New York's LOST marvel - The Story of Pennsylvania Station - IT'S HISTORY

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Today we explore the rise and fall of New York Cities famous Pennsylvania Station. This station was once one of the most beautiful structures in America, but now - little remains beyond photographs.
Pennsylvania Station was a historic railroad station in New York City, named for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), its builder and original tenant. The station occupied an 8-acre (3.2 ha) plot bounded by Seventh and Eighth Avenues and 31st and 33rd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. As the terminal shared its name with several stations in other cities, it was sometimes called New York Pennsylvania Station, or Penn Station for short.
Index
01:11 - The land acquisition to build Penn Station
04:15 - Penn Stations opening day
05:34 - VIP guests at Pennsylvania Station
05:45 - The expansion of Pennsylvania Station
06:18 - The down fall of Pennsylvania Station
07:32 - The demolition of Pennsylvania Station
09:00 - The construction of Madison Square Garden
10:25 - What artefacts remain of Penn station?
11:38 - What do American’s wear pyjamas to work?
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Опубликовано:

10 июл 2024

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Комментарии : 597

@ITSHISTORY 2 года назад

We trade our heritage for trinkets.

@DaveSCameron 2 года назад

And from your intro you inflate your very existence... ".. Centuries.."

@Sportoddities 2 года назад

I’m surprised you didn’t mention the new second Penn Station (Moynihan Train Hall) that opened early this year, across the street in the James A. Farley Building (USPS). The new Station is in a building, that was created by the same people that made the original Pennsylvania Station.

@hulkhatepunybanner 2 года назад

*You were a bit harsh there on NYC. We could imagine the original Penn Station being turned into a giant mall. But by this era it would be vacant again. I came to the conclusion that the best designs are the ones that can be converted into new uses repeatedly. Most of the other designs have to go to keep the city healthy. Right? The real crime is that I can't find color photos of Penn. Now about PJs on planes - the airlines were regulated and kept expensive so that only well-to-do could fly. After de-regulation more people could fly. Just like the train industry before it - when anyone could ride (**5:01**).*

@nelsonricardo3729 2 года назад

@@hulkhatepunybanner Bold comments lessen credibility.

@kingjellybean9795 2 года назад

You should do one on concrete city in nanticoke PA it's an old poured frame company town from the early 1900s

@userofthetube2701 2 года назад

If Penn Station could have survived into the '90s, beyond the worst of the more general decay the city was suffering from, it would surely have been an icon of present day New York. Just as Grand Central Terminal still is. It's an eternal shame it never got that chance.

@IsaPodrasky 2 года назад

Grand Central still exists due to Jacqueline Kennedy helping out (it too was slated for demolition). There’s a plaque in memory of what she did to preserve it.

@michaeljohn9263 2 года назад

Rudy would have made sure there was NO CRIME...just like how he saved the rest of the city!

@metropod 2 года назад

There is one detail everyone is forgetting… the station is owned by Amtrak. Given what happened to Washington Union Station before it was restored… Penn station would have been up Shit’s creek without a boat, let along a paddle. Hell, Grand Central was saved, and was still a mess until the mid 90s.

@HDTomo 2 года назад

Same for the singer tower

@markwillner1179 2 года назад

Rudy was a lousy mayor and a worse human being.

@thefergyfilms 2 года назад

If it had survived until today's New York City, it would undoubtedly had been preserved and would have been beautiful- much like modern Grand Central.

@graciemaemarie11jones16 Месяц назад

far superior to grand central.

@DaveXXX 2 года назад

I couldn't believe what Penn Station used to look like when my cousin told me it wasn't always the underground mess it currently is, first seeing pictures I couldn't even believe it was a structure in New York city. I can't imagine walking through old Penn but I'd love to, instead of the packed dump it is now

@BendingInTheWind 2 года назад

"The tragedy is that our own times not only could not produce such a building, but cannot even maintain it." I think that's just as true today, if not more so. I think there are still plenty of old buildings around New York and elsewhere that may meet with the same fate.

@V8_screw_electric_cars 2 года назад

Building covered in stone with beautiful sculptures built in 13 months now it takes twice as long to erect bland glass cube.

@higamerXD 2 года назад

ever heard of the great exhibition? if that was around today i could not even begin tot hink how much money it would cost to maintain

@surferbri5346 2 года назад

That's how everything is now, tv breaks, buy a new one, car, appliances same, things used to be made worth repairing

@timtebowsleftarm5368 10 месяцев назад

Unless you can afford to maintain a grand structure, don’t build it in the first place.

@unc1589 7 месяцев назад

@@timtebowsleftarm5368 Hindsight is a beast. You are correct. But there was no way of knowing that when it was built. Imagine the money and back room deals afforded to the creators of access to the rest of America. They overbuilt because they had the dough. Future maintenance? That’s the other guys problem.

