The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-10-31
RAILROAD NEWS.
Washington to Have a $14,-
100000 Passenger Depot.
Surpass Anything of the Kind
in the World.
MODEL FOR FAIR.
" Miniature " so Feet Long for
Transportation Building.
Something About the Size of
the Structure.

Nothing in the way of illustration
that has yet appeared affords anything
like an adequate conception of the inn
pressiveness of the new Washington
station is Major Pangborn's COM
ment upon such as has thus far been
published in connection with the $14.-
100000 union passenger terminals for
which the Baltimore & Ohio and Penn
syIvania companies have just COM
pIeted the letting of contracts. Major
Pangborn is a Baltimore & Ohio man,
the director of that company's great
section at the st. Louis exposition. and
which. in the $4,000 square feet allotted
to it will typify the evolution and de-
velopment of the worlds railway.
Central in this large expanse-by the
way. the greatest devoted to one rep
resentation in the vast structure de-
voted to transportation exhibits. and,
for that matter. in the entire exDosl-
tion-will stand a model of the Wash
ingtOn station as appearing when fin
ished. Fronting so feet, with depth
of 40 feet and rising to a height of 10
feet from the floor. it is upon a scale
of proportions and effectiveness be-
lieved to have never before been at
tempted in an architectural model.
The showing of the interior is being as
paiustakingly looked to as is the
CALGliOI, Will SuCn dTIdD2enl6Ll Oh IAle
base perfected as to enable the pass
ing through below and raising head
high. so to speak, to fully comprehend
the inside plan. As a matter of course,
model. itself as big as a house. as
the saying goes, is of ample dimen-
slons to permit thousand or more
people to walk upright about in it, but
this manner of inspection would be at
the expense of dwareng the noble pro-
portions of the structure, hence the pro-
visions for the heads only of the Wis
itors projecting, at stated points,
through the marble floor
The exterior representation is pure
white with every fidelity to the archf-
tect's plans and the same exactness as
to the interior, the superb duplication
to the scale of an inch to the foot must
constitute a striking feature in the ex-
hibit building where it will have such
prominence.
When completed the Washington sta
ton will surpass anything of the kind
IN the world. 1t will be built of marble.
Its pure tone will harmonic as could
none other with the pure classic form
and lines of the structure. Within
there will be marble galore, mahogany.
bronze and glass. Nothing less rich and
permanent.
Much of the interior proper, en-
6raelng an area approximating a hum
dfed thousand square feet, has a clean
space overhead of a hundred feet. So
there Will be air in abundance The
main waiting room has a hundred feet
high ceiling-a barrel vault-and is a
single apartme it a hundred and sixty
feet in width and two hundred and fifty
in length. The main dining room is
sixty-tive by a hundred feet with a
height of thirty feet, while the barrel
vaulted hall given over to ticket facili-
ties-the ticket lobby it is caIled-is
siXty-fVe feet high. fifty odd feet wide
and hundred and ten feet long These
are but trio of the wondrously spa
cious halls, and somewhat prepare one to
conceive of the stunning greatness of
the passenger concourse. truly an In
noVation as to its appointments as well
as its dimensions. Seven hundred and
sixty feet long by a hundred and thirty
feet wide and fifty feet high, it is to be
no bleak, barren and general uninviting
place of train approach. To the con-
trary the most stupendous conception
in stone, pressed brick and plaster of
any like creation extant. Twenty
thousand people could move about with
out overcrOwding. ten thousand have a
yard square each on which to be at
ease, while five thousand would hardly
be characterized as a crowd No ex-
posture to the weather. the colder as well
as the heated months considered; three
times around the concourse will be a
mile, and those who are prone to
stretching Leg as a "breather' be-
fore the enforced Confinement of the
train may find ample incentive to so
doing.