Arizona republican., 1912-12-22
NEW TERMINAL
 WORLD WONDER
When Fhlly Completed With NJ a ny Additions Will Represent Gigantic Outlay of More Than $100,OOO,0OO


 NEW YORK, Dec 21.-The new Grand Cenral terminal, which, in a few weeks, will take the place of the old Frand Central station of the New York Central and Hudson River rail- road, IS nearly completed and may be considered i'll the nature of mag nificent and princely holiday gift to the city. Then fully completed the station. with the additional improve ments in the form of office buildings, hotels, etc, will represent a cost of $1S0.000, ,000 it will be by far the largest railroad terminal station in the world and will be able to accom- modate without congestion 7O,000 passengers per hour.
 The gigantic work now almost con- pleted was begun in the spring of last year and constitutes a remark able triumph of engineering skill and enterprise. It would have been q comparatively simple matter to tear down the old terminal station and the buildings connected with it and to erect upon the same site the new term
 nal with all it's magnificent cOncomit- ants in the form of sky -scraper hotels, office buildings, etc, had it not been imeprative to do the work without in- terruptiOn of or interference with the traffic of the railway To replace the antiquated structure with |, new one. however. without the slightest inter ference with the enormous traffic ever laStingly going on at this terminal re- quired engineering skill and ingenuity of the highest order. The completion of such a tremendous task under the given conditions would probably have been considered impossible anywhere else
 The preliminary work was begun several years ago, when part of the passenger traffic was transferred to a temporary station on Lexington aven- ue. Then several of the auxiliary buildings and the office building on Forty second street were built and the Grand Central Palace building north of the terminal, begun about three years ago, was completed. The work on the terminal proper was not begun until the spring of last year, when the old terminal building was torn down to make room for the new structure now almost completed. In it's outward appearance it is an imposing structure. facing Forty second street and re sembling more a public museum or lib- rary building than a railroad terminal in it's architectural beauty and mag nificent proportions.
 The terminal building is located on the north side of Forty second street
 between Vanderbilt avenue and Depew Place, rests upon a terrace elevated above the level of the street and it's main floor is reached from the street by means of numerous inclined planes The structure, above the ground, has
 length of 500 feet, a width of 300 feet and rises to a height of 105 feet. But only small part of the entire terminal structure is above ground. By far the largest part of the terminal is under ground, distributed over seven differ ent levels, the lowest at a depth of more than fifty feet below the street level.
 The old terminal with it's office buildings, sheds. etc, covered an area of 23 acres. while the new terminal with it's additional improvements will cover seventy nine acres, with a track age of seventy acres. For the con- struction of the building and substruc- ture 118,606 tons of steel and more than 350,000 cubic yards of concrete were required
 The terminal building was planned 1 with view of facilitating as much as | possible the tremendous passenger traffic going on there at all seasons of h1 the express train service and the su- burban train service were placed upon different levels, with separate waiting rooms, each large enough to accom- modate from 500 to 15,000 persons at one time The tracks are located on levels below the levels of the waiting ] rooms and are reached by to per cent inclines Steps are avoided in every part of the terminal which is
 used by the travelling public and this constitutes a remarkable feature of the new building. Below the general con | course, which is upon the same level as the terrace upon which the building rests, is the suburban concourse each connected with a series of large and commodious waiting rooms and rest rooms on the one side, with the low CT track levels on the other. There 1 are entrances for pedestrians on three sides of the building, for vhicles on
 two sides and the lower levels are
 connected by underground passages with the various subway and street
 railway systems centering around the terminal. Passengers arriving at the station will not be compelled to leave 1 the protection of the building to reach any of the subway or other