, between Madison and Vanderbilt Avenues.[93]

Proposals for these tunnels had been discussed since at least the 1970s. The MTA approved preliminary plans in 1983,[94] gave final approval in 1991,[95] and began construction in 1994.[90] Dubbed the North End Access Project, the work was to be completed in 1997 at a cost of $64.5 million,[95] but it was slowed by the incomplete nature of the building's original blueprints and by previously undiscovered groundwater beneath East 45th Street.[90] The passageways opened on August 18, 1999, at a final cost of $75 million.[90]

The passages contain an MTA Arts & Design mosaic installation by Ellen Driscoll, an artist from Brooklyn.[90]

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. About 6,000 people used the passages on a typical weekend,[96] and about 30,000 on weekdays. Since summer 2006, Grand Central North has been closed on weekends; MTA officials cited low usage and the need to save money.[97]

Vanderbilt Hall, c. 1910

The Tournament of Champions squash championship in 2012

Agern

Vanderbilt Hall is an event space on the south side of the terminal, between the Park Avenue entrance located to its south and the Main Concourse located to its north. Its west side houses a food hall.[34] The space is lit by Beaux-Arts chandeliers, each with 132 bulbs on four tiers.[98]

It was formerly the main waiting room for the terminal, used particularly by intercity travelers. The space featured double-sided oak benches and could seat 700 people.[99] When intercity service ceased at Grand Central in 1991, the room began to be used by several hundred homeless people. Terminal management responded first by removing the room's benches, then by closing the space entirely.[N 4] In 1998, the hall was renovated and renamed Vanderbilt Hall after the family that built and owned the station.[79] It is used for the annual Christmas Market,[101] as well as for special exhibitions and private events.[102]

Since 1999, Vanderbilt Hall has hosted the annual Tournament of Champions squash championship.[103] Each January, tournament officials construct a free-standing glass-enclosed 21-by-32-foot (6.4 by 9.8 m) squash court. Like a theatre in the round, spectators sit on three sides of the court.[104]

In 2016, the west half of the hall became the Great Northern Food Hall, an upscale Nordic-themed food court with five pavilions. The food hall is the first long-term tenant of the space; the terminal's landmark status prevents permanent installations.[105]

A men's smoking room and women's waiting room were formerly located on the west and east sides of Vanderbilt Hall, respectively.[105] In 2016, the men's room was renovated into Agern, an 85-seat Nordic-themed fine dining and Michelin-starred restaurant operated by Noma co-founder Claus Meyer,[106] who also runs the food hall.[105]

Former newsstand in the Biltmore Room

The Biltmore Room is a 64-by-80-foot (20 by 24 m) marble hall[107] northwest of the Main Concourse that serves as an entrance to tracks 39 through 42.[34] Completed in 1915[108] directly beneath the New York Biltmore Hotel,[107] it originally served as a waiting room for intercity trains known formally as the incoming train room and colloquially as the "Kissing Room".[108]

As the station's passenger traffic declined in mid-century, the room fell into neglect. In 1982 and 1983, the room was damaged during the construction that converted the Biltmore Hotel into the Bank of America Plaza. In 1985, Giorgio Cavaglieri was hired to restore the room, which at the time had cracked marble and makeshift lighting. During that era, a series of lockers was still located within the Biltmore Room.[109] Later, the room held a newsstand, flower stand, and shoe shine booths.[108][110] In 2015, the MTA awarded a contract to refurbish the Biltmore Room into an arrival area for Long Island Rail Road passengers as part of the East Side Access project.[111] As part of the project, the room's booths and stands are to be replaced by a pair of escalators and an elevator to the deep-level LIRR concourse.[108][110]

The room's blackboard displayed the arrival and departure times of New York Central trains until 1967,[50] when a mechanical board was installed in the Main Concourse.[107]

The Station Master's Office, located near Track 36, has Grand Central's only dedicated waiting room. The space has benches, restrooms, and a floral mixed-media mural on three of its walls. The room's benches were previously located in the former waiting room, now known as Vanderbilt Hall. Since 2008, the area has offered free Wi-Fi.[112]

One of the retail areas of the Graybar Passage, currently occupied by wine and liquor store Central Cellars, was the Grand Central Theatre or Terminal Newsreel Theatre.[113][114] Opened in 1937, the theater showed short films, cartoons, and newsreels[115] continuously from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. for 25-cent tickets.[116][117] Designed by Tony Sarg, it had 242 stadium-style seats and a standing-room section with armchairs. A small bar sat near the entrance.[118] The theater's interior had simple pine walls spaced out to eliminate echos, along with an inglenook, a fireplace, and an illuminated clock for the convenience of travelers. The walls of the lobby, dubbed the "appointment lounge", were covered with world maps; the ceiling had an astronomical mural painted by Sarg.[113] The New York Times reported a cost of $125,000 for the theater's construction, which was attributed to construction of an elevator between the theater and the suburban concourse as well as air conditioning and apparatuses for people hard of hearing.[117]

The theater stopped showing newsreels by 1968[119] but continued operating until around 1979, when it was gutted for retail space.[116] A renovation in the early 2000s removed a false ceiling, revealing the theater's projection window and its astronomical mural, which proved similar in colors and style to the Main Concourse ceiling.[115]

Dining Concourse food stalls and track entrances

One of several public seating areas

Access to the lower-level tracks is provided by the Dining Concourse, below the Main Concourse and connected to it by numerous stairs, ramps, and escalators. For decades, it was called the Suburban Concourse because it handled commuter rail trains.[29] Today, it has central seating and lounge areas, surrounded by restaurants and food vendors.[34] The shared public seating in the concourse was designed resembling Pullman traincars.[79] These areas are frequented by the homeless, and as a result, in the mid-2010s the MTA created two areas with private seating for dining customers.[120]

The concourses are connected by two ramps, which comprise a 302-foot (92 m) west–east axis under an 84-foot (26 m) ceiling.[121] They intersect a slight slope from the Dining Concourse just outside the Oyster Bar,[34] under an archway covered with Guastavino tiling.[122] The arch creates a whispering gallery: someone standing in one corner can hear someone speaking softly in the diagonally opposite corner.[68][43] An overpass between the main concourse and the Vanderbilt Hall passes over the archway; from 1927 until 1998, the sides of the overpass were enclosed by walls about 8 feet (2.4 m) high.[121]

As part of the terminal's late-1990s renovation, stands and restaurants were installed in the concourse, and escalators added to link to the main concourse level.[79] Additionally, the MTA spent $2.2 million to construct two 45-foot-wide circular designs in the concourse's floor. The designs were by David Rockwell and Beyer Blinder Belle, made of terrazzo, and installed over the concourse's original terrazzo floor.[123] Since 2015, part of the Dining Concourse has been closed for the construction of structural framework to support stairways and escalators to the new LIRR terminal being built as part of East Side Access.[124]

A small square-framed clock is installed in the ceiling near Tracks 108 and 109. It was manufactured at an unknown time by the Self Winding Clock Company, which made several others in the terminal. The clock hung inside the gate at Track 19 until 2011, when it was moved so it would not be blocked by lights added during upper-level platform improvements.[42]

MTA Police and lost-and-found offices

Metro-North's lost-and-found bureau sits near Track 100 at the far east end of the Dining Concourse. Incoming items are sorted according to function and date: for instance, there are separate bins for hats, gloves, belts, and ties.[125][126] The sorting system was computerized in the 1990s.[127] Lost items are kept for up to 90 days before being donated or auctioned off.[43][128]

