page_title: Pennsylvania Station (New York City)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Pennsylvania Station (New York City) / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Penn. RR Station from Gimbel's N.Y. (LOC) Bain News Service,, publisher. Pennsylvania Station from Gimbel's in 1911 [between ca. 1910 and ca. 1915] 1 negative&#160;: glass&#160;; 5 x 7 in. or smaller. Notes: Title from unverified data provided by the Bain News Service on the negatives or caption cards. Forms part of: George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress). Subjects:N.Y. Format: Glass negatives. Rights Info: No known restrictions on publication. Repository: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print General information about the Bain Collection is available at hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.ggbain Persistent URL: hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.09705 Call Number: LC-B2- 2286-15
context_page_description: Pennsylvania Station is a large train station in New York City. It is the busiest train station in the United States with over 600 thousand people using it every day, many of which are commuters travelling to and from work or school. The station is in Midtown Manhattan and is underneath Madison Square Garden, between Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue and between 31st Street and 34th Street.
context_section_description: The station was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad and is one of several stations in the U.S. with this name. Until the beginning of the 20th century, there were no trains that went directly into New York City from the west, because of the Hudson River in the way. People had to get off trains in Jersey City, New Jersey and take a ferry to cross the river and reach New York City.
  This all changed when the Pennsylvania Railroad dug two tunnels under the Hudson River, and four under the East River to Queens. The tunnels and the new station in the heart of New York City were completed in 1910 at a cost of $114 million (which is about $2.7 billion today), and the first train ran in November of that year.
  Over the years, more railroad companies began to use Penn Station. During World War II, over 100 million people used the station every year. But as air travel began to rise and the Interstate Highway System was created, fewer and fewer people used the train. In 1963, the station was torn apart and a new one was built in its place, with Penn Plaza and Madison Square Garden built over it. The station reopened in 1968 and continues to be used today.
caption: The old station, as seen in 1911
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