"Sunday Morning" host Charles Osgood visits New York City's newly-renovated landmark Grand Central Terminal, and explores its history and secrets. Originally broadcast February 14, 1999.
I think it is wonderful that places such as this with such history and such wonderful old architecture should be saved for all times for all its history and beauty.... sad that so much of things like this are destroyed and called moving forward and change..... change is not always a good thing and modern architecture does not hold a candle to these of old.
@Micah the Nerd Saxophonist It's certainly the most radical proposal, at least from an American stand point, for Penn Station's future. A "new-old Penn Station" as I've heard them call it, would not only be a gift to New York and America, but the world, so what confuses me is why the devil won't all the right people say yes to it and allow themselves to have the ability to say, "Yeah. I'm one of the people that said 'Yes.' to Penn Station's rebuilding." Completely boggles my mind, even when the influence of money is accounted for.
It’s quite the feeling to arrive there by train, exiting the hot, dim lit noisy platforms to climb the marble stairs and emerge on that grand towering concourse. Wonderful place.
Great video. Great narrative. Went through Grand Central a few times as an out of towner. One time, they had a racquetball tournament going on at the main concourse. Encased on plexiglass players battled each other’s as passing through onlookers gazed in curiosity. The vibe inside the concourse, the food court , the on board ticket collectors , outside flagging taxicab, unique and revigorating.
I love that the oyster bar is owned by its employees and has been there since the terminal opened. The rent for them is surely below market rate. The space has no windows and wouldn’t rent for much anyhow. It’s a true relic from the past.
Marina Yashina was the marvelous Russian artist who cleaned the entire ceiling. Her story is one of a Moscow Circus acrobat, trained from the age of five, who as an adult in the touring circus managed to escape in New York, She established herself as a restorer of paintings in the Hudson River town of Cold Spring, and described to me how she cleaned the ceiling. A platform on wheel moved her fro,m one section to the next, as she lay on her back and slowly and gently removed the black soot from more than a century of smoke with soap and water. She left one black square to show how deeply covered the painted canopy had been.
Not really. The station building itself was amazing from everything I've read, but Grand Central is by far the more innovative station. Grand Central had twice as many platforms and even though it gets 67 million passengers + 22 million tourists a year there's enough spare capacity to add 4 more platforms along with the passengers those trains will bring. Penn Station is bursting at it's seams and Grand Central is still good to go even as NYC has grown. Plus designers still come to Grand Central to see how it can move all those passengers to all those platforms without stairs. The engineers who designed Beijing's huge new airport visited Grand Central to see how its design manages the flow of people. It's really amazing.
It doesn't have the grand glass canopy, and probably doesn't command the same pull of the Nation as Penn did. But it would have been truly horrific to lose both. I always have to visit the Terminal when I'm in town.
From the loops below the terminal..to the roof where you can stand on Cornelius Vanderbilts head (outside) I had keys to every door in GCT. We built the engineers lounge under the concourse.. flees, rats, and bums everywhere!
Amtrak is on retreat. Don’t blame the station. They taking traffic where it lands the most. Cross country travellers are by the airport. It is cheaper to fly than to take a train.