As early as 1920, the bureau received between 15,000 and 18,000 items a year.[129] By 2002, the bureau was collecting "3,000 coats and jackets; 2,500 cellphones; 2,000 sets of keys; 1,500 wallets, purses and ID's [sic]; and 1,100 umbrellas" a year.[127] By 2007, it was collecting 20,000 items a year, 60% of which were eventually claimed.[128] In 2013, the bureau reported an 80% return rate, among the highest in the world for a transit agency.[43][38]

Some of the more unusual items collected by the bureau include fake teeth, prosthetic body parts, legal documents, diamond pouches, live animals, and a $100,000 violin.[126][128] One story has it that a woman purposely left her unfaithful husband's ashes on a Metro-North train before collecting them three weeks later.[43][128] In 1996, some of the lost-and-found items were displayed at an art exhibition.[130]

Floor plan of the Dining Level

Entrance to the Oyster Bar

The Campbell Bar

Grand Central Terminal contains restaurants such as the Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant and various fast food outlets surrounding the Dining Concourse. There are also delis, bakeries, a gourmet and fresh food market, and an annex of the New York Transit Museum.[131][132] The 40-plus retail stores include newsstands and chain stores, including a Starbucks coffee shop, a Rite Aid pharmacy, and an Apple Store.[34][133]

The Oyster Bar, the oldest business in the terminal, sits next to the Dining Concourse and below Vanderbilt Hall.[34][105]

An elegantly restored cocktail lounge, the Campbell, sits just south of the 43rd Street/Vanderbilt Avenue entrance. A mix of commuters and tourists access it from the street or the balcony level.[34] The space was once the office of 1920s tycoon John W. Campbell, who decorated it to resemble the galleried hall of a 13th-century Florentine palace.[134][135] In 1999, it opened as a bar, the Campbell Apartment; a new owner renovated and renamed it the Campbell in 2017.[136]

The Vanderbilt Tennis Club's court

From 1939 to 1964, CBS Television occupied a large portion of the terminal building, particularly in a fourth-floor space above Vanderbilt Hall.[137][138] The CBS offices, called "The Annex",[138] contained two "program control" facilities (43 and 44); network master control; facilities for local station WCBS-TV;[137][138][139] and, after World War II, two 700,000-square-foot (65,000 m²) production studios (41 and 42).[140] Broadcasts were transmitted from an antenna atop the nearby Chrysler Building installed by order of CBS chief executive William S. Paley,[140][139] and were also shown on a large screen in the Main Concourse.[140] In 1958, CBS opened the world's first major videotape operations facility in Grand Central. Located in a former rehearsal room on the seventh floor, the facility used 14 Ampex VR-1000 videotape recorders.[137][138]

Douglas Edwards with the News broadcast from Grand Central for several years, covering John Glenn's 1962 Mercury-Atlas 6 space flight and other events. Edward R. Murrow's See It Now originated there, including his famous broadcasts on Senator Joseph McCarthy, which were recreated in George Clooney's movie Good Night, and Good Luck, although the film incorrectly implies that CBS News and corporate offices were in the same building. The long-running panel show What's My Line? was first broadcast from Grand Central, as were The Goldbergs and Mama. CBS eventually moved its operations to the CBS Broadcast Center.[137][138][140]

In 1966, the vacated studio space was converted into the Vanderbilt Tennis Club, a sports club named for the hall just below.[137][138][141][142] Founded by Geza A. Gazdag, an athlete and Olympic coach who fled Hungary amid its 1956 revolution,[143] its two tennis courts were once deemed the most expensive place to play the game—$58 an hour—until financial recessions forced the club to lower the hourly fee to $40.[144] In 1984, the club was purchased by real estate magnate Donald Trump, who discovered it while renovating the terminal's exterior[145] and operated it until 2009.[137] The space is currently occupied by a conductor lounge and a smaller sports facility with a single tennis court.[138][142]

Grand Central Terminal and its predecessors contained their own power plants. The first such plant, built for Grand Central Depot in the 1870s, stood in the surface-level railroad yards at Madison Avenue and 46th Street. The second was built in 1900 under the west side of Grand Central Station near 43rd Street.[146]

