page_title: Park Avenue Viaduct
section_title: Expansion
hierarchical_section_title: Park Avenue Viaduct / History / Expansion
caption_attribution_description: Uptown traffic exits the Park Avenue Viaduct through the eastern portal of the Helmsley Building during "Summer Streets", when seven miles of New York city streets are closed to vehicular traffic.
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: Soon after the viaduct's opening, traffic at 45th Street and Vanderbilt Avenue started to accumulate, causing gridlock at that intersection, since thirteen lanes of traffic converged there. By 1920, business associations were advocating for the eastern leg of the viaduct to be opened to public use. The city started negotiating with New York Central to open the eastern leg of the viaduct, although the railroad was holding out unless it was granted property on Park Avenue. The city proposed building a ramp from the viaduct that would descend to ground level at 46th Street, while keeping Park Avenue open to traffic between 45th and 46th streets; however, New York Central's proposal would altogether close off that block of Park Avenue. The Manhattan borough president, Julius Miller, proposed giving New York Central the right to erect a building over Park Avenue, in exchange for the railroad giving Depew Place back to the city so that the eastern leg of the viaduct could be built. By November 1922, Miller and the New York Central reached an agreement to submit a proposal for the viaduct to city authorities, and the Board of Estimate approved the proposal in January 1923.
  New York Central had made a revised agreement by the city by 1924, which gave the railroad the right to erect a building over Park Avenue. As part of the project, the section of Park Avenue between 45th and 46th streets would be closed, the eastern leg of the viaduct would be completed, and traffic would be carried around both sides of the terminal and through the New York Central Building before being deposited at Park Avenue and 46th Street. The plans also called for a roadway running above 45th Street's southern sidewalk, connecting the two directions of traffic, as well as the extension of Vanderbilt Avenue north to 47th Street and the widening of Park Avenue. To allow the viaduct's roadways to descend to street level between 45th and 46th streets, the roadways were placed on S-curves supported by stanchions that did not touch the building's frame.
  The revised plan was approved by the Board of Estimate in April 1924, and work could start upon the approval of Charles L. Craig, the city controller. However, Craig initially refused to certify the plan, stating that the city had paid much more for Depew Place than the land was worth. After more than a year of re-negotiations, Craig finally certified the plan in December 1925. The next year, work on the New York Central Building's foundations commenced, and the block of Park Avenue between 45th and 46th streets was closed. The eastern leg along Depew Place was opened in February 1928, and northbound traffic was diverted there. Construction was complete by September of that year, with the completion of the western leg, which had been extended to Park Avenue and 46th Street with an overpass over 45th Street. In November 1928, the Vanderbilt statue was installed at the T-intersection above 42nd Street.
caption: The exit of the eastern leg of the viaduct through the Helmsley Building back to ground level
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