page_title: Park Avenue Viaduct
section_title: Early plans
hierarchical_section_title: Park Avenue Viaduct / History / Early plans
caption_attribution_description: English: Manhatten, New York City
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 Park Avenue Viaduct was first proposed by New York Central president William J. Wilgus in 1900, when he suggested replacing Grand Central Depot with Grand Central Terminal. During a design competition for the terminal in 1903, Reed and Stem proposed vehicular viaducts around the terminal building. New York Central ultimately selected Reed and Stem, as well as Warren and Wetmore, to construct Grand Central Terminal. The two architectural firms had a tense relationship. Over Wilgus's objections, Warren and Wetmore modified Reed and Stem's plan, eliminating a proposed 12-story tower and vehicular viaducts. The elevated viaducts were restored, as were several of Reed and Stem's other design elements, as part of an agreement between the two firms in 1909. The railroad also bought Depew Place, over which the eastern leg of the viaduct would run. Two years later, the New York City Board of Estimate approved New York Central's plans for a viaduct carrying Park Avenue over 42nd Street.
  The present plans for the Park Avenue Viaduct were devised in 1912 by Warren and Wetmore. The terminal's construction already provided for roadways to either side of the terminal building, in preparation for the viaduct's eventual completion. The terminal was opened in 1913, but the viaduct could not be built yet because the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, one of the operators of the city's subway system, had not even decided whether to build the Grand Central–42nd Street station under the viaduct's site. The IRT ultimately decided to build the station diagonally under 42nd Street, connecting its new Lexington Avenue Line to the north with the existing subway under Park Avenue to the south, and by mid-1917, subway construction had progressed to the extent that work on the viaduct could commence. Bidding for the viaduct's construction was opened in August 1917. At that time, Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue (which ran parallel to Park Avenue) were heavily congested, and the viaduct was expected to alleviate some of that traffic.
caption: Grand Central Terminal as seen from the southern end of the viaduct
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