When the words “railroad station,” are mentioned, the first thing that appears in most peoples’ minds is Grand Central Terminal in New York City. It has become known as the crossroads of the world.
In the 1830’s it was becoming apparent that there was the need for an alternative to water travel because of the geographical expansion of the country. This lead to railroads, which could be extended easily, unlike canals that had to be dredged.
From 1850 to the end of the nineteenth century, American railroads grew from 9,000 miles to 193,000 miles of track. In 1853, all of the smaller New York railroads merged into the New York Central Railroad.
Cornelius Vanderbilt acquired a large amount of stock in the New York Central. Daniel Drew, a rival of Vanderbilt’s, tried to block all additional acquisition by Vanderbilt but failed.
In New York City, the destination for freight trains was St. John’s Park Depot, a three-story stone building constructed for the Hudson River Railroad in 1868. On the top of it was a bronze statue of Vanderbilt himself. The statue now stands on the south side of Grand Central, looking out on Park Avenue S.
Passenger trains merged at Fourth Avenue and continued down to 42nd street. The Harlem Railroad Depot was located here. Vanderbilt acquired the Depot in the Harlem Railroad takeover. It gave him ownership to what was to become the busiest piece of land in the world. His railroad was now the only one with a direct route into Manhattan.
The Term Paper on Railroads Early Rail
Railroads have been around for almost two hundred years. Between 1820 and 1850 the first railroads began to appear and the need for the further development became apparent. America had just gone through an era of canal making; and now with the canals not in total operation, railroads began to thrive and take jobs that would once have gone to the canals. However, it was not easy for the railroad ...
In 1856 New York City banned trains from south of 42nd street because of the high numbers of accidents. Passengers continued downtown on a forty-five minute horse-drawn carriage ride.
The two terminals for the Hudson River and Harlem lines proved to be inadequate for the volume of freight and passengers at hand. The large fleet was in need of a large central depot to bring both lines together. It would need to be big enough to accommodate and represent the New York Central, the Hudson, and the Harlem. The site selected for Vanderbilt’s Grand Central Depot was where the Harlem Depot already stood. The location was criticized by the public as being “the end of the earth,” because most of Manhattan’s population was downtown. New York’s population was approaching one million at this time, and Vanderbilt knew that future growth would have to be northward.
Construction began in the fall of 1869. It took about two years. On October 9, 1871, Grand Central Depot was completed. Beneath the vault of iron and glass were twelve tracks and seven platforms, handling eighty-five trains per day.
Despite the exciting architecture, the train sheds were difficult to keep clean. Smoke poured out of the locomotives, filling the sheds’ interior and blackening all surfaces. The solution to this was “flying in.” In this process, the locomotive separated form the train and accelerated to an outside “side track.” The rest of the train glided into the depot and came to a smokeless stop.
In 1873, the city advised the railroad to sink underground until Ninety-sixth Street, and the public demanded it. The Vanderbilts resisted this because they had just spent $6,420,000 on Grand Central Depot. They eventually agreed, however, when the city agreed to fund half of the six million dollar cost. This was one of the earliest examples of commerce between government and private business. The tracks were sunk underground, increased from two to four lines, and Park Avenue was widened.
By this time, William Vanderbilt had assumed most of the control of his father’s “empire.” On January fourth, 1877, Cornelius Vanderbilt died. He was eighty-two years old. William gave financial mogul J.P. Morgan a seat on his board of directors after a successful sale of 250,000 shares of stock.
The Essay on William Shakespeare 3
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was born in Startford-on-Avon, in the country of Warwick. The third child and first son, William was christened on 26th April, 1564 in the parish chruch. His father, John Shakespeare, was a prosperous businessman. William got his education in a good grammer school. His father’s business failed due to neglect so William could not attend the University. At the age of ...
In 1885, William died of a burst blood vessel during a business argument.
William had two sons. His older son, Cornelius II, was named chairman. His younger son was named William K. and was given the position of chairman of constituent lines. By 1900 Cornelius II had died of a stroke and William K. had resigned from his executive responsibilities. Though the Vanderbilts still held major stock and William K. remained an active board member, the New York Central was no longer operated by them.
In 1898 the depot underwent major renovations. Three floors were added, raising the 42nd street facade to 150 feet. Many new materials, new fenestration, and an entrance pavilion created a classical appearance. All of these changes brought on a new name. Grand Central Depot had become Grand Central Station.
