The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1912-12-18

$1,000
the same site, the new terminal with
all its magnificent concomitants in the
form of sky-scraper hotels, office build
ings, etc., had it not been imperative
to do the work without interruption
of or interference with the traffic Of
the, railway. To replace the antiquat-
ed structure with new one, how
ever, without the slightest interior
ence with the enormous traffic ever
lastingly going on at this terminal
required engineering skill and ingenu
ity of the highest order. The COM
pletion of such tremendous task I'M
der the given conditions would prob
ably have been considered impossible
anywhere else.
The preliminary work was begun
several years ago, when part of the
passenger traffic was transferred to
temporary station on Lexington ave-
nue.. 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 began 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 street and resem
bling more public museum or library
building than railroad terminal in
its architectural beauty and magnifi-
cent proportions.
The terminal building is located on
the north side of Forty-second street,
between Vanderbilt Avenue and De-
pew place, rests upon a terrace ele-
waited 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 a length of 600 feet, a
width of 300 feet and rises to height
Of los feet. But only a small part of
the entire terminal structure is above
ground. BY far the largest part OF
the terminal is underground, distrib-
uted over seven different levels, the
lowest at a depth of more than fifty
feet below the street level.
The old terminal with its Office
buildings, sheds, etc, covered an area
Of twenty three acres, while the new
terminal with it's additional improve
ments will cover seventy-nine acres
with trackage of seventy acres. Fol
the construction of the building ant
substructure, 11S,600 tons of steel ant
more than 100000 cubic yards of con
crete were required.
The terminal building was planned
with a view of facilitating as mucl
as possible the tremendous passenge
traffic going on there at all seasons
Of the year. With that object in view
; the express train service and the su
burban train service were placed up
: on different levels, with separate wait
ing rooms, each large enough to &C
commodate from 5000 to $4,000 pei
: sons at one time. The tracks are lo
: Gated on levels below the levels o
: the waiting rooms and are reached b,
$ to per cent inclines. Steps ar
avoided in every part of the termina
which is used by the travelling pub
lie and this constitutes a Remarkable
feature of the new building. Below
the general concourse, which is upol
the same level as the terrace upol
which the building rests, is the subul
ban concourse, each connected with
series of large and commodious wall
ing rooms and rest rooms on the on
side, with the lower track levels o.
the other. There are entrances TO
pedestrians on three sides of the built
ing, for vehicles on two sides and tn
lower levels are connected by undel
ground passages with the various sui
way and street railway systems Gel
tering around the terminal. PasseI
gers arriving at the station will nc
be compelled to leave the protectio
of the building to reach any of tn
subway or other street railway line
to take them to their destinations.