@alexlents4689 Год назад

Possibly the most tragic loss in the history of historic preservation. However, its death wasn’t in vain. It probably played the biggest role in kickstarting the preservation movement in the second half of the 60’s, which has since saved countless landmarks across the nation, like Grand Central Terminal and the Coney Island Cyclone in New York alone.

@manolotusca5280 2 года назад

I had the grand pleasure of walking through it in 1960 as a child and even then I felt its greatness. So sad it was not saved. Thanks to mrs. Kennedy the same faith did not happen to the grand central station on 42nd street.

@brownjatt21 Год назад

You're very lucky!!!! I am jealous

@alfoncesmithe 2 года назад

Sadly the powers that be in Manhattan just see dollar signs when buildings don't make enough money & are far to quick to demolish them the SINGER Building is another one that was just amazing. I stated researching Manhattan Architecture some years back as I have such a passion for great old buildings and Manhattan has LOST A GREAT DEAL over the years. Pennsylvania Station is one of them WOW what a beauty she was. A few years ago Grand Central Terminal was under consideration of being demolish but I read that public outcry stopped it but I recon that cats with zillion dollar bank roll may try again god for bid. Thank you so much for this video best wishes

@fullmelt93u63 2 года назад

Notre dame burns and the fundraising takes less than a week. America dilapidates and we just bulldoze for NEWER and BETTER of course /s

@chatteyj 2 года назад

@@GiantMeteor2024 Rent out a room?

@NicotineRosberg 2 года назад

Grand central is one the last beauties of such an era in American travel. I don't go there very often as it's basically a tourist Mecca with overpriced stores n ppl taking selfies n doing vlogs, but I would still recommend it to anyone. It's a very beautiful place u gotta see it in person

@ninja1676 2 года назад

When classical things get destroyed it's almost like a dream to see them again. In Europe they preversed everything they can.

@westonbadke5434 2 года назад

So you’re okay with relying on old technology? Old ideas and old energy?

@lugarthecougar 2 года назад

Seeing that sign for Bethlehem inside Penn Station hits hard. Reminds you that it's not just our urban centers that are in decay. Bethlehem Steel helped build modern day New York, and just like Penn Station it is a relic of an age gone where America truly was a dominant world power to be admired.

@lawrencelewis2592 2 года назад

I was there on a class trip in first grade in 1962. It was a busy place. It was considered a "miracle of progress" that it was being torn down while MSG was being built and the trains kept running. The outcry was so great that when Grand Central was considered for demolition, people stopped it. Jackie Onassis was instrumental in organizing that. Euston Station in London was demolished at about the same time and now has all the charm of a government office.

@chatteyj 2 года назад

The sixties really were a monstrous time in architecture.

@jimrestaino7763 2 года назад

I also was there in 1962 on a first grade class trip. I went to Newbridge Rd. school in East Meadow ,N.Y. We rode in to Penn. Sta. on a LIRR train from Bellmore Sta. I remember looking up at the glass and steel ceiling of the concourse and the guide saying that the Statue Of Liberty could stand inside.

@CrossOfBayonne 2 года назад

Even if you're not a train expert like I am somewhat this station was something to look in awe at because of the high end Architecture and decorations built into it.

@lawrencelewis2592 2 года назад

@@CrossOfBayonne I know a little bit about trains. I've loved them all my life. It seems that making the Farley post office building into a new Penn station is a way of trying to right a wrong, even if it's so many years later. But like I wrote, it was seen as "progress." back then. Funny how that term has fallen out of use.

@1575murray 2 года назад

Carnegie Hall was supposed to be torn down too after Philharmonic Hall at Lincoln Center was completed but thankfully that did not happen mainly due to the intervention of a number of artists who appreciated the hall's perfect acoustics which could never be duplicated.

@serapisny 2 года назад

OUTSTANDING PIECE, SIR! You did an excellent review on the history of the station, and this native NYer salutes you! I am very glad the RU-vid algorithm introduced your work to me via your Singer Building video. Have been subscribed since then, and as I commented in that one, I am eagerly reviewing your other videos. Incidentally, the destruction of Penn station was largely what saved Grand Central Terminal. The same fate would have befallen that jewel of urban architecture, but fortunately many influential people in NYC (Jackie Kennedy-Onassis amongst them) remembered Penn's ignominious end, and vowed never to have it repeated.

@Skyhawk996 2 года назад

Why couldn't they do renovation the building to function as the one that replaced it? In Europe they have buildings that have stood for centuries.. yet our citys tear down parts of history.

@GeneralAlex4 2 года назад

I agree with you. Who knows what they are covering up? It was probably pure greed!!

