City - NY - The short lived Grand Central 1900 Postcard

Colorized photo from 1900 Original Title: Grand Central Depot Photographer: Detroit Publishing Location: East 42 St, NY Grand Central Station has had a pretty long history, its changed shape quite a few times. Originally it was a small station back in the the late 1800s, and it was replaced by a large house like structure called the Snook building. It was then renovated, expanded, the floors were increased, and the entire structure changed shape, that's what this building is. There has been a total of three buildings, but four designs. This particular structure was grand, it was compared to the Eiffel tower and the Crystal tower. Designed by Bradford Gilbert in 1898, in a Beaux-Arts Style. It measured a 100ft wide by 650ft long. Covered entirely in granite. It was elegant inside an out. But there were several huge flaws. For one, there was very little ventilation inside. And there were only four tracks. So there were long lines waiting for trains, but while they were waiting, the room would fill with smoke and steam from those trains making it really hard to breathe, and it was very hot as well. Imagine a crowded room, with heat and humidity, and smoke, and your wearing a suit or long dress in the summer. Yeah you thought your commute was bad. The end of this station happened on January 8th, 1902. Only two years after the depot opened, there was a horrific crash inside the tunnel that killed 15 people and injured many more. As a result, they banned the use of steam trains in this area, they razed the building and replaced it with what we have now, and added many more tracks. This building does have an interesting feature, eagles, 12 in all, flanking the corners, each have a 13ft wing span. When the building was demolished, the birds seemed to migrate in their own directions. Only half of them have been found. One ended up in a museum in NJ, another few became sculptures in a private house. There is one eagle on the current Grand Central, donated back by someone. If you look at the top you'll see its flanked by eagles, each have a 13ft wing span. When they demolished the building, the eagles scattered across the country, only half have been found so far.