There was an ever-growing number of passengers that had to be accommodated for. There were three waiting areas, one for each line. To make the waiting areas less crowded, they were combined into on large waiting area. It measured two hundred feet long by one hundred feet wide and had a fifty-foot high vaulted ceiling. This was just a prelude to the great main concourse today.
Everyone knew that the problem was far from being solved. A tragic accident at 8:20 A.M. on January 8, 1902, made the need for change loom even more. A New York Central train heading for Grand Central collided with a New Haven Line train in the tunnel at 54th street. Many passengers were killed or injured.
By the end of 1902, the New York Central was committed to the electrification and construction of a new building. The new building would be at Park Avenue and 42nd Street. It would be named Grand Central Terminal.
The new terminal’s design would be engineered by William Wilgus. It would be completely electric and have fifty-seven tracks on two levels. A “throat” feeding both levels of tracks would be put in place. There would be underground loops, making turning around easy. In short, this station would solve all rail operational problems.
Because of the project’s significance, the architectural firm would need to be selected very carefully. It came down to a choice of four highly renowned architectural firms. These were the firms: Chicago’s D. H. Burnham & Company, [McKim, Mead, and White of New York], Samuel Huckle, Jr. from Philadelphia, and Reed & Stem from St. Paul, MN.
The Essay on Design of a Hotel Building
The building has an elevation which supports the green concept and provides natural lighting and ventilation. The building also includes the use of smart technology which makes life simpler. It is a hotel that mainly provides rooms equipped with all the basic necessities which meet the requirements of travellers. The project strictly adheres to the standards and guide lines of IS 456:2000 (Plain ...
Burnham had designed New York’s Flatiron building and Washington’s Union Station. McKim had designed many of New York’s buildings, including Penn Station. Huckle had worked on the 1900 interior renovation of Grand Central Station. Reed and Stem were experienced in station design but were not well known.
Charles Reed was connected to Wilgus through design and family. Reed and Wilgus had begun work together on a new railroad station in Troy, New York. Also, his sister, May, was married to Wilgus.
Each firm was to submit their own design for the terminal. In Mckim’s design, a sixty-story tower would be on top of the terminal. Also, Park Avenue and 42nd Street would run straight through the building. Reed’s design called for an elevated roadway that connected all the levels of the terminal. On the north side of the building, according to Reed, there would be the “Court of Honor,” which would house the National Academy of Design and the Metropolitan Opera.
The Reed & Stem design was finally selected, making them the firm of choice.
The Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, France, was an architectural school where the training was superior to anything in the U.S.A. Whitney Warren was one of the architects who trained there. Even though he was not one of the final four architects, he would become the principal author of the finished terminal.
In 1904, the Warren & Wetmore firm was added to the design team. This formed the Associated Architects of Grand Central Terminal. Although Charles Reed was named chief executive, Whitney Warren made some changes in Reed’s design: The plan for an office building was discarded, Stairs replaced ramps, and the designs of the waiting room and concourse were significantly changed.
The design of the terminal proceeded. In 1907, Wilgus resigned suddenly. Warren was now fully in control of the development; Reed’s ideas were going nowhere.
The Term Paper on National building code
This part of the Code deals with safety from fire. It specifies the demarcation of fire zones, restrictions on construction of buildings in each fire zone, classification of buildings based on occupancy, types of building construction according to fire resistance of the structural and non-structural components and other restrictions and requirements necessary to minimise danger to life from fire, ...
The New Haven Railrod had the final say in the design. They rejected Warren’s design in favor of Reed’s.
To prepare the site for construction, demolition and excavation began in 1903. Between 42nd and 50th Streets, over 200 buildings were demolished; the site increased from twenty-three to almost forty-eight acres. 1.6 million cubic yard of rock and 1.2 million cubic yards of earth were excavated to make room for the two levels of tracks and platforms. 29,000 tons of structural steel and 1,000,000 barrels of cement went into constructing the new terminal. The steel frame required 2.5 times that of the Eiffel Tower.
The opening date was set for February of 1913. Fifteen months before that, however, Charles Reed died. Whitney Warren now took total control of the development.
Grand Central Terminal officially opened at midnight on February 1, 1913. When the doors opened, some 3,000 people rushed in to admire the building