@willchristie2650 2 года назад

The USA is the predatory "take no prisoners" capitalist center of the world. The greatest profit from a site always outranks any ultruistic measures for the good of the community. In fact, the Republican party has for 40 years since Reagan been screaming that there is no such thing as community, just self-centered individuals selfishly seeking their best interest, which somehow (per their saint Ayn Rand) is supposed to magically create a wonderful society. REALITY has never had any vote in any of this.

@dmitryk.2866 2 года назад

because that's a private commercial building which lost it's use

@GeneralAlex4 2 года назад

@@willchristie2650 It dose not matter what party they are!! If they are freaking politicians!! There prostitutes!!

@TheTotallyRealXiJinping 2 года назад

And they have run out of room. Tit for tat.

@keno77 2 года назад

How on earth could they build the Penn station in only 13 months for over 100 years ago, even today it couldn't be done in that time.

@Eshanas 2 года назад

Different regulations really.

@chatteyj 2 года назад

I know that really shook me as well, 13 months is incredible, does that include the carvings of all the ornaments and stone pillars I wonder?

@denali9449 2 года назад

So the Empire State Building was built in 14 months; when we built the Sears Tower it took us four years. The extra 200 feet did not take us three years. Working time limitations and traffic scheduling imposed by the city were big issues but again not three years worth.

@maxgarbani6644 2 года назад

I don't really believe that. No way ! Not even with today's technology.....not that it's any better.

@klivityloja3067 Год назад

@@denali9449 watch Oliver STones 2014 documentary UKRAINE ON FIRE. you will see America and Nato are the aggressors. Please watch. Don't be like other Dems and RINOs. Educate yourself

@Thx1138sober 2 года назад

My dad took me to NYC when I was age 6 in 1964 and he showed me where they were tearing down Penn Station, it was the first time I ever heard him use the phrase "god damned motherfuckers"

@ceejay960 2 года назад

“Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately deserves. Even when we had Penn Station, we couldn’t afford to keep it clean. We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tin-horn culture. And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed.” - Ada Louise Huxtable, New York Times

@joestrike8537 2 года назад

wonderful quote, I've seen it in other histories of Penn Station; ALH was a wonderful architecture critic - and a most compelling writer.

@0fficialdregs 2 года назад

i remember that in the History channel and American Experience videos

@700gsteak Год назад

tin cans and crappy glass that cost a fortune to heat in winter and keep cool during summer

@unc1589 7 месяцев назад

The men who built it were greater than its future inhabitants. From the days of Adam, man has been in decline. Which means yesterday’s generation is always better than the current.

@elamite66 2 года назад

Today if Penn Station still existed it would be much like Grand Central Terminal which would mean a huge restoration project and it would be the premier railway station of New York even surpassing Grand Central

@mikeshilling8499 2 года назад

Fantastic look at the life of Penn Station. I remember my parents dressing me up to fly when I was a boy. Interesting observation.

@asianthor 2 года назад

Grand Central Station pales in comparison to the grandeur of old Pennsylvania Station.

@dillonklasse4980 2 года назад

Its sad how famous New York City buildings are left to rot, when I visited the museum of natural history in 2009 I was so disappointed when I walked in and was hit by the smell of mold and mildew, and as I walked the halls I saw so many cracks and stress fractures spiderwebbing there way from floor to ceiling I was astounded the place was still standing.

@0fficialdregs 2 года назад

well when the most of our national budget is for the military, that is result of that

@Right-Is-Right 2 года назад

If you felt that badly why didn't you start a fundraising effort to help save the old building? Waiting for daddy government?

@Right-Is-Right 2 года назад

@@0fficialdregs Taxpayers are not supposed to pay to maintain buildings that are not government offices, even then there are too many government workers and buildings. the military is supposed to be paid for by the taxpayer, governments two responsibilities are defense and protection of rights.

@0fficialdregs 2 года назад

@@Right-Is-Right k

@jonburrows8602 2 года назад

@@Right-Is-Right Facts

@messiahsbythesackful6267 2 года назад

I have cited Penn Station as the penultimate example of waste to urban renewal multiple times... the usual response? Ummmm.. never heard of it. I can't wait for this to premiere. 🖖🐢👣

@ITSHISTORY 2 года назад

See you tomorrow!

@blahblah6497 2 года назад

The Real pandemic is WILLFUL IGNORANCE

@joestrike8537 2 года назад

@@blahblah6497 Nor just WILLFUL ignorance, but willfully ARROGANT ignorance - contempt for anyone with a different opinion, especially if it's an accurate or truthful one.

@vaffangool9196 2 года назад

@@ITSHISTORY _When cities demolish monuments and replace them with eyesores..._ (12:12) *Cue aerial shot of Atlanta*

@vaffangool9196 2 года назад

@Messiahs by the sackful _Penultimate_ means _next-to-last._ You just mean _ultimate._

@izzoboy91 2 года назад

Most underrated Channel on RU-vid great video keep up the good work

@williamhild1793 2 года назад

"It had lost it's charm..." Really? That's a matter of taste. There are things worth preserving, no matter the cost.

@gregorymalchuk272 2 года назад

The design of old Penn Station was based on the Pantheon in Rome!! 2,000 years worth of charm isn't enough!!?!?

@pavelow235 2 года назад

@@bike-cave-man2527 Your eurocentrism or ignorance is showing, Americans(Definition: a native or inhabitant of North America or South America) have been around and left snippets of architecture and evidence of existence for at least 15,000 years prior, whether you like their architecture or culture is not my problem. But claiming "no history" is just lazy stupidity.

@maxgarbani6644 2 года назад

@@pavelow235 Bah wah ! Eurocentric ? Blah blah blah Marxist revisionism ?....I knew it !

@Right-Is-Right 2 года назад

By lost it's charm he meant it was not being used as much for being a train station and more a toilet and impromptu homeless shelter.

@jeffreyhepner2467 2 года назад

IF IT WAS NOT FOR JACKIE KENNEDY , THIS WOULD HAPPEN TO GRAND CENTRAL STATION!!!!

@JugSouthgate 2 года назад

Grand Central TERMINAL. Saving GCT was the work of many, but Jacqueline Kennedy led the way. Her efforts not only saved the Terminal but created the historic building designation that saved others. No such designation existed in NYC before.

@charlescrawford7039 2 года назад

The architect Phillip Johnson was also instrumental in saving GCT

@Edax_Royeaux 2 года назад

I don't agree with this dichotomy that Madison Square Garden was the only option vs leaving Penn station dilapidated. In the American Experience episode about building Penn Station, plans were drawn to build a skyscraper hotel at the very heart of the station. It was entirely possible to maintain the outer structure of the station with all it's marble columns and instead build something grand within and above the center of the station to rejuvenate it. As contrary as it sounds, Penn station complex should have been expanded so as it draw in more traffic.

@emintey 2 года назад

How can you draw in more traffic when railroad travel itself was in permanent decline?

@Edax_Royeaux 2 года назад

@@emintey By creating a desirable place to visit, Penn Station was originally built as a long distance terminal was not a metro stop. It is very difficult to get around in New York City in a car because of the terrible traffic so if they had potentially built a World Trade Center skyscraper at the station, a lot of passengers would have been generated servicing the building. The idea is not to expand Penn station as a train terminal but to make it an important metro stop. Madison Square Garden effectively did that but they demolished all of the marble walls of the station to build that stadium, which was a bit of a waste in my eyes.

@willchristie2650 2 года назад

In San Francisco, on a much smaller scale, there was a bank downtown built in the classic style with columns. A huge skyscraper was built next to the bank and the shell of the bank was preserved while the interior became a beautiful garden entrance with tables and fountains. Lovely oasis downtown.

@TheGuyThatEveryoneIgnores 2 года назад

8:36 The air rights were sold in 1954, so that nixed any possibility of a skyscraper being built on the site.

@Edax_Royeaux 2 года назад

@@TheGuyThatEveryoneIgnores So the people who owned the air right can't build skyscrapers on the site? Why?

@Kevin-yh9yt 2 года назад

To experience the confusing, chaotic underground rathole maze that replaced Penn Station is to truly live a descent into hell. A new annex across 8th ave has now opened , but its a pale comparison to the masterpiece that once was Penn Station.

@deafleppard1812 2 года назад

Imagine being born in New York in the 1880’s. You were 20 years old traveling around the country from penn station which was just built, then no over the decades the world changes drastically in the 20th century and that train station symbolizes the change.

@CrossOfBayonne 2 года назад

One man Irving Berlin who was a songwriter did

@danielbishop1863 10 месяцев назад

The original Penn Station stood for only 53 years. Plenty of New Yorkers got to see it built and demolished within their own lifetime.

@charlescrawford7039 2 года назад

Thanks again for a well-produced video. The first locomotive type that pulled trains in and out of the original Penn Station where the dual set of DD-1 coupled locomotives which were powered by 650 Volts DC through means of a third rail system. The locomotives went as far as Manhattan Transfer in New Jersey where there was a change over to steam locomotive power for the journey south. The remaining example of this locomotive type can be seen at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania located at Strasburg. In 1935 the Pennsylvania Railroad had fully electrified the main line between New York’s Penn Station and Washington DC’s Union Station with an 11,000-13,500 Volt AC catenary (overhead wire) system. GG-1 locomotives were assigned the tasks of pulling passenger trains along this route. Two examples can be seen at the same museum, including the original prototype. The electric locomotive pictured in the video is a Milwaukee Road EP-2 that was used on the West Coast.

@1575murray 2 года назад

The first trains which served Pennslvania Station were actually LIRR commuter trains which began operation in September 1910. Long distance PRR trains started using the station the following November.

