Every clock in Grand Central is set by an atomic clock at a naval observatory in Maryland, which reportedly makes them accurate to with one second every 1.4 million years. 72. It was billed as the first great “stairless” station, a design considered necessary for train passengers with large trunks and train cases. Grand Central Terminal, Park Avenue, New York is the world's largest railway station. 64.
Grand Central Terminal officially opened to great fanfare at 12:01 am on Sunday, February 2, 1913, and more than 150,000 people visited the new terminal on its opening day. 70. However, the machine could only print tickets between Grand Central and another station, and no round trips.
Among the various food outlets is one named after Michael Jordan, perhaps the most famous basketball player ever. 14.
Of the many shops at Grand Central, most are either private, small-scale businesses or small franchises. The staircases in Grand Central were based on the designs of the Paris Opera House. In 2008, it took six people to switch all the naked incandescent bulbs to the fluorescent bulbs that are currently in use at the terminal.
93. In the mid-1800s, cities kept their own times. A race of tiny aliens is kept inside a Grand Central locker, while at the end of the film, a locker in an enormous alien version of the terminal is shown to contain the human world. CBS News staff at CBS Studio 41, Grand Central Terminal studios, 1956. There are three exceptions: a Starbucks, a Rite Aid pharmacy and an Apple Store, the latter of which opened in December 2011. So the man known as the owner of Grand Central is a Manhattan real estate developer called Andrew Penson. She is credited with saving the life of a man who was planning to commit suicide until he heard her play a moving hymn. The Michael Jordan Steakhouse opened after the major 1990s renovation of the terminal, with a design reminiscent of a train dining car. Obviously on that day in 2001, the terminal had one of its most fraught days ever. 29. 47. High up on the ceiling mural (above the constellation Cancer) is a small hole, a legacy of a NASA promotion in 1957. The New York Times said of the plans for the new terminal that: “in describing it, the superlative degree must be kept in constant use.”. 97.
18. Workers tried to make the new section visually align (going so far as to briefly re-open the Tennessee quarry that had provided the original building material), but they did make one key change: Because the staircase is not part of the original structure, it was purposely built a few inches above the level of the one across the way—a visual sign to future historians that it was a more recent addition.
Grand Central it is the largest train station in the world by number of tracks and number of platforms 14. The western one is the original; the eastern was added during the renovation in the 1990s. Later that year they installed a Redstone rocket in the main concourse. This configuration, devised by New York Central vice president William J. Wilgus, separated intercity and commuter-rail passengers, smoothing the flow of people in and through the station. 59. Jeff Summers/Flickr Creative Commons/CC BY-NC 2.0. 12. 96. 51. The terminal once had its own organist, Mary Lee Read, who started playing in 1928. It has now spawned sister restaurants in Connecticut and Chicago. The station is one of the world’s most noted Beaux-Arts landmarks. 39. However, it seems more likely that workers had mistakenly looked at the diagram on the floor and done their work from there. Apparently more than four tonnes of newsprint are recycled daily.
Closer inspection revealed it to be tar and nicotine from tobacco.
Almost inevitably there has been a LEGO replica of the terminal, made of 5,000 bricks. 45. 30. Another innovation was the extensive use of ramps, rather than stairs, throughout the station. RKO Radio Pictures shot more films in Grand Central than any other studio. 11. Grand Central subway station actually opened in 1904, a few years before the terminal. 75. It has been ranked as the sixth most visited tourist attraction in the world by Travel+Leisure magazine, with more than 21.5 million annual visitors. In terms of total area, Grand Central is thought to be one of the most successful shopping centres in the USA. 26.
They also experimented to find just the proper shade of blue. Also known as Grand Central Station or Grand Central, the train station is located at the intersection Park Avenue and 42 nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York, USA.
82. Walter Sanders/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images. 8. 71. The Vanderbilts were also immensely proud of Grand Central’s status as one of the world’s first all-electric buildings. The original plans for Grand Central Terminal included a skyscraper. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate.
25. It’s actually the third station to occupy the site. 21. A barbershop for men that existed at the terminal in 1913 boasted that the customer could be shaved “in any one of 30 languages.”. 84. The true reason for the perspective has never been uncovered, and theories vary. The French artist Jules-Alexis Coutan was responsible for the design of the sculpture (known as “Transportation”). FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. 2. 94.
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