Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-21

the future needs of his railroad; and how
well he held that he had planned thus sue
cessfully is shown by his enthusiastic re-
mark on the day that the new station was
put into use. The commodore was far
seeing man-no one will dispute that-yet
even before his death it became wofully ap-
parent that his jubilant belief in his sta
tons being adequate for half a century at
least was not to be borne out by the facts.
There had been many parallel tracks" in
the great arch of glass and IRON Within
a few years these were proved to be not
nearly capacious enough, and it became
necessary to build an additional train shed.
This was placed just to the east of the
original shed. II was completed in 1856,
and the tracks in it were devoted to the use
of incoming trains, those in the original
shed being reserved for outgoing trains.
The architecture of this addition was in
harmony with the main structure It Is
still in use, and gives visitors rather fair
idea of what the old Grand Central was like
III outward appearance.
Many Minor Changes.
During the ten years following this i'm
provement many minor changes were con-
stantly made in an effort to make the sta
ton meet the constantly increasing &C.
mands. Whatever was done, however.
proved to be of only temporary relief. and
about the middle of the nineties it was
definitely decided to remodel the station en-
tirely and enlarge it sufficiently to provide
for the future for a go0dly number OF years.
Accordingly, in 1891, the work of remodel
ing and enlarging was begun. The better
part of three years was spent in the task
and when il was finished the bill footed up
somewhere between two and three millions
of dollars. The exterior walls We're changed
from red brick to gray stone. Two stories,
to accommodate the employees of the gen
added
OF waiting rooms was made over. Thing
and mosaic replaced the plank floors; the
wooden fnshings the walls were sup
planted by marble and other polished stone;
the ticket offices and baggage room were
made more accessible; conVeniences that
were lacking in the original station were
installed
So far as beauty and convenience are con-
cerned, the remodeled station Is still up to
date, and its concourse is Justly famed as
one of the handsomest terminal features of
the kind in existence. Yet, just as the far
sighted commodore had failed to read the
future Alright when building the original
station. so the remodelers of it made a bad
mess of things when they endeavored to dis
count the probable growth of business in
the years before them Indeed their error
was even greater than the commodore's
for the made-prer terminal had not been in
use full year when it became all too evil
Gent that 1t was far too small to meet the
demands made upon it. That which the
travelling public had praised but a few brief
months before they now execrated, espe-
cially the committing portion.
New Station Necessary.
Despite its inadequate facilities, the Van
derbilts might have made the station do
for some years to come by continual tinker
Ing of 1t, but about this time the Pennsyl-
vania railroad announced It's magnificent
purpose TO build a terminal Of its own in
the heart of Manhattan Island by boring its
way there and out again to New England
under the rivers surrounding the island
This move made It imperative that a brand
new Grand Central station should be built
If the Vanderbilts were to maintain them
selves In New York. where they have long
enjoyed monopoly of terminal facilities I
linus seventeen years before the end of
the period named by Commodore Vanderbilt
as the minimum number of years of the
original stations usefulness and less than
five years after the thorough remodeling to
which 1t was subjected. the descendants of
the commodore have now begun to spend
$JO.UO.000 on a new terminal that in size
and splendor will hold It's own with the
hhest railroad stations in the world. OF this
stupendous amount of money seventeen mil
lions VIII go into the station alone the rest
being for terminal yards
Some Idea of the truly magnificent lines on
which the new terminal will be built can be
gained from the following, which bears the
stamp of approval of an official of the rail-
road actively engaged in the work prepara-
tory to the actual building of the terminal
The present designs were adopted be-
cause they conform TO certain important
principles which were laid down as indis-
pensable TO the successful operation OF
great terminal station, chief among which
were the following:
Gateway to City.
The station must be considered as a great
gateway to the city. and. therefore must be
simple and digEified in its architecture and
must provide the broadcast possible facilities
for the inflow and the outflow of traffic It
Gas this consideration that condemned those
plans which contemplated the erection above
! the station OF vast office building: for slch
a structure would have congregated several
thousand people at the very point where II
was desired to provide a broad, unobstruct-
ed thoroughfare for incoming and outgoing
passengers.
THE progress of the passengers from the
street to the cars and from the cars to the
street must take place as far as possible In
two direct and entirely separate channels:
the incoming aud outgoing crowds never
meeting or intermingling with those moving
In the opposite direction.
''In passing from the street to the cars
the passenger should take the steps Incl
dental to departure in their natural con-
secufive order. with as little running to and
ffO a uogBibl4. the waiting rouYn thu ffclraf