@juancito455 2 года назад

Great Video, the immortal Vincent Scully said “One entered the city like a god. One scuttles in now like a rat.” MUCH LOVE FROM THE BRONX , THE LAST OF THE REAL CITY

@Cruising_On_Lake_Havasoma 2 года назад

Who was he talking about in that quote, Pete Rose?

@ZER0ZER0SE7EN 2 года назад

I at first thought Vin Scully the Dodgers sportcaster from 1950 to 2016.

@j.sayler6330 2 года назад

Your treatments of historic architecture are very interesting. For Penna. Station, could you add more pictures of the station in its later dirty and deteriorated state? They would bring home your point well.

@TurtleDude05 2 года назад

I got to say, I'm loving the direction of the new content. Keep it up

@lawrencelewis2592 2 года назад

Another thing- the company that demolished the station, The Lipsett company also scrapped the ocean liner the Normandie in 1947. And some of the eagles are at the station at Garrison, New York, easily reached by a train from Grand Central on the Metro-North. At least they were there about 25 years ago.

@benwetzel8449 2 года назад

Fun fact, garrison New York train station was where the train scenes in Hello Dolly were filmed.

@lawrencelewis2592 2 года назад

@@benwetzel8449 I never saw that movie, but weren't there scenes filmed on an old steam tugboat?

@benwetzel8449 2 года назад

@@lawrencelewis2592 no, I think that’s a different movie

@lawrencelewis2592 2 года назад

@@benwetzel8449 Oh- my mistake. I never much liked Barbra anyway.

@bhasty1 2 года назад

It truly was beautiful. Great video!

@Ricky40369 2 года назад

Beautifully done. The epilogue says it all.

@craftthemoon 2 года назад

As much as I love MSG and my Knicks, its ridiculous that we allowed the architectural marvel that is Penn Station to be demolished. The Knicks could play someone else. MSG is replaceable. Penn Station is not.

@0fficialdregs 2 года назад

agreed and the garden you see is the 3rd version so they could of built the venue elsewhere if the PRR would of kept the station

@subzerofromny735 9 месяцев назад

So you’d rather have the knicks be moved to gridlocked NewJersey and play in the IZOD center?

@jonathanng2390 2 года назад

The mighty Pennsylvania Railroad went into the red for the first time in 1946. By the late '50s, they were hemorrhaging money across the board. Passenger service ran with deficits for years and were subsidized by the parent company. Add the Interstate and America's love of automobiles, the passenger service (particularly inter-city service) went on full life support. One of the Pennsylvania Railroad's remedies the help stop the bleeding was to sell the air rights above the station property. It was too little too late. New York Central were experiencing the same problems. NYC almost did the same thing to Grand Central Terminal.

@PRRrailfan 2 года назад

Fantastic history of Penn Station! Definitely a few details in there I wasn't aware of. My only suggestion is that you use pictures of the actual types of trains and locomotives used at the location your speaking of. Almost all of the trains you showed never ran anywhere near Penn. Not a huge problem, it just drives me crazy when history shows don't have historically/geographically accurate vehicle examples.

@CrossOfBayonne 2 года назад

Ever heard of those GG1s which were staples of the Pennsylvania RR's electric locomotive fleet.

@startedtech 2 года назад

Oh wow, as someone from Kansas City I had no clue we had a part of Penn Station.

@MrBruinman86 2 года назад

I always wondered what happened to the clocks.

@JeffFrmJoisey 2 года назад

Very well done. A correction if I may - NYC made trains go electric in 1908 due to a horrible accident in the Park Av Tunnel to/from Grand Central Terminal caused by steam engine smoke obscuring signals. I used to go to work with my Dad on Saturdays in the 60's. We'd come out of the Lincoln Tunnel to go Downtown and we'd pass Penn Station on its west side. I remember all the train shed windows being clouded out by paint, smoke or whatever and the copper green color of the beams. I remember it being torn down. One positive did come out of Penn Station's untimely destruction. The NYC Landmarks laws and Commission. Many historic buildings such as Grand Central Terminal have been saved by these laws. Unfortunately this grand structure was the sacrificial lamb that allowed other NYC Treasures to be saved in the following decades.

@dethwind1239 2 года назад

Been loving these

@josephgaviota 2 года назад

That was a SUPER interesting video.

@rmd9746 2 года назад

The last part I truly agree, the architecture does make the population rather proud instilling it a sense of shared history, the more the buildings are old and magnificent the more the population is prone to live up to it. We are complex individuals and individually even more so but what makes us click is to see complex things around us, detailed particulars, rich ornaments and so on... we remeber certain aspects of that building. In a city of all boxes where does our imagination go? Nowehere, it's reflecte by the glass of skyscrapers...

@ianmorris7485 2 года назад

The destruction of Penn Station was a loss of unimaginable proportions to the city of New York and more broadly to the United States. The only comparable tragedy would be the demotion of The Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building. It also made the platform level of the station one of the grottiest in the world more befitting an impoverished third world country.