When the terminal was created, a new power and heating plant was built on the east side of Park Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets.[147][148] The two-smokestack structure could supply a daily average of 5,000,000 pounds (2,300,000 kg) of heating steam.[146][149] The plant also provided power to the tracks and the station, supplementing other New York Central power plants in Yonkers (later renamed the Glenwood Power Station) and Port Morris in the Bronx (since demolished).[146] While the Port Morris and Yonkers plants provided 11,000-volt alternating current for arriving and departing locomotives, the Grand Central plant converted the alternating current to 800 volts of direct current for use by the terminal's own third-rail-powered locomotives.[146][150] In addition, the Grand Central power plant provided power to nearby buildings.[148][146]

By the late 1920s, most power and heating services were contracted out to Consolidated Edison,[151] and so the power plant was torn down in 1929.[152] Its only remaining vestige is the storage yard under the Waldorf Astoria New York hotel built in 1931.[148] A new substation—the world's largest at the time—was built 100 feet (30 m) under the Graybar Building at a cost of $3 million.[146][153] Occupying a four-story space with an area of 250 by 50 feet (76 by 15 m),[146][151] it is divided into substation 1T, which provides 16,500 kilowatts (22,100 hp) for third-rail power, and substation 1L, which provides 8,000 kilowatts (11,000 hp) for other lighting and power.[146]

A sub-basement, dubbed M42, contains the AC-to-DC converters that supply DC traction current to the tracks.[43] Though sources vary on its exact depth, it is thought to be located 105 to 109 feet (32 to 33 m) below ground,[154] or either 10 or 13 stories deep.[155] The M42 basement was installed in the former boiler void excavated in the bedrock beneath the present-day Grand Central Market and the entrance to the Graybar Building, three levels below the lower Metro-North level.[156] Two of the original rotary converters remain as a historical record. During World War II, this facility was closely guarded because its sabotage would have impaired troop movement on the Eastern Seaboard.[32][157][158] It is said that any unauthorized person entering the facility during the war risked being shot on sight; the rotary converters could have easily been crippled by a bucket of sand.[159] The Abwehr, a German espionage service, sent two spies to sabotage it; they were arrested by the FBI before they could strike.[32] M42 also included a system to monitor trains in and around the terminal, which was used from 1913 until 1922, when it was supplemented by telegraphs.[43]

Another part of the basement is known as Carey's Hole. The two-story section is directly beneath the Shuttle Passage and adjacent spaces. In 1913, when the terminal opened, J. P. Carey opened a barbershop adjacent to and one level below the terminal's waiting room (now Vanderbilt Hall). Carey's business expanded to include a laundry service, shoe store, and haberdashery. In 1921, Carey also ran a limousine service using Packard cars, and in the 1930s, he added regular car and bus service to the city's airports as they opened. Carey would store his merchandise in an unfinished, underground area of the terminal, which railroad employees and maintenance staff began calling "Carey's Hole". The name has remained even as the space has been used for different purposes, including currently as a lounge and dormitory for railroad employees.[160]

c. 1909 layout of the upper-level mainline tracks (top) and lower-level suburban tracks (bottom), showing balloon loops

The terminal holds the Guinness World Record for having the most platforms of any railroad station:[161] 28, which support 44 platform numbers. All are island platforms except one side platform.[162] Odd-numbered tracks are usually on the east side of the platform; even-numbered tracks on the west side. As of 2016, there are 67 tracks, of which 43 are in regular passenger use, serving Metro-North.[163][164] At its opening, the train shed contained 123 tracks, including duplicate track numbers and storage tracks,[164] with a combined length of 19.5 miles (31.4 km).[165]

The tracks slope down as they exit the station to the north, to help departing trains accelerate and arriving ones slow down.[166] Because of the size of the rail yards, Park Avenue and its side streets from 43rd Street to 59th Street are raised on viaducts, and the surrounding blocks were covered over by various buildings.[167]

