page_title: Park Avenue Viaduct
section_title: Later history
hierarchical_section_title: Park Avenue Viaduct / History / Later history
caption_attribution_description: English: The Pershing Square Cafe, formerly the Central Café, at 90 East 42nd Street, Manhattan, New York City, in Pershing Square.
context_page_description: The Park Avenue Viaduct, also known as the Pershing Square Viaduct, is a roadway in Manhattan in New York City. It carries vehicular traffic on Park Avenue from 40th to 46th streets around Grand Central Terminal and the MetLife Building, then through the Helmsley Building. All three buildings lie across the north–south line of the avenue. The viaduct itself is composed of two sections: a steel viaduct with two roadways from 40th to 42nd streets, and a pair of roadways between 42nd and 46th streets. The street-level service roads of Park Avenue, which flank the viaduct between 40th and 42nd streets, are called Pershing Square.
  The viaduct was first proposed by New York Central Railroad president William J. Wilgus in 1900 as part of the construction of Grand Central Terminal. Construction on the viaduct's western leg began in 1917, after the terminal had opened, and was complete in 1919. The western leg initially carried two-way traffic, so the eastern leg was completed for northbound traffic in 1928, and the western leg was reconfigured to carry southbound traffic only.
context_section_description: The space under the viaduct between 41st and 42nd streets was originally used as a trolley barn. In 1938, the city announced that it would build a tourist information center within that space in advance of the 1939 New York World's Fair. The city subsequently built a steel and glass-brick structure under the center arch of the viaduct. The structure, located at 90 East 42nd Street, opened in December 1939 and was initially used to provide tourist information. During World War II, the space was used by United Service Organizations, and after the war, became an outpost of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau. By 1960, leaks from the viaduct had damaged the information center. That year, a reconstruction project for the viaduct was announced, which involved repairing trusses as well as installing drainage and a nonskid deck.
  The former tourist-information center had become an unemployment office by the 1980s. The viaduct had also become dilapidated, with potholes, leaks, and rusted steel supports, so the city government undertook the first major renovations in the viaduct's history. The southbound roadway was closed in July 1984, reopening that November. The northbound roadway was then closed from May 1985 to September 1985. The viaduct's original lamps were removed in a 1986 repaving project. An $8 million restoration of the viaduct was announced three years later. As part of the renovation, the Grand Central Partnership would turn the space between 41st and 42nd streets into a restaurant. The original lamps were also restored in 1992.
  In 1995, the city and the Grand Central Partnership unveiled plans to restore the space under the viaduct at a cost of $2 million, then lease it as a restaurant. The Pershing Square Cafe signed a lease at the space in 1997. The owner of the renovated space, Michael O'Keeffe, placed so much attention to the renovation of the space that the project's costs increased to $5 million, and the cafe's opening date was pushed back by several months.
caption: The entrance to the Pershing Square Cafe, which extends to 41st Street under the viaduct
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