@mistertwister7286 2 года назад

well the end left me speechless. very good video. thank you

@troytheboy9144 2 года назад

“Progression is the enemy of tradition” I’ve never heard that before and it really hit hard, I love tradition but many things must progress

@kirbywaite1586 2 года назад

Cancer also " progresses".

@Sammie1053 2 года назад

Agreed. Politically speaking, I am extremely progressive, but that line about foundations hit hard.

@kinocorner976 2 года назад

Notice how we as humans progress from tradition people become pieces of shit? Progress erodes what it means to have character and soul.

@joebenzz 2 года назад

Progression can take many forms just like it was called progression when native americans were being converted to society or else exterminated.

@jekblom123 2 года назад

@@kirbywaite1586 "healing" is also a "progress".

@ryansharpe3564 2 года назад

Beautiful conclusion

@0fficialdregs 2 года назад

I highly recommend the rise and fall of penn station from PBS series, American Experience

@charlieevilpig7776 2 года назад

Times Square was a seedy place once as well, so I don't buy that it had to go. As someone else already wrote, this could have been turned into other stores, businesses, etc. We let areas run down when we see no profit from them. Sadly I don't believe that this will change

@DCB2018 2 года назад

I just found this youtube channel and subcribed, my favourite PBS American Experience video for years has been The Rise and Fall of Pennsylvania Station, can't believe I'm here just in time for this premiere, I want the official PBS dvd of this, but I'm in Australia, and they won't deliver to me here.

@OldiesReads 2 года назад

I just shared an article about the demolition of this beautiful Penn Station! Was searching for other videos and came up on your reminder! Looking forward to watching your video! 🎥👍

@leedaniels7196 2 года назад

Just found your channel and subbed.Great content!.

@randymcrandy8066 2 года назад

Excellent watch! Thank you.

@BHuang92 2 года назад

For me, it was either the Penn Station or Grand Central. I don't think there were ways to preserve both of them, even if we wished it.

@olivialanteri5620 Год назад

As a New Yorker, I just want to say that Penn Station today, in fact, is still seedy.

@jonrussell1690 2 года назад

What a GREAT VIDEO!!!! Loved this and what you said about cities and where we are at. It’s a shame but based on what you said about Penn Station and how far it deteriorated, it would be hard to save it but it was a GRAND Building. Love buildings like that…buildings build back then had characters/personalities to them vs now, it’s just blah.

@thedpsemporiumofdrumtracks5648 2 года назад

And yet it doesn't have to be. We have materials today that architects could only dream of having at their disposal but instead we're given glass boxes or obscene structures (Canadas building in Toronto). If we don't like the design, its bc we're too dumb to appreciate its 'mystique'. I'm so deflated w what the architecture community has been rolling out.

@ahotdj07 2 года назад

I bet it would have been neat to see the original Penn Station back in it's glory. Go into MSG (Penn Station) now and it is very disappointing. I will tell you I am liking the new Moynihan Train Hall (across the street from MSG). I am hoping they will open new stores after this pandemic.

@macdaniel6029 2 года назад

10:24 The eagle looks proud. 10:33 The eagle looks scared and sad

@JMM33RanMA 2 года назад

Perhaps this excellent video could be completed by continuing the story to Penn Station's renovation and plans for future improvements. Comparing the present version even to Union Stations in NJ, PA and DC gives NYC a black eye.

@kristoffermangila 9 месяцев назад

Or Grand Central Terminal...

@michaelbeaster2921 2 года назад

I live near Milwaukee, a city that lost its 2 main train stations (Milwaukee Road Everett Street Depot and Chicago and Northwestern Lake Front Depot) from the same era. Though not as large and majestic as Penn Station, both were gorgeous in their own way and suffered the same fate. Not to mention all the lost stations a little further south in Chicago. America's record for preservation of these beautiful buildings is downright appalling. I guess this is what they call progress.

@diannerussell9653 Год назад

Well said ⭐️

@JoDelaney 16 дней назад

Great share🎉🎉🎉

@louislamonte334 2 года назад

It's quite interesting but one of the original designs of Penn Station included and office tower, as at least one of the original designs of Grand Central did. Penn Station, like so many other historical buildings could have been saved and reused for other, more modern purposes. The irony of Penn Station is that train travel, both for long distance and commuter services is much more economical and ecologically friendly than either road or air transportation and is well on its way for a huge comeback in the future. What's left of Penn Station today handles huge and growing crowds. The only good thing that happened because of Penn Station's sickening destruction was that it spurred historic preservation and ultimately saved many priceless buildings, big and small.

@sabrinagrant8003 2 года назад

Excellent!!!!

@johnbockelie3899 2 года назад

So, I suppose this station was torn down eventually.

