The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-08-01
NEW STATION IF
 THE PENNSYLVANIA
Magnificent Terminal In New
 York City
LAST STONE PLACED
Work Begun Thirteen Months Ago Is Nearing Completion - Most Unique Structure of Its
 Kind In the World.


 New York, July 9t-(Special) )-The Pennsylvania railroad today placed in position the last piece of stone in the exterior of its new station in New York city. This involved the completion of stone work inclosing soYne eight acres of ground and marks a most important step in the further progress~of this under taking
 To inclose this vast area has necessi- tated the building of exterior walls ag- gregatlng PASS feet-nearly half a mile in length, and has required 100000 cubic
 feet of pink granite. In addition. there have been utilized inside the concourse 60,000 cubic feet of stone A total of 6SO,- 900 cubic feet of granite have thus been utilized in the construction and ornamen- tation Of this building. It took 114o freight
 cars to transport these 47,000 tons of stone from Milford, Mass.
 In addition to the granite, the con-
 struction of this building has called for
 the use of 27,O00 tons of steel. There have also been set in place some 15,oOo.0oo
 N~~&N'
 The first stone of the masonry work on
 the building was laid June 15, 1eoS The
 entire masonry was thus completed in ap-
 proximately IS months after the work
 was begun
 Built after the Roman Doric style of
 architecture, the building covers the en-
 tire area bounded by Seventh and Eighth
 avenues and Thirty-frst and Thirty-third
 streets The depth of the property on
 both streets is 7S9 feet 11M inches, and
 the length of the building is 7SS feet
 inches, thus allowing for extra-wide side walks on both avenues. The walls extend for 4SO feet inches from Thirty first
 to Thirty-second streets, the Seventh ave- nue facade signalizing the main en- trance.
 Exterior Design.
 In designing the exterior of the build 1 ing Messrs. McKim, Mead Ss White, the | architects. were at pains to enbody two 1 ideas: To express in so far as was prac- 1 ticable, with the unusual condition or l tracks far below the street surface ana l in spite of the absence of the conventional | train shed, the exterior design or great
 railway station in generally accepted 1 form; and also to give to the building the
  ! entrance to great metropolis
 Apart from these two ideas the plan of l the station was designed to give the l greatest number of lines of circulation. | The structure Is really monumental bridge over the tracks, with entrances I to the streets its main axes and I on all four sides. In this respect this l building is unique among the railway 1 stations of the world, affording the max | mum amount of entrance and exit fa- | cilities possible.
 The Seventh avenue facade Is composed 1 principally of Roman Doric colonnade l double at the carriage entrances at the
 street ends and at the main front en- l trance for pedestrians in the center, eacf 1 of the columns being four feet six inches l in diameter and 35 feet high Above the 1 central colonnade is an entablature sur | mounted by a clock with a dial seven l feet in diameter. The center of this clock ] is on the axial line of Thirty-second street l and 61 feet above the sidewalk. This Seventh avenue facade was con ceived especially to express in largest 1 possible fashion a monumental gateway 1 It may be compared in greatly magni- 1 fled manner to the Brandenburg Gate in 1 Berlin, through which passes so much of | the traffic of that city.
 The main body of the building ap- l proximates in height the bourse of Paris,
 reaching 76 feet above the street level. l With entrances through each of the two l corners of the station on Seventh avenue l there are carriage drives, each about 6a | feet wide, or the width of a standard
 New York city street, fronted by double
 columns and pediments. The frontage 1 on Thirty-first and Thirty-third streets 1 are similar. The walls of the exterior l of the carriage drives are of pilaster l treatment for a distance of some 219 1 feet.
 | Midway along the sides of the build l ing signalizing the entrances on Thirty 1 first and Thirty-third streets, are series | of columns of the same dimensions as those on the Seventh and Eighth ave nue facades, for a distance of IF feet. | Above these colonnades there are also I sculptured groups supporting large orna- l mental clocks. From 116 feet beyond | there are interrupted colonnades, after
 which the walls are of plaster treat
 ment to Eighth avenue, with the excep- 1 tion of 45 feet colonnades marking en- I frances to the concourse.
 The Eighth avenue frontage is treated | on the plan of pilasters except for Al | feet inches which are broken by col | umns into intervals of three spaces to | mark another spacious entrance to the main floor of the concourse.
 l One of the distinctive features of this Dulldlng IS the waiting room, which eX- | tends from Thirty-1rst to Thirty-thr,l | streets, its wall parallel to Seventh and | Eighth avenues. for a distance of 314 l feet 4 inches The height of this room | is 150 feet and it's width 10S feet inches | The walls of tbe waiting room above l the main body of the building contain l on each side three sem-circlular win | dows of a radius of 33 feet inches and eF feet inches wide at the base. There is o1c fial1 fI- rlr II, -e the waiting room.
 The dignified design of the interior of the general waiting room, while fully adapted to modern ideas, was suggested by the great halls and basilicas of Rome such as the baths of CaraealIa. Titus and D1ocletian. and the basilica of Constan- tine which are perhaps the greatest ex- amples In history of large roofed-in areas treated in e. monumental manner. While the facades of the station were intended to suggest the imposing char acter of these ancient Roman temples and baths, the impression intended to be made upon the layman approaching the station. iT full view of tho exterior of the