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View from the northeast, circa 1911.
The sheer size of the structure in comparison to the surrounding buildings is notable.
Very little of this scene survives in modern Manhattan.
Pennsylvania Station in 1962
Pennsylvania Station—commonly known as Penn Station—is the major intercity rail station and a major commuter rail hub in New York Citymarker. The station is located in the underground levels of Pennsylvania Plaza, an urban complex located between Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue and between 31st Street & 33rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, and is owned by Amtrak. Serving 600,000 passengers a day (compared to 140,000 across town at Grand Central Terminalmarker) at a rate of up to a thousand every 90 seconds, it is the busiest passenger transportation facility in the United Statesmarker and by far the busiest train station in North America.

Penn Station is at the center of the Northeast Corridor, an electrified passenger rail line extending south to Washington, D.C.marker, and north to Bostonmarker. Intercity trains are operated by Amtrak, while commuter rail services are operated by the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit. The station is also served by six New York City Subway routes.

Penn Station is the busiest Amtrak station in the United Statesmarker. The station saw 8.7 million Amtrak arrivals and departures in 2008, double the traffic at the next busiest station, Union Stationmarker in Washington, D.C. Penn Station's assigned IATA airport code is ZYP. Its Amtrak and NJ Transit station code is NYP.

Services

Amtrak

  • Acela Express to Boston, Providence, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington
  • Adirondack to Montréalmarker
  • Cardinal to Philadelphia, Washington, Cincinnati, and Chicago
  • Carolinian to Philadelphia, Washington, Richmond, Raleigh, and Charlotte
  • Crescent to Philadelphia, Washington, Greensboro, Atlanta, and New Orleans
  • Empire Service to Yonkers, Croton-Harmon, Poughkeepsie, Rhinecliff, Hudson, Albany, Schenectady, Amsterdam, Utica, Rome, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and Niagara Falls
  • Ethan Allen Express to Albany and Rutland
  • Keystone Service to Philadelphia, Lancaster, and Harrisburg
  • Lake Shore Limited to Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo, and Chicago
  • Maple Leaf to Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and Toronto
  • Pennsylvanian to Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and Pittsburgh
  • Northeast Regional to Boston, Providence, New Haven, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, and Newport News
  • Palmetto, Silver Meteor and Silver Star to Philadelphia, Washington, Savannah, Jacksonville, and Miami
  • Vermonter to New Haven, Springfield, and St. Albans


MTA







New Jersey Transit



Passengers can transfer at Secaucus Junctionmarker to Main Line, Bergen County Line, and Pascack Valley Line trains.

Passengers can transfer at Newark marker to Raritan Valley Line trains.

PATH

Port Authority Trans-Hudsonmarker (PATH) service to Hobokenmarker and Jersey City, New Jerseymarker does not technically serve Penn Station, but is located only a block away, at 33rd Streetmarker and Sixth Avenuemarker. It was once accessible via underground passageway, but this has been closed to the public for security reasons, and now the only access is via the surface streets.

Continental Airlines

Continental Airlines operates a ticketing counter in the Amtrak section.

History

Pennsylvania Station is named for the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), its builder and original tenant, and shares its name with several stations in other cities. The current facility is the substantially remodeled underground remnant of a much grander structure designed by McKim, Mead, and White and completed in 1910. The original Pennsylvania Station was an outstanding masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style and one of the architectural jewels of New York City. The station's air rights were optioned in the 50's. The option was executed soon after. The option called for the demolition of the head-house and train shed, to be replaced by an office complex and a new sports complex. The tracks of the station, which were located well below street level, would remain untouched. Demolition began in October 1963. The Pennsylvania Plaza complex, including the fourth and current Madison Square Gardenmarker, was completed in 1968.

Planning and construction

Until the early 20th century, PRR's rail network terminated on the western side of the Hudson River (once known locally as the North River) at Exchange Place in Jersey City, New Jerseymarker. Manhattan-bound passengers boarded ferries to cross the Hudson River for the final stretch of their journey. The rival New York Central Railroad's line ran down Manhattan from the north under Park Avenue and terminated at Grand Central Terminalmarker in the heart of Manhattan's business district.

To address its competitive disadvantage, the Pennsylvania Railroad considered building a rail bridge across the Hudson. This option was rejected when the other railroads using ferries across the Hudson River from New Jersey declined to participate jointly in a bridge project, which was required to obtain state approval. The alternative was to tunnel under the river, but a tunnel's length would be difficult to ventilate and too long to be compatible with steam locomotives. Moreover, the New York state legislature had adopted legislation prohibiting operation of steam locomotives in Manhattan after July 1, 1908. The development of the electric locomotive at the turn of the 20th century, however, made feasible the construction of a tunnel for an electrified railroad. On December 12, 1901, PRR president Alexander Cassatt announced the railroad's plan to enter New York City by tunneling under the Hudson and building a grand station on the West Side of Manhattan, south of 34th Street.

Tunnel under the Hudson, 1910s
Beginning in June, 1903 the North River Tunnelsmarker, two single-track tunnels, were bored from the west under the Hudson River and four single-track tunnels were bored from the east under the East Rivermarker. This second set of tunnels linked the new station to Queensmarker and the Long Island Rail Road, which came under PRR control (see East River Tunnels), and Sunnyside Yardmarker in Queens, where trains would be maintained and assembled. Electrification was initially 600 volts DC–third rail, later changed to 11,000 volts AC–overhead catenary, when electrification of PRR's mainline was eventually extended to Washington, D.marker C.marker in the early 1930s.

The tunnel technology was so innovative that in 1907 the PRR shipped an actual diameter section of the new East River Tunnel to the Jamestown Exposition near Norfolk, Virginia to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown Settlementmarker. The same tube, with an inscription indicating that it had been displayed at the Exposition, was later installed under water and remains in use today. Construction was completed on the Hudson River tunnel on October 9, 1906, and on the East River tunnel March 18, 1908. Meanwhile, ground was broken for Pennsylvania Station on May 1, 1904. By the time of its completion and the inauguration of regular through train service on Sunday, November 27, 1910, the total project cost to the Pennsylvania Railroad for the station and associated tunnels was $114 million (approximately $2.5 billion in 2007 dollars), according to an Interstate Commerce Commission report.

The railroad paid tribute to Cassatt, who did not live to see the completion of his great edifice:

Occupying two complete city blocks from Seventh Avenue to Eighth Avenue and from 31st to 33rd Streets, Pennsylvania Station when completed covered an area of and was one of the first rail terminals to separate arriving from departing passengers on two different concourses.

Original structure (1910–1963)

The original structure was made of pink granite and was marked by an imposing, sober colonnade of corinthian columns arranged in Doric order. The colonnades embodied the sophisticated integration of multiple functions and circulation of people and goods. McKim, Mead and White's Pennsylvania Station combined frank glass-and-steel train sheds and a magnificently proportioned concourse with a breathtaking monumental entrance to New York City. It was immortalized in films (see link below). From the street, twin carriageways, modelled after Berlin's Brandenburg Gatemarker, led to the two railroads that the building served, the Pennsylvania and the Long Island Rail Road. Its enormous main waiting room, inspired by the Roman Baths of Caracallamarker, approximated the scale of St. Peter's nave in Rome, expressed here in a steel framework clad in travertine. It was the largest indoor space in New York City and, indeed, one of the largest public spaces in the world. Covering more than , it was, said the Baltimore Sun in April, 2007, “As grand a corporate statement in stone, glass and sculpture as one could imagine”. In her 2007 book, Conquering Gotham: a Gilded Age Epic – The Construction of Penn Station and Its Tunnels, historian Jill Jonnes called the original edifice a “great Doric temple to transportation”.

During the more than half-century timespan of the original station under owner Pennsylvania Railroad (1910-1963), hundreds of intercity passenger trains arrived and departed daily, serving distant places such as Chicagomarker and St. Louismarker on “Pennsy” rails, and beyond on connecting railroads to Miami, Floridamarker, and the west. In addition to the Long Island Rail Road, other lines using Pennsylvania Station during that era were the New Haven and the Lehigh Valley Railroads. For a few years during World War I and the early 1920s, arch rival Baltimore and Ohio Railroad passenger trains to Washington, Chicago, and St. Louis also used Pennsylvania Station, initially by order of the USRA, until the Pennsylvania Railroad terminated the B&O's access in 1926. The station saw its heaviest usage during World War II, but by the late-1950s intercity rail passenger volumes declined dramatically with the coming of the Jet Age and the Interstate Highway System.
The sprawling concourse in 1962 – demolition was two years away
The Pennsylvania Railroad began looking to divest itself of the cost of operation of the under-utilized structure, optioning the air rights of Penn Station in the 1950s. Plans for the new Penn Plaza and Madison Square Garden were announced in 1962. In exchange for the air-rights to Penn Station, the Pennsylvania Railroad would get a brand-new, air-conditioned, smaller station located completely below street level at no cost, and a 25% stake in the new Madison Square Garden Complex.

The demolition of the original structure — although considered by some to be justified as progressive at a time of declining rail passenger service — created international outrage.. As dismantling of the grand old structure began, The New York Times editorially lamented:
"Until the first blow fell, no one was convinced that Penn Station really would be demolished, or that New York would permit this monumental act of vandalism against one of the largest and finest landmarks of its age of Roman elegance."


Its destruction left a deep and lasting wound in the architectural consciousness of the city. A famous photograph of a smashed caryatid in the landfill of the New Jersey Meadowlands struck a guilty chord. Pennsylvania Station's demolition is considered to have been the catalyst for the enactment of the city's first architectural preservation statutes. The sculpture on the building, including the angel in the landfill, was created by Adolph Alexander Weinman. One of the sculpted clock surrounds, whose figures were modeled using model Audrey Munson, still survives as the Eagle Scout Memorial Fountain in Kansas City, Missourimarker. There is also a caryatid at the sculpture garden at the Brooklyn Museummarker, and all of the Penn Station eagles still exist.

Ottawa's Union Stationmarker, built a year after Penn Station (in 1912), is another replica of the Baths of Caracallamarker. This train station's departures hall now provides a good idea of what the interior of Penn Station looked like (at half the scale). Chicago's Union Station is similar as well.

Killer's Kiss a 1955 film noir co-written and directed by Stanley Kubrick features footage of the concourse and the exterior facade.

Image:Penn_Station2.jpg|The concourse and steps down to the tracksImage:NYP_LOC1.jpg|The Corinthian columns of the Main Waiting RoomImage:NYP_LOC2.jpg|The concourse in 1962Image:NYP_LOC3.jpg|The East (7th Ave.) exterior facadeImage:Penn Station1.jpg|Main Waiting Room

Demolition of station building; construction of Madison Square Garden

After a renovation covered some of the grand columns with plastic and blocked off the spacious central hallway with a new ticket office, Lewis Mumford wrote critically in The New Yorker in 1958 that “nothing further that could be done to the station could damage it”. History was to prove him wrong. Under the presidency of Pennsylvania Railroad's Stuart T. Saunders (who later headed ill-fated Penn Central Transportation), demolition of the above-ground components of this structure (the platforms are below street level) began in October 1963. Although the demolition did not disrupt the essential day-to-day operations, it made way for present-day Madison Square Gardenmarker, along with two office towers. A 1968 advertisement depicted the architect's model of the final plan for the Madison Square Garden Center complex, which would replace the original Pennsylvania Station.


A point made in the defense of the demolition of the old Penn Station at the time was that the cost of maintaining the old structure had become prohibitively expensive. The question of whether it made sense to preserve a building, intended to be a cost-effective and functional piece of the city's infrastructure, simply as a “monument” to the past was raised in defense of the plans to demolish it. As a New York Times editorial critical of the demolition noted at the time, a “civilization gets what it wants, is willing to pay for, and ultimately deserves”. Modern architects rushed to save the ornate building, although it was contrary to their own styles. They called the station a treasure and chanted “Don’t Amputate - Renovate” at rallies.

Only three eagles salvaged from the station are known to remain in New York City: two in front of the Penn Plaza / Madison Square Garden complex, and one at The Cooper Unionmarker, Weinman's alma mater. Cooper's eagle used to reside in the courtyard of the Albert Nerken School of Engineering at 51 Astor Place, but was relocated in the summer of 2009, along with the engineering school, to a new academic building at 41 Cooper Square. This eagle is no longer viewable from the street, as it is located on the building's green roof. Three are on Long Island: two at the United States Merchant Marine Academymarker in Kings Pointmarker and one at the Long Island Rail Road stationmarker in Hicksville, New Yorkmarker. Four reside on the Market Street Bridgemarker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvaniamarker, across from that city's 30th Street Stationmarker. One is positioned near the end zone at the football field of Hampden-Sydney College near Farmville, Virginia. Yet another is located on the grounds of the National Zoomarker in Washington, DC.

The furor over the demolition of such a well-known landmark, and its replacement by what continues to be widely deplored as a mediocre slab, are often cited as catalysts for the architectural preservation movement in the United States. New laws were passed to restrict such demolition. Within the decade, Grand Central Terminalmarker was protected under the city’s new landmarks preservation act — a protection which was upheld by the courts in 1978, after a challenge by Grand Central’s owner, Penn Central.

The outcry over the loss of Penn Station prompted activists to question the “development scheme” mentality cultivated by New York’s “master builder”, Robert Moses. Public protests and a rejection of his plan by the city government meant an end to Moses' plans for a Lower Manhattan Expressway.

In the longer run, the sense that something irreplaceable had been lost contributed to the erosion of confidence in Modernism itself and its sweeping forms of urban renewal. Interest in historic preservation was strengthened. Comparing the new and the old Penn Station, renowned Yale architectural historian Vincent Scully once wrote, “One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat.” This feeling, shared by many New Yorkers, has led to movements for a new Penn Station that could somehow atone for the loss of an architectural treasure.

Recent history and present day

The current Penn Station, which is on the site of the old one and uses the same platforms, is arranged into "Amtrak", "NJ Transit" and "LIRR" concourses. Each one is maintained and styled differently by its respective operator. The NJ Transit concourse near Seventh Avenue is the newest and opened in 2002 out of existing retail and Amtrak backoffice space. A new entrance to this concourse from West 31st Street opened in September 2009. Previously, NJ Transit passengers could only use the Amtrak concourse to reach their trains. The main LIRR concourse runs below West 33rd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Significant renovations were made to this concourse over a three year period ending in 1994. The LIRR's West End Concourse, located west of Eighth Avenue, opened in 1986. Parts of the Amtrak concourse (in particular, the shopping areas) maintain the original 1960s styling and have not been renovated since the new Penn Station was built; however, there have been renovations to other parts (the waiting rooms).

Tracks 1-12 are exclusively used by Amtrak and NJ Transit trains, and the Amtrak and NJ Transit concourses both have gates to these tracks on the south side of the station. The LIRR has the exclusive use of Tracks 17-21 on the north side of the station, and shares Tracks 13-16 with Amtrak and NJ Transit. Except for the shared tracks, a passenger can not reach the LIRR tracks directly from the Amtrak and NJ Transit concourses, and vice versa. Since Amtrak and NJ Transit share the same tracks, it is possible for passengers to exit a NJ Transit train and wind up in the Amtrak concourse, and vice versa.

Departure board
Station concourse


In the 1990s, the current Pennsylvania Station was renovated by Amtrak, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and New Jersey Transit, to improve the appearance of the waiting and concession areas, sharpen the station information systems (audio and visual) and remove much of the grime. Recalling the erstwhile grandeur of the bygone Penn Station, an old four-sided clock from the original depot was installed at the 34th Street Long Island Rail Road entrance. The walkway from that entrance's escalator also has a mural depicting elements of the old Penn Station's architecture.

Despite the improvements, Penn Station continues to be criticized as a low-ceilinged “catacomb” lacking charm, especially when compared to New York’s much larger and ornate Grand Central Terminalmarker. The New York Times, in a November 2007, editorial supporting development of an enlarged railroad terminal, said, “Amtrak’s beleaguered customers…now scurry through underground rooms bereft of light or character”.

Plans for the future

Hope for a grander railroad station lies one block west. Across Eighth Avenue from Penn Station sits New York’s General Post Office, the James Farley Post Officemarker. Under pressure from veteran U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, plans were publicized in 1999 to move entrances and concourses of Penn Station under this building, which fills an entire city block. When completed, the station inside the historic James A. Farley Building, a NY State and National Landmark, would be named Moynihan Station West, in honor of the late Senator.

Initial design proposals were laid out by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. In a protracted series of events typical of many large, complicated projects, plans to redevelop Penn Station have stretched further and further into the future. In July 2005, announcements were made that Childs' plan had been scrapped and a new one was unveiled. This second plan was similar to but much more modest than the original. It is the result of a collaboration between the architectural firms of James Carpenter and Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (HOK). Later in 2005, Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill reacquired the project and released a third design, which is a compromise. As of June 2006, the design resembles the interior of BCE Placemarker and does not require the demolition of part of the facade of the Farley Building.

Amtrak was to be the major tenant of the new building, leaving the old station for use by the NYC commuter rail passengers. Signs of construction appeared in November 2005, with plywood barriers installed on the sidewalks and orange nets covering main facade on 8th Avenue.

Amtrak, however, subsequently decided not to move from its present location, leaving New Jersey Transit as the Moynihan Station's anchor tenant. NJ Transit has been negotiating a 99-year lease on the Farley Post Office. In the meantime, Cablevision, owner of Madison Square Garden, considered relocation of the Garden to the west flank of the Farley Building. Such a project would lead to Vornado Realty Trust building an office complex on the current Garden site.

Redevelopment of Penn Station thus continues to languish as various design concepts are debated and altered. A revised version proposed in 2007 would reportedly add one million square feet of retail space to the new Moynihan train station and office complex, prompting the New York Times to complain that this latest plan “could easily shortchange the public’s interests in favor of the private developers…The last thing New York needs is another dreadful Pennsylvania Station that only serves developers and Madison Square Garden”.

New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has called for greater integration of the project with the larger Midtown renovation plan proposed by developers and Cablevision.

A FAQ for New Jersey Transit’s “THE tunnel/ Access to the Region’s Core” suggests that Pennsylvania Station, Moynihan Station, and a proposed rail station under 34th street will be considered to be separate entities [27729]. The proximity and connection of those entities would make the Moynihan and 34th St. Stations de facto expansions of Penn Station. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's daughter, Maura Moynihan, has stated that she considers the Farley Building and current Madison Square Garden to be potential sites for two Moynihan Stations: a Moynihan-East and a Moynihan-West. [27730].

On April 3, 2008, Madison Square Garden executives announced plans to renovate and modernize the current arena in time for the Knicks and Rangers 2011-12 seasons. This announcement came a week after they declared that they have abandoned plans to move the Garden to the Farley Post Office site. Hank J. Ratner, the vice chairman of Madison Square Garden said, “We’re all for the development of Moynihan Station at the Farley building, as the project was originally conceived. We’re not going to be moving.”

See also



Gallery

Image:Penn Station LIRR concourse.jpg|Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) underground concourseImage:Penn Station.jpg|A typical rush hour crowd heading to an LIRR trainImage:NY Penn Station platform.jpg|platform levelImage:New Jersey Transit terminal at Pennsylvania Station NY.jpg|Rush hour at the New Jersey Transit concourseImage:Penn Station entrance.jpg|8th Avenue entrance

References

Notes

Bibliography

  • Lorraine B. Diehl, The Late, Great Pennsylvania Station. Lexington, Massachusettsmarker, Stephen Greene Press, 1985 ISBN 0-8289-0603-3


External links




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