Pennsylvania Station

Pennsylvania Station (PEN Station) is one of principal the Gare S of New York, located in the underground stages of Pennsylvania Plaza, an urban complex built on the 32e street, between 7th and 8th avenues of Manhattan. The Madison Square Garden is built with the top of the station. PEN Station is in the center in the middle of the northern corridor is, the electrified railway line which connects Washington DC to Boston. The station is served by several railway companies ensuring the passenger traffic, initially Amtrak (the owner), and also of the local or regional service roads: Length Island Road Rail, MTA New York City Transit, New Jersey Transit, and the New York City Subway System (subway of New York).

History

Origins

PEN Station draws its name from Pennsylvania RailRoad. This railway company, at the 19th century, had its terminus in the New Jersey, on the other side of the Hudson river. Its competitor, the Central New York Railroad, already exploited in Manhattan the Grand Final Exchange. The leaders of Pennsylvania Railroad then sought a solution to join the heart of New York. The construction of a bridge proved too expensive and the boring of a tunnel was not possible (too much long to be used by engines with vapor and difficult to ventilate). It was necessary to await the beginning of the 20th century and the appearance of the electric traction so that one can use the tunnel. End 1901, the PRR revealed its plans, after having secretly bought the grounds necessary to Manhattan and in the New Jersey. Two tunnels with simple way were bored under Hudson and four others under East River, in order to connect the network of the PRR to that Length Island Rail Road.

Construction

The current railway equipment, in underground, is only the remainders of a large station which was built between 1905 and 1910. Conceived by the cabinet McKim, Mead, and White, Pennsylvania Station was an architectural masterpiece of Art schools style. At the time of its startup, the November 27th 1910, it was the largest station of the world. This building was demolished in the Années 1960 to release space necessary to the construction of the complex Pennsylvania Plaza/Madison Square Garden.

The original structure was bordered of pink granite colonnades of doric Style. One reached the quays, covered with a canopy with structure out of steel, by a monumental entry giving on an immense hall. The room of the lost steps, of a size comparable with the nave of the Saint-Pierre Basilica of Rome, was sheltered by a structure of steel covered with travertine. For its design, the architects had taken as a starting point the Thermes of Caracalla. Many a Sculpture S and Bas-relief S decorated the building: angels, Caryatid S, eagles, created by Adolph Weinman. The majority were destroyed, but one finds some vestiges in American museums of them. The Union Station with Ottawa, also inspired by the Thermal baths of Caracalla, gives twice smaller one idea of the interior architecture of old the PEN Station.

The demolition

When designing plan of PEN Station, Charles McKim had opposed the idea to incorporate offices in it on several stages. That went against its architectural convictions. However, at the beginning of the 20th century, the rarefaction of space available to Manhattan encouraged to build increasingly high buildings, tendency which will be accentuated definitely thereafter. In the years 1960, the real pressures became too strong so that the PRR, then overdrawn, can safeguard its major building. In 1964, the principal building was demolished, without the traffic being stopped, the railways and the quays being in lower part of the level of the street. It was replaced by Madison Square Garden and two turns with regular commercial practice.

The destruction of such a famous site started protests. This unhappy event, irrevocable, was at the origin of an awakening New-Yorkaise for the safeguard of its architectural heritage. At once after the demolition of old the PEN Station, the other large station of Manhattan, Large Central Final, was declared historic building and was protected by the law. A highway great project, the Expressway Lower Manhattan, was also stopped following the emotion caused by the demolition of PEN Station. The construction of this way express to 8 ways, wanted by Robert Moses, would have involved the demolition of the old workings of the south of Manhattan and the displacement of 10.000 inhabitants.

There exists a plan to rebuild a new glazed hall with Pennsylvania Station, by connecting it to a building stations, the James Farley Post Office, also designed by the team of achitectes McKim, Mead, and White. This operation would make it possible to partly restore the prestige of the old station. The result of this project, initiated in 1999 by the senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, is dubious.

Service road travellers

Amtrak

List broad outlines at the beginning of New York (PEN Station).

Acela Express train towards Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington
Adirondack towards Cardinal Montreal
towards Philadelphia, Washington, Cincinnati, and Chicago
Carolinian towards Philadelphia, Washington, Richmond, Raleigh, and Charlotte
Crescent towards Philadelphia, Washington, Greensboro, Atlanta, and New Orleans
Empire Service towards Albany, Syracuse, Buffalo, and Niagara Falls
Ethan Allen Express train towards Albany and Rutland
Keystone towards Philadelphia and Harrisburg
Lake Shore Limited towards Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland, Toledo, and Chicago
Maple Leaf towards Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, and Toronto
Metroliner towards Philadelphia and Washington
Regional towards Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Richmond, and Newport News
Silver Service towards Philadelphia, Washington, Savannah, Jacksonville, and Miami
Three Rivers towards Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Chicago
Vermonter towards New Haven, Springfield, and St Albans

MTA

underground lines New York City Subway :

1 2 3 9 (The Bronx towards Brooklyn) (7th Avenue)
HAS C E (northern of Manhattan towards Brooklyn and Queens) (8th Avenue)
B D F NR Q R V W (Queens and Brooklyn)

Long Island Rail Road towards Jamaica Station

New Jersey Transit

Regional lines.

Montclair-Boonton Line towards Montclair, Dover, and Hackettstown
Morris and Essex Lines towards New Providence, Morristown, Dover, Hackettstown, and Gladstone
Northeast Corridor Line towards Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, and Trenton
North Jersey Coast Line towards Newark, Perth Amboy and Bay Head

PATH

Authority Port Trans-Hudson (PATH) service towards Hoboken and Jersey City

Random links: