Magazine serving the bus and rail transit & motorcoach operations since 1904
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Phot Phot credit: Photo credit ??? Photo credit: ??? hot ho o edit edit di di Designed in the French Beaux-Arts style, the structure features the world's largest Tifany clock (inset). The "gateway to America" survived the threat of the wrecking ball, decline and disrepair, to emerge revitalized as a popular destination and lasting monument to New York City's rebirth. BY JANNA STARCIC, Executive Editor 48 < mETRO mAGAZINE MAY 2013 t All photos courtesy of the New York Transit Museum his year, New York City's Grand Central Terminal celebrates its 100th anniversary. Te iconic building, which began its storied history as the "gateway to America" has since survived the threat of the wrecking ball, decline and disrepair, to emerge revitalized as a popular destination and lasting monument to the city's rebirth. "Hundredth anniversaries come and go, but when it's a building that you almost lost, it's sort of a reminder that we didn't," says historian and lecturer Anthony W. Robins, who recently co-authored, with the staf of the New York Transit Museum, a new book commemorating the landmark. STORIED BEGINNINGS Acclaimed as the "largest and greatest railway terminal in the world," Grand Central was completed in 1913, after 10 years of construction, at a cost of $80 million. Before the terminal's construction, steam trains serviced the original Grand Central Station. But, after a horrifc accident in 1902, when trains collided in a smoke-flled tunnel, the switch to electric trains began. With electrifcation, engineer William J. Wilgus developed the idea of sinking the train tracks underground. Tis would create prime real estate above the rail yard, which could be metro-magazine.com