@pattycarljackson 2 года назад

Just sad how they tore down so many beautiful buildings.

@carolbell8008 2 года назад

You are a Philosopher! Great Vid!

@michaelwhite2823 2 года назад

For one of the last looks at Penn Station stream the 1964 film, Dear Heart.

@emintey 2 года назад

I visited Penn Station as a child though I only remember it as being cavernous as I was young. It appears that it was the decline of railroads more than anything else that doomed it making it costly to maintain and to protect from the derelicts that may have congregated there. I agree that it was probably best to see it go sadly. Still in New York there is Grand Central Station which while not as large and grand is magnificent and is viable. There is a whole lot in New York that is preserved and viable, look at the grand bridges built around the turn of the century, the Woolworth Building, the Empire State and the Chrysler Building and on and on.

@willchristie2650 2 года назад

Don't hold your breath for all this to survive the relentless advance of predatory capitalism to make the biggest profit from every square inch of space.

@JamesDavidWalley 2 года назад

I got to see it as well, in January 1964; my mom took me there and told me to remember it, as it wouldn’t be around the next time we returned. Like you, I predominately remember it as cavernous and gray. I wish I could have been older at the time, so I could have appreciated it more.

@godofthisshit Год назад

@Edwin Mintey Don't blame poor people for Penn Station destruction, blame people like Robert Moses.

@r4trnyc718 2 года назад

I dead ass didn’t know this. Thanks you 👍🏾

@southnc63 2 года назад

In the 60s they took down this beautiful building and the Singer Tower as well.

@markalexander774 2 года назад

The price of keeping things like this will never be too high. Imagine if Italy had torn down the Colosseum to make way for a parking lot or to build a modern Soccer stadium, imagine if Greece gad torn down the Acropolis and put up an ugly modern office building, imagine if all of our ancestors had torn down the history around them all over the world, we would be pissed. We were pissed when the Taliban blew up the Buddhas of Bamyan, we were pissed when ISIS destroyed Roman statues and monuments in Palmyra, and we were pissed when Ansar Dine destroyed ancient temples and artifacts in Timbuktu. Why are we not pissed when real estate developers and City Councils approve the destruction of American monuments?

@mikegeary8056 2 года назад

The fact they could dig a tunnel under a huge river over a hundred years ago kinda blows my mind.

@jrosswthesauce 2 года назад

Amazing

@knowlesy3915 2 года назад

I liked your closing comments.

@YOUNGPADAWON 2 года назад

The Best part was ur Small monologue at the end there Very beautiful very True we are nothing without traditions

@dizzyduck44 Год назад

This is why American’s come to Europe and look at things centuries old in awe. The house I own is older than Penn Station. Sad that there was no desire to remodel what was already there, think the Millennium Dome becoming the O2. Manchester managed to change one of its stations into an exhibition centre and old mills around the first ever railway station, into a museum.

@jacktaggart2489 2 года назад

The Pennsylvania Railroad had its own severe financial difficulties in the late 1950's - early 1960's brought in part by heavily government subsidized highway and airplane competition. Sadly, the wanton destruction of Pennsylvania Station so alarmed New Yorkers that great efforts were put forth to save Grand Central Terminal. The maintenance of so colossal a structure falls largely on MTA, a publicly funded agency. Prior to the recent pandemic, passage of trains through the North River Tunnels ran at absolute capacity during rush hours. 'Penn Station' seemed busier than ever!

@katrinataylor7549 Год назад

I’m from England and we have plenty of old buildings. I stayed in a hotel directly opposite Penn and went in the postal section there, I was taking photos as it was Sunday and empty but open, I thought it was beautiful, was also taking more photos at subway level. I came home saying that hat Grand Central gets all the attention but Penn is more stunning.

@johgu92 2 года назад

Why would anyone prefer bus travel to train travel?

@floxy20 2 года назад

Just a guess but I suppose it comes down to which mode delivers the typical passenger the closest to the ultimate destination.

@Eshanas 2 года назад

Trains were being used more and more for oil, gas, bull and ore transport . Plus a train station, conductor, signals were more-expensive to get and maintain for a smaller destination than just a bus.

@claudermiller 2 года назад

Could have been repurposed. Cincinnati Union Terminal in now a museum. It nearly met the wrecking ball.

@JM-ig4ed 2 года назад

I loved this post. It always made me sad to think they demolished it - but after watching your vid... guess I can understand. The era of all the great train stations around the country is past. Makes me sad. Thanks for the vid.

@mikevale3620 2 года назад

The era for building great train stations may be past, but there are many great train stations still in daily use in Los Angeles, Chicago, Sacramento, Denver, DC, Portland and Seattle etc.

@xXDerKingXx 2 года назад

amazing Video! Really enjoyed it. Does anyone know what the name of the song at the end is?

