The age-herald., 1898-05-08
THE REPRESENTATIVES,
 NEW PASSENGER STATION
Rr JAY DURHAM.

not in the world, seldom if ever does any thing that Is not for the benefit of it's pa-
 irons. Long before President George B.
 Roberts died an effort was made by the 1 company to acquire additional grounds in
 this city for the erection of one of the handsomest railroad stations in the world. President Frank Thomson has taken up the work where Mir. Roberts left off, and
 the chances are that within the next two years the Pennsylvania railroad will build
 here an ideal railway station. As four of the roads from the south use the Penn sylvania station, the proposed improvement
 by the Pennsylvania people will be appreci- ated by thousands who are not necessarily the patrons of the Pennsylvania road. The
 four roads entering from the south are the
 Atlantic coast line, the Southern, the Ches- apeake and Ohio, and the Seaboard Air Line.
 The present station, as is generally
 known, is located at the corner of Sixth and B streets, northwest, only the distance
 of about 300 feet from Pennsylvania ave-
 nue. It is the purpose of the Pennsylvania
 road, to acquire property between B street
 and Pennsylvania avenue, and there erect the new station. Before doing this, how ever, 1t is the hope of the company to get the authority from congress to vacate 5 street. between Sixth and Seventh, and thus give the road the privilege of occupy ing, if necessary, the distance of full block between those two streets. If this Is done, and there is no reason why it should not be, the road will then acquire all the property necessary and perhaps the entire block bounded by Pennsylvania avenue on the north, Sixth street on the east, B street on the south and Seventh street on the west. With the enormous increase in the volume of business within the past ten years and the prospective increase in the future, it will require plot of ground the full size of the block mentioned to properly accommodate the patrons of the Pennsylvania and those from the roads of the south occupying the station.
 It Is the intention of the Pennsylvania people to construct one of the most mod ern, as well as one of the most beautiful of stations. It is estimated tht the cost will exceed a million dollars. It will be given beautiful frontage on Pennsylvania avenue, opposite the Metropolitan hotel and in the very heart of the business center of
 
 ter or wiser piece of legislation than to comply with the request of the Pennsyl- vania road and close up street, and if necessary condemn certain property in nr- der to encourage the road to proceed with the proposed structure. All the roads now
 entering the Pennsylvania station do so through the governments reservation. If the proposed new station is to be located 4leo .;ta xxrI,f fob isf f, foo If of the present site, it may be necessary and in all probability will be so arranged that the tracts will be elevated much the same as they are in Philadelphia and Jersey City.
 Before the tracks of the Pennsylvania road were elevated at Jersey City it was almost an every day occurrence that any, where from one to three persons were killed by the trains passing through the streets. Though every precaution was taken by the fagmen to keep pedestrians out of dan- ger, there were, nevertheless, number of persons killed every month. It usuallyl cost the road $5,000 for every person killed. It was much cheaper to elevate the tracks and thus relieve the road from so many damage suits. It is seldom that any one is injured in this city because the traffic in that part of the city through which .he
 road enters is very light and the f1agmen have little. if any, difficulty in keeping peo-. pie out of danger. In the new station there will be about twelve or fourteen tracks, There are now about twenty-five trains going and coming from New York every twenty-four hours, to say nothing of the fast express trains running only between Washington and Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore, and the number of way trains for the con- venience of passengers to and from local | stations between Washington and Balti- | more and Baltimore and Philadelphia. mak- | ing upon the whole nearly fifty trains a. | day upon the Pennsylvania system alone. | Over the four roads leading south there are also large number of trains. Not as many, however, as are over the Pennsyl- vania, but the traffic has reached such pro- portions that it will require station four or five times larger than the present one. | There will also be in the new station a line hotel and restaurant conducted bv
 the Pennsylvania road which will exec,
 anything of the kind in the United States *ss
 MT 1eo' W. Boyd, the assistant general
 passenger agent of the Pennsylvania svs-
 tenn, in speaking of the matter a few days | ago. said that it was the desire of his com
 pany to give to the capital of the nation as beautiful and as convenient a railway
 station as inventive genius and money can produce It is to be a model of the art of architecture and the pride of every Ameri- | can citizen. The Pennsylvania road pro-
 poses to give to Washington a station that
 will command the admiration of everybody It will have in its lobbies and waiting | rooms flower gardens, fountains, statuary
 and everything else that will tend to charm
 the eye and beautify the surroundings. There will be in the station among other beautiful rooms, one known as the room | for the president of the United States
 This room will be approached only by a
 private driveway and used only by the
 president and his party on departure and
 arrival. It will be remembered that Presi-