At its busiest, the terminal is served by an arriving train every 58 seconds.[38]

Grand Central track map
Metro-North upper level
Park Avenue Tunnel to Harlem–125th Street 59th Street (closed) to lower level to lower level 65 63 61 59 57 55 52 Mail/baggage platforms 64 60 56 53 51 92 90 93 91 82 94 83 42 40 38 36 34 32 29 27 25 23 20 18 16 14 11 9 7 5 3 1 41 39 37 35 33 30 28 26 24 21 19 17 15 13 10 8 6 4 2 Grand Central
Metro-North lower level
to upper level to upper level 185 184 182 180 183 141 160 138 136 134 137 135 133 132 131 125 115 113 111 107 123 114 112 110 109 108 106 105 104 103 102 101 200
LIRR upper level (future)
63rd Street Tunnel to Woodside to lower level 204 202 203 201 Storage tracks continue 1,700 feet (520 m)
LIRR lower level (future)
to upper level 304 302 303 301 Storage tracks continue 1,700 feet (520 m)
Passenger service tracks Yard/storage tracks Note: Interlocking towers A, B, C, F, and U have been deactivated.
Map not to scale. Source:[168][169] For further details on the Metro-North track layout north of 59th Street, see Park Avenue main line#Line description.[170]

The upper Metro-North level has 42 numbered tracks. Twenty-nine serve passenger platforms; these are numbered 11 to 42, east to west.[165][168] Tracks 12, 22, and 31 do not exist, and appear to have been removed.[169] To the east of the upper platforms sits the East Yard: ten storage tracks numbered 1 through 10 from east to west.[168][164] A balloon loop runs from Tracks 38–42 on the far west side of the station, around the other tracks, and back to storage Tracks 1–3 at the far east side of the station;[168] this allows trains to turn around more easily.[171][172]

North of the East Yard is the Lex Yard, a secondary storage yard under the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.[168] The yard formerly served the power plant for Grand Central Terminal.[148] Its twelve tracks are numbered 51 through 65 from east to west (track numbers 57, 58, and 62 do not exist). Two private loading platforms, which cannot be used for passenger service, sit between tracks 53 and 54 and between tracks 61 and 63.[168] Track 61 is known for being a private track for United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt; part of the original design of the Waldorf Astoria,[173] it was mentioned in The New York Times in 1929 and first used in 1938 by John J. Pershing, a top U.S. general during World War I.[174] Roosevelt would travel into the city using his personal train, pull into Track 61, and take a specially designed elevator to the surface.[175] It has been used occasionally since Roosevelt's death.[176][177] The upper level also contains 22 more storage sidings.[165][168]

The lower Metro-North level has 27 tracks numbered 100 to 126, east to west.[168][164][178] Two were originally intended for mail trains and two were for baggage handling.[28][29] Today, only Tracks 102–112 and 114–115 are used for passenger service. The lower-level balloon loop, whose curve was much sharper than that of the upper-level loop and could only handle electric multiple units used on commuter lines[179] was removed at an unknown date.[164] Tracks 116–125 were demolished to make room for the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) concourse being built under the Metro-North station as part of the East Side Access project.[180]

The upper and lower levels have different track layouts and, as such, are supported by different sets of columns. The upper level is supported by ultra-strong columns, some of which can carry over 7,000,000 foot-pounds force (9,500,000 J).[181]

The LIRR terminal being built as part of East Side Access will add four platforms and eight tracks numbered 201–204 and 301–304 in two 100-foot-deep (30 m) double-decked caverns below the Metro-North station.[182] The new LIRR station will have four tracks and two platforms in each of the two caverns, with each cavern containing two tracks and one platform on each level. A mezzanine will sit on a center level between the LIRR's two track levels.[183][184]