@Brianrockrailfan 2 года назад

so sad old Penn station torn down :..(

@peteklein630 5 месяцев назад

Age nine, I was there the day the picture of the eagle being removed was taken, looking down from a room in the adjacent Sherton hotel. Even at that age, I felt quite sad, as if I was, again, at another funeral.

@richardkim9952 2 года назад

The opening of Moynihan Station in January tries to recapture the grandeur that the old Penn Station once had.

@Ballsarama 2 года назад

Quantity over Quality...the message of our time.

@stopsign515 2 года назад

I'm so glad we still have Union Station in Toronto, and the Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo station in Hamilton also known as the Go station, such beautiful places

@blushdog99 2 года назад

Union station in washington dc is beautiful too

@Cruising_On_Lake_Havasoma 2 года назад

Meanwhile the train station in Buffalo is just a tiny shack about the size of my bathroom and a platform. I mean, there's still the Central Terminal, it's been been abandoned for years and is in such a terrible neighborhood that I've never gone to see it in person.

@martijnkeisers5900 Год назад

Here in Europe such a marvel would still stand proudly..

@casbrowne9055 Год назад

What about old Euston Station?

@Odin029 2 года назад

As rail fan I would have loved to have been able to see old Penn Station, but I'm torn. As a sports fan, the two most special moments I remember when it comes to venues were the first time I walked out into the stands and saw Wrigley Field, and the first time I saw a game at Madison Square Garden.

@kristoffermangila 9 месяцев назад

In my eyes, this was, and still is, a very poor tradeoff. The only way the destruction of Penn Station in favor of MSG is favorable is if the teams that use it can win championships on a consistent basis. But the Knicks and Rangers couldn't. Thus to me, its a terrible tradeoff.

@brandonleague3641 2 года назад

Mankind has a history of tearing down the most magnificent buildings. It's a damn shame.

@chalocolina3554 2 года назад

When I hear people suggest that others should play dress-up to to quotidian things, I wish that everybody were limited to coveralls, and obligated to distinguish themselves by their actions.

@maxgarbani6644 2 года назад

Oh ! What a shallow and distasteful comment .....

@91_C4_FL 2 года назад

Moynihan is still no substitute for this masterpiece.

@flyhi2773 6 месяцев назад

Regards decay, Londons Saint Pancras station faced very very similar problems, and similar calls to demolish it. Fortunately, and for a change, it would eventually find a new lease of life as the terminus for the Eurotunnel trains, and much as it took a billion dollar plus renovation, is today both beautiful and along with renovated Kings Cross station right next door, thriving. The whole area fell into decay in the 70s and 80s but today it’s been reclaimed by developers to be a thriving part of London. Left, the same would have happened to Penn station no doubt.

@KINGFISHOL 2 года назад

Only you could make me cry about the demolition of a train station

@lawrencemay8671 Год назад

There are secret areas in the Station that were important in WWII

@MrChuckGrape 2 года назад

It's a shame they didn't preserve this building. They renovated and repurposed the Union station in Kansas City and now it is an attraction. Seems like it was a mistake to not go this route.

@CrossOfBayonne 2 года назад

During Penn Station's construction you can see small steam locomotives pulling building materials in 1908 they were banned from running in Manhattan due to pollution issues especially after a fatal wreck that occurred just years before which led to rival Grand Central's rebuilding

@kennethrembert7925 2 года назад

Recently, just last year, the Moynihan Station was just completed and I was there days later because I recently got Covid-19 for the second time in December 2020

@artursmihelsons415 2 года назад

Not the first time when in the USA they demolished historical buildings.. 😕 Sad to see that such beautiful station has gone. In Europe we not only restore but even rebuild by blueprints buildings and castles that was fully destroyed..

@icaruswindrune7116 2 года назад

It depends on the cities in the US as well as the populations and what not. Saint Augustine, Florida, - for instance - still has its old forts (Castillo de San Marcos, Matanzas, Mose [also happens to be the first legally sanctioned free African settlement in the US {also predates the country}], and Menendez) standing and they are taken care of as well (restored and honored). In fact, the city shows what life was like during the colonial times and even has the tools and clothes from then recreated, along with teaching tourists the ropes of bartering and also how the settlements - forts - colonists - and Native Americans influenced one another. The city also still keeps the grounds where Fort Caroline (the first and last [as far as I know] French fort in Florida - it happened to be destroyed by the Spanish) protected as a historical site and has a memorial for it even though the land is completely empty. Other cities and towns have done similar things as well, Sea Island in Georgia has historical areas full of ruins and restored buildings from colonial times, Williamsburg in Virginia has an entire section of the city looking like a colonial town and has people reenacting the lives of the colonists, and cities like San Francisco have kept older iconic buildings (cannot remember the name for San Fran's most notable building, I remember that it was a home). Of course, that isn't to say that this is always the case - New York is an obvious example.