The Oyster Bar is the only remaining establishment from Grand Central’s opening day a hundred years ago.


platforms underground. He proposed a new facility with a 12-story commercial tower that in his estimate would help generate more than $2 million (roughly $50 million today) in revenue annually. He told the directors that Grand Cen- tral, “could be transformed from a non- productive agency of transportation to a self-contained producer of revenue — a gold mine, so to speak.” The key tech- nology to make all of this possible would be electricity.


power for


When steam was the primary motive the New York Central’s


trains, long open-air cuts were required to vent the exhaust from the yards. At the time, electric traction was still an emerging technology, but Wilgus un- derstood there was no other way to car- ry out his visionary concept for modern station, built to last. Together with traction pioneer Frank J. Sprague, he invented the bottom-contact third rail method of delivering 600 volts of direct current to power the new electric trains, technology that is still in use to- day on the Hudson and Harlem Lines. With the switch to electric, all of the tracks could be sunk below ground and covered over. Wilgus developed the con- cept of “air rights” by selling the space over the terminal suddenly made avail- able by sinking the facility under- ground, which made the immense cost of the project feasible.


The New York Central was enjoying unprecedented prosperity, and projec- tions for increased traffic levels had no end in sight. The new Grand Central Terminal would not only accommodate future growth, but it would also con- form to the city’s new mandate against steam. Although he would not see his plan to fruition, Wilgus’ concept of a two-tiered terminal, complete with loop


TOP: A New Haven EMD FL9 built in 1957 and one of New York Central’s ex-Cleveland Terminal P-motor electrics built


in 1929 share a platform on August 10, 1958. JIM SHAUGHNESSY


ABOVE: This view from inside the clock atop Grand Central Terminal looks south down Park Avenue. Installed in 1914, the clock is the world’s largest example of Tiffany glass. EMILY MOSER


MADISON AVE.


41 39 37


35


33 27


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GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL


25 23 21 19 17 15 13


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28 26


24 22 20 18 16 14 11


LL


GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL UPPER (EXPRESS) LEVEL


LL LL


PARK AVE.


61


Waldorf Astoria Hotel


LEXINGTON AVE. 32 FEBRUARY 2013 • RAILFAN.COM Illustration by Otto M. Vondrak ©2013 Carstens Publications, Inc. Not an official map. Not all tracks shown.


42nd STREET


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