Grand Central Terminal was built with five signal control centers, labeled A, B, C, F, and U, that collectively controlled all of the track interlockings around the terminal. Each switch was electrically controlled by a lever in one of the signal towers, where lights illuminated on track maps to show which switches were in use.[185][179] As trains passed a given tower, the signal controllers reported the train's engine and timetable numbers, direction, track number, and the exact time.[186]

Tower U controlled the interlocking between 48th and 58th Streets; Tower C, the storage spurs; and Tower F, the turning loops. A four-story underground tower at 49th Street housed the largest of the signal towers: Tower A, which handled the upper-level interlockings via 400 levers, and Tower B, which handled the lower-level interlockings with 362 levers.[187][188][189][179][190] The towers housed offices for the stationmaster, yardmaster, car-maintenance crew, electrical crew, and track-maintenance crew. There were also break rooms for conductors, train engineers, and engine men.[189][185]

After Tower B was destroyed in a fire in 1986,[191] the signal towers were consolidated into a single Operations Control Center, where controllers could monitor the switches by computer. Completed in 1993,[192] the center is operated by a crew of 24 people.[193]

Hospital room in the terminal, 1915

During the terminal's construction, an "accident room" was set up to treat worker injuries in a wrecking car in the terminal's rail yard. Later on, a small hospital was established in the temporary station building on Lexington Avenue to care for injured workers. The arrangement was satisfactory, leading to the creation of a permanent hospital, the Grand Central Emergency Hospital, in Grand Central Terminal in 1911. The hospital was used for every employee injury as well as for passengers. In 1915, it had two physicians who treated a monthly average of 125 new cases per month and 450 dressings.[194] The space had four rooms: Room A (the waiting room), Room B (the operating room), Room C (a private office), and Room D (for resting patients).[195] The hospital was open at least until 1963; a Journal News article that year noted that the hospital treated minor to moderate ailments and was open every day between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.[196]

Located on an upper floor above the Apple Store, the Williamson Library is a meeting space and research center for the New York Railroad Enthusiasts.[197][198] Upon its founding in 1937, the association was granted use of the space in perpetuity by Frederick Ely Williamson, once president of the New York Central Railroad as well as a rail enthusiast and member of the association.[197] Today, it contains about 3,000 books, newspapers, films, photographs, and other documents about railroads, along with artifacts, including part of a 20th Century Limited red carpet.[198] The library is only accessible through secure areas, making it little known to the public and not included in tours of the terminal's hidden attributes.[198] The association holds monthly meetings in the space, open to new visitors for free, and allows research visits by appointment.[199][200]

Another library, the Frank Julian Sprague Memorial Library of the Electric Railroaders Association, was created in the terminal in 1979. The library has about 500,000 publications and slides, focusing on electric rail and trolley lines.[200] A large amount of these works were donated to the New York Transit Museum in 2013.[201]

The station and its rail yard have steel frames. The building also uses large steel columns designed to hold the weight of a 20-story office building, which was to be built when additional room was required.[213][214]

The facade and structure of the terminal building primarily use granite. Because granite emits radiation,[215] people who work full-time in the station receive an average dose of 525 mrem/year, more than permitted in nuclear power facilities.[216][217] The base of the exterior is Stony Creek granite, while the upper portion is of Indiana limestone, from Bedford, Indiana.[218]

The interiors use several varieties of stone, including imitation Caen stone for the Main Concourse; cream-colored Botticino marble for the interior decorations; and pink Tennessee marble for the floors of the Main Concourse, Biltmore Room,[82] and Vanderbilt Hall,[105] as well as the two staircases in the Main Concourse.[219][78][41] Real Caen stone was judged too expensive, so the builders mixed plaster, sand, lime, and Portland cement.[41] Most of the remaining masonry is made from concrete.[218] Guastavino tiling, a fireproof tile-and-cement vault pattern patented by Rafael Guastavino, is used in various spaces.[31][122]

The south facade features a set of three arched windows, with the Glory of Commerce sculpture at the top-center and the Vanderbilt statue at the bottom-center.

In designing the facade of Grand Central, the architects wanted to make the building seem like a gateway to the city.[220] The south facade, facing 42nd Street, is the front side of the terminal building, and contains large arched windows.[221] The central window resembles a triumphal arch.[220][222] There are two pairs of columns on either side of the central window. The columns are of the Corinthian order, and are partially attached to the granite walls behind them, though they are detached from one another.[221] The facade was also designed to complement that of the New York Public Library Main Branch, another Beaux-Arts edifice located on nearby Fifth Avenue.[222]

The facade includes several large works of art. At the top of the south facade is a 13-foot-wide (4.0 m) clock, which contains the world's largest example of Tiffany glass.[223] The clock is surrounded by the Glory of Commerce sculptural group, a 48-foot-wide (15 m) sculpture by Jules-Félix Coutan, which includes representations of Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury.[206][224] At its unveiling in 1914, the work was considered the largest sculptural group in the world.[224][225][226] Below these works, facing the Park Avenue Viaduct, is an 1869 statue of Cornelius Vanderbilt, longtime owner of New York Central. Sculpted by Ernst Plassmann,[227] the 8.5-foot (2.6 m) bronze is the last remnant[228] of a 150-foot bronze relief installed at the Hudson River Railroad depot at St. John's Park;[229] it was moved to Grand Central Terminal in 1929.[230]

Two of the concourse's ten chandeliers lowered for cleaning, 2013

The Main Concourse, on the terminal's upper platform level, is located in the geographical center of the station building. The cavernous concourse measures 275 ft (84 m) long by 120 ft (37 m) wide (about 35,000 square feet (3,300 m²) total[33]) by 125 ft (38 m) high.[231][68][232]^:74 Its vastness was meant to evoke the terminal's "grand" status.[30]

The concourse is lit by ten globe-shaped chandeliers in the Beaux-Arts style, each of which weighs 800 pounds (360 kg)[98] and contains 110 bulbs.[233] Natural light comes from large windows in its east and west walls.[41] Each wall has three round-arched windows, about 60 feet (18 m) high,[78] identical in size and shape to the three on the terminal's south facade.[234] Catwalks, used mostly for maintenance, run across the east and west windows.[235][43] Their floors are made of semi-transparent rock crystal, cut two inches (51 mm) thick.[236]

The Main Concourse is surrounded on most of its sides by balconies which may be reached by the concourse's West Stairs, original to the station, or the matching East Stairs, added during a 1990s renovation.[78][219] The staircases were modeled after those of the Palais Garnier in Paris, along with the concourse's set of arched windows.[236] Underneath the east and west balconies lie two intricately carved marble water fountains. The fountains, which date to the terminal's opening, still operate and are cleaned daily, though they are rarely used.[36]

Main Concourse ceiling

The Main Concourse's ceiling is an elliptical barrel vault, with its base at an elevation of 121.5 feet and its crown at 160.25 feet. A skylight was originally supposed to be installed to provide light into the terminal, and accommodations were made for a large ceiling light, in case an office building were to be constructed over the terminal.[237]

A false ceiling of square boards, installed in 1944, bears an elaborate mural of constellations painted with more than 2,500 stars and several bands in gold set against a turquoise backdrop.[237][78][238][239][240] It is a less-detailed version of an earlier mural painted directly on the ceiling itself. The original mural, conceived in 1912 by architect Warren and painter Paul César Helleu and executed in 1913 by Brooklyn's Hewlett-Basing Studio,[241][242] became water-damaged and faded by the 1920s. In 1945, New York Central covered it with cement-and-asbestos boards and a new version of the mural. Both the original mural and its mid-century copy contain several astronomical inaccuracies: 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. Though the astronomical inconsistencies were noticed promptly by a commuter in 1913,[243] they have not been corrected in any of the subsequent renovations of the ceiling.[244][78]