The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-04-21
NEW YORK'S GREAT RAIL WAY TERMINALS They Are Models of Utility
 and Beauty
PROBLEMS ARE SOLVED
Metropolis Now Has Two of the Greatest Stations in the World. Both Are Triumps of
 Architectural Genius

From the New York Sun.
 There are now located in New York city two of the greatest railroad ter n1inals in the world. One, the biggest in existence. is being constructed on the site of the old Grand Central station, famous for 50 years. and the name of which was so familiar to travellers that Grand Central station meant New York and the other the Pennsylvania sta ton, notable for the grandeur of It's architecture and the vastness Of It's magnificent interior.
 The New York Central architects and engineers were confronted with the task of building a railroad terminal in the heart of a great city. station so eituated that the patrons of the road would find themselves handy to the principal surface, subway and elevated car lines and, at the same time, a sta- ton the big yards of which would lh- terfere in the smallest possible degree with the street traffic going on around l.. Eight years of labor have been eN- pended on the job so far.
 Of all the difficult steps which the
 
 enc of the most ticklish was the re- moval of the old tracks and the sub- stitution of the new ones without any interruption of traffic. As each new set cf tracks was completed, correspond- ing number of old tracks was torn up This required constant shifting or frains from one set of tracks to an other, temporary tracks being used' sometimes, only for a day, then to be taken up and put down somewhere else. This part of the work was done without a single disarrangement of the schedule.
 Another delicate operation was the removal of the old train shed, which was taken down in sections without ever bit of debris falling on the head O. a passenger. About 1700 tons of wrought and cast iron. 9O,000 square feet of corrugated iron and 60,00o square feet of glars were removed in this part of the work. The tearing down of the old station building began in 1910 and the big new station quick ly rose from the hole blasted and dug out for its foundations.
 The part of the station most inti- mately connected with the comfort of the passengers is the waiting room There are two of these in the new sta tion, one for suburhanites and the oth- CT for people going further away. The main waiting room is 200 feet long, so feet wide and 90 feet high. The subur- ban waiting room is somewhat smaller. The interiors are not elaborate bus they are comfortable. The ticket office, baggage room and information bureau gre outside of the waiting rooms They are placed so that no unnecessary steps need he taken in preparing for jour ney, the ticket booth first in line, the Pullman office beyond that and the luggage office next.
 A novel feature is the place provided for welcoming returned travellers Or .the visitors from out of town. There is balcony built into the incoming sec tion of the station wide enough for two sets of welcomers 10 operate a once. They call fl the kissing gallery Then the commuter who wants to get into his formal clothes for an evening in the city will have the use of q prop orly equipped dressing room, and his women folks will have a similar room placed at their disposal. Stairs are almost entirely absent. Ramps, in- clined walks. lead easily and naturally to wherever, up or down. person wants to go. Careful experiments were conducted to find out the best angles lat which to build the ramps. testimony being given by fat men carrying bun dies, tall women in tight skirts and tNtIl tIlilItil u NdS IOuHu that a rise of eight feet in 100 was about as steep fn incline as the experimenters cared 70 climb, but most of the ramps pre- sent an easier grade than that.
 The total area which the Grand Cen tral terminal will cover is 76 acres Seventy acres will be covered by g miles of tracks having a capacity of l149 cars. There are two track levels, the express and the suburban, one a hove fraf inc an hour able to handle 10000 persons. will Re operated, and the capacity of the station will be 100000 00O passen- gers a year. The 23-story hotel to be erected by the company between Forty third and Forty-fourth streets and Madison and Vanderbilt avenues will accommodate 1900 guests.
 The big Pennsylvania station occu- pies the ground on which 300 build ings formerly stood, the two blocks bounded by Seventh and Eighth ave- nues and Thirtyhrst and Thirty-thrd streets, Thirty street having been closed from Eighth avenue to the river. This gives the building front age of 430 feet on the avenues and 7S0 feet on the streets. It Is difficult to appreciate the vastness of the Penn sylvania station from the outside even with these figures in mind. But once inside the building the idea of space conveyed by it's reaches of walls and the height of the ceiling is impressive. The roof of the general waiting room is l50 feet high. The walls of the building, though, rise only SO feet above the sidewalIS, but this lack of height IS compensated by the proportion pre- served in the design. The plans which The architects followed were inspired by the baths of Caracalla.
 Extending from the street entrance to the main waiting room Is an arcade 225 feet long and 45 feet wide. lined with shops. for the use of foot pas sengers. The carriage entrances are at lThirty-frst and Thirty-thrd streets. Inc driyeways leading downward to the station level. The general waiting room is the largest of any railroad station in the world, being 320 feet long and 1l0 feet wide. In this immense room are the ticket offices, parcel rooms, telegraph and telephone offices and baggage checking booth Two smaller waiting rooms are connected l The concourse in the Pennsylvania station, which connects with the main waiting room, runs the entire width of the building. It too is on large scale. being 100 feet wide. Two sets of stairs descend from the concourse to each of the train platforms. so that the con course and the space around the tracks forms a big courtyard $40 feet long and 210 feet wide. Incoming passen- gers leave the station by subcon-
 sss> Every Woman 1 AW$|NNgHVM is interested and should know