Pennsylvania Station

New York Pennsylvania Station
Station statistics
Address	Seventh Ave between 31st Street & 33rd Street, New York, NY 10001
Lines	Acela Express, Adirondack, Cardinal, Carolinian, Crescent, Empire Service, Ethan Allen Express, Keystone Service, Lake Shore Limited, Maple Leaf, Pennsylvanian, Regional, Palmetto, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Vermonter
Connections	Long Island Rail Road, New York City Subway, PATH, and New Jersey Transit lines
Other information
Opened	1910
Rebuilt	1964
Code	NYP
Owned by	Amtrak
Traffic
Passengers (2006)	7,546,208 - Amtrak Only[1] 11%

Pennsylvania Station (commonly known as Penn Station) is the major intercity rail station and a major commuter rail hub in New York City. The station is located in the underground levels of Pennsylvania Plaza, an urban complex at 8th Avenue and 31st Street in Midtown Manhattan, and is owned by Amtrak. It is the busiest station of three major passenger railroads and by far the busiest train station in the United States.^[2]

Penn Station is at the center of the Northeast Corridor, an electrified passenger rail line extending south to Washington, D.C. and north to Boston. 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 connected to six New York City Subway lines.

Penn Station is the busiest Amtrak station in the United States. The station saw 4.3 million Amtrak boardings in 2004, more than double the traffic at the next busiest station, Union Station in Washington, D.C.^[3] Penn Station's assigned IATA airport code is ZYP.^[4] Its Amtrak and NJ Transit station code is NYP.

Services

Amtrak

Tracks leading to Penn Station from the west, facing west

Tracks leading to Penn Station from the west, facing south

Main article: Amtrak

• Acela Express to Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington
• Adirondack to Montreal
• 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
• 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

Main article: Metropolitan Transportation Authority (New York)

• Long Island Rail Road (to Woodside Station and points east)

A normal rush hour crowd heading to an LIRR train.

• New York City Subway
  • From Penn Station:
    • A C E at 34th Street–Penn Station (IND Eighth Avenue Line)
    • 1 2 3 at 34th Street–Penn Station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)
  • From Herald Square, one block east at Sixth Avenue:
    • N Q R W at 34th Street–Herald Square (BMT Broadway Line)
    • B D F V at 34th Street–Herald Square (IND Sixth Avenue Line)

New York City Transit buses:

• M10: To West 159th Street/Harlem River Drive, Harlem via Central Park West
• M16: To Port Authority Bus Terminal, Hell's Kitchen via Eighth Avenue or Waterside Plaza, Kips Bay via 34th Street
• M20: To Lincoln Center via Eighth Avenue or Battery Park City via Seventh Avenue
• M34: To Jacob K. Javits Convention Center or FDR Drive via 34th Street
• Q32: To Jackson Heights, Queens via Madison Avenue, Queensboro Bridge and Roosevelt Avenue

New Jersey Transit

Rush hour at the New Jersey Transit terminal

Main article: New Jersey Transit

• Montclair-Boonton Line to Newark (Broad Street) and Montclair State University, with connecting service to Boonton and Dover
• Morris and Essex Lines to Newark (Broad Street), Summit, Morristown/Dover and Gladstone
• Northeast Corridor Line to Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton Junction, and Trenton (connects to SEPTA trains bound for Philadelphia, and Trenton is across the street from River Line light rail that goes to Camden, New Jersey)
• North Jersey Coast Line to Newark, Perth Amboy, and Long Branch

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

PATH

Main article: Port Authority Trans-Hudson

Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) service to Hoboken and Jersey City, New Jersey does not technically serve Penn Station, but is located only a block away, at 33rd Street and Sixth Avenue. 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.

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 above-ground portion of the original structure was demolished in 1964 and replaced by the present Pennsylvania Plaza complex, including the fourth and current Madison Square Garden.

Planning and construction

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.

Until the early 20th century, PRR's rail network terminated on the western side of the Hudson River at Exchange Place in Jersey City, New Jersey. 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 Terminal 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.^[5] 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.^[6] 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.

Beginning in June, 1903, 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 River. This second set of tunnels linked the new station to Queens and the Long Island Rail Road, which came under PRR control (see East River Tunnels), and Sunnyside Yard 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. C. in the early 1930s.^[5]

The tunnel technology was so new and innovative that in 1907 the PRR shipped an actual 23-foot 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 Settlement. 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 (in 1910 dollars), according to an Interstate Commerce Commission report.^[7]

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 eight acres and was one of the first rail terminals to separate arriving from departing passengers on two different concourses.^[7] The railroad paid tribute to Cassatt, who did not live to see the completion of his great edifice:^[5]

Original structure (1910–1964)

Pennsylvania Station as it appeared in 1962 – demolition was two years away

The sprawling concourse in 1962

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 Gate, 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 Caