Island, where they emerge not far from the railway yards. The terminal was completed in 1910 at a cost of $115,000,000.
The Grand Central terminal, undoubtedly the most success- ful modern terminal of any type, was begun in 1903 and opened to the public in 1912. The primary purpose was to provide not only the necessary traffic facilities for an enormous number of passengers ultimately expected to reach at least 250,000 a day but to ensure pleasant and comfortable accommodations for every passenger, even at times when the crowds were heaviest. Subsequent development of the terminal area has made the Grand Central terminal not merely a railway station but a civic " center " of impressive beauty and utility. A railway station should form a harmonious unit in the architectural develop- ment of the city, but the designers of the Grand Central termi- nal accomplished something more than that: they actually transformed the architectural aspect of a very considerable section of New York. They achieved this result partly by set- ting a high standard themselves and partly by causing practi- cally every property owner and builder within that section to measure up to it. The achievement was the more remarkable in that the entire project was conceived and carried out by the New York Central lines, a private corporation, without assist- ance of the city or state. The extraordinary architectural and economic success of this terminal was largely due to the intensive utilization of areas immediately adjoining the tracks and even over the tracks themselves areas that were formerly incapable of being used or were suitable only for cheap dwellings or cer- tain kinds of factories. Early plans did not contemplate build- ings of a greater height than six stories in the immediate termi- nal area, but as soon as it was evident that noise, smoke and dirt had been successfully eliminated there arose a demand for hotels and office and apartment buildings of 25 and even 30 stories. This development was favoured by the fact that in constructing the terminal the engineers were able to restore to public use a number of streets that had hitherto been entirely done away with or existed only as foot bridges. The under- ground areas, yards, etc., occupy about 80 ac., which above the surface are covered with a great variety of buildings. It was not long before the enormous expenditure on the terminal, about $150,000,000, came to be economically justified by reason of the high return obtained from the lease of the space over the yards, etc., for building purposes, the so-called " air rights." In 1920 this return was sufficient to meet the fixed charges on the entire investment. The problem of building the station was extraor- dinarily complicated, and the closest coordination between the operating and engineering departments was necessary to carry out the new construction while tearing down the old station and at the same time keeping in operation some 800 trains a day, including those run for construction purposes. There were excavated 3,250,000 cub. yds. of material (more than two-thirds of which was solid rock), and in the construction there were used about 1,000,000 bar. of cement; and all this work was performed without interruption to the service rendered the public. The architects, Reed & Stem and Warren & Wet- more, adopted a modified Doric style. The " head house," or station proper, is of monumental proportions and the facade (on 42nd St.) consists of three great portals designed to carry out the idea of a gateway. The exterior is granite and Indiana limestone. The main concourse, with a length of 275 ft. and a width of 1 20 ft., can accommodate 30,000 people at one time. Its great height (125 ft.) gives it an effect of unusual spaciousness. From the concourse the passenger walks directly out on the same level to the " express " platforms. In winter the main con- course is kept warm by indirect heating, and the station plat- forms are protected against inclement weather so that even on the coldest days the passenger can board his train in comfort. The tracks occupy two levels. The express level is 20 ft. below the level of the street (Park Ave.) and occupies 45-4 ac.; the suburban level is 44 ft. below the street and occupies 32-8 acres. There are 42 tracks on the upper level and 25 on the lower; a special waiting-room (the suburban concourse) gives access to the latter. Leading from the main concourse are connexions
with the incoming waiting-room (or station), the Commodore and Biltmore Hotels, the Yale Club, the Vanderbilt Concourse office building and various other buildings. The incoming waiting-room, located beneath the Biltmore Hotel, has separate passage-ways of its own leading to the concourse, the subways, the street, etc., so that passengers arriving in the terminal do not interfere with the flow of people to trains. The use of ramps, or inclined passage-ways, instead of stairways, facilitates the movement of passengers and lessens the danger of accident. Nearby hotels include the Bclmont and Chatham.
A vital necessity in designing the Grand Central terminal was a signalling system for each level that could be operated by a direc- tor who could not possibly see the train movements which he controlled. Interlocking machinery, which in its simplest form is locking mechanism designed to control the signals so that they will automatically indicate the position in which the switch is set, was originated in England about 1856, but its use did not become general for many years. To operate the complicated network of trackage in a modern terminal requires interlocking machinery of an extremely- elaborate character; the mechanism must safely control traffic and permit train movements with the greatest possible despatch. In the Grand Central terminal the interlocking machinery is of the all- electric type. Each track level is controlle^ by a director who is guided by a diagram on which the movement of trains is indicated by small electric lights. The largest of, the signal machines is oper- ated by 400 levers, each of which moves electrically a switch or sig- nal, and to each 40 levers is assigned a man working under the instruction of the train director. The machinery is as nearly auto- matic as possible. Alternating-current track circuits are used to prevent the operation of switches while trains are moving over them and to indicate the presence of trains in proximity to danger zones. These circuits also operate electric locks which automatically hold the levers so that they cannot be moved except when the track is clear. Alternating current is used because of the 66o-volt direct- current circuit employed for electric motive power. There are five main interlocking stations. The procedure in the case of an incom- ing train is as follows: At Harmon (33 m.) the steam locomotive is detached and an electric locomotive substituted. From Mott Haven Junction (5-3 m.) the train is announced to the director by tele- graph or loud-speaking telephone (a telephone instrument with a horn similar to that ofa gramophone instead of a receiver). After the train has passed 72d St. the director can trace its further progress by means of the electric buttons on his diagram, and he then decides upon which track to receive the train and 'gives his order to the levermen accordingly. When the incoming track is determined an announcement is made by means of the telautograph to various parts of the terminal. This instrument notifies the attendant at the incoming bulletin board and, in the case of through trains, serves to summon the station porters.
The Grand Central terminal was built by the New York Central lines under the direct supervision of W. H. Newman, then chairman of the board of directors. The terminal is owned 60% by the New York Central lines and 40% by the New York, New Haven & Hart- ford railway, and is used by both railways under a detailed operating agreement. In 1920 the traffic capacity of the station was far from being reached, yet more than 110,000 passengers used the station, arriving and departing on some 600 trains daily. Besides these there were every day from 50,000 to 100,000 people who passed in and out of the station without using the trains. Of the daily traffic about 65,000 were suburban passengers, and this kind of traffic was steadily increasing. From 1903, when the construction was begun, to 1920 the total passenger traffic very nearly trebled.
Reference to Table II. will indicate the more important new sta- tions besides those already described. In addition to the terminals listed, two new stations of large proportions were planned for Chicago. One of these, the new Union station, was already under construction in 1921, while the designs for the other, the Illinois Central or I2th St. station, had been approved by the railway and by the city authorities.
TABLE II. Representative Railway Stations erected 1007-32.
Station
Date com- pleted
Dimensions: main building ft.
Cost*
Washington, D.C.
1907
663 x 211
$120,000,000
Pennsylvania, N.Y. .
1910
430 x 430
115,000,000
Northwestern, Chicago
1911
320 x 218
24,000,000
Grand Central, N.Y.
1912
673 x 301
150,000,000
Ottawa, Quebec
1912
281 x 141
Michigan Central, Detroit
1913
345 x 266
7,000,000
Kansas City
1914
510 x 150
55,000,000
Havana, Cuba .
1914
240 x 70
Buenos Aires
1915
850 x 606
Tokyo ...
1915
1,104 (Frontage)
1,350,000
Leipzig.
1915
984
32,500,000
St. Paul. Minn. .
1922
315 x 220
20,000,000
- Includes entire cost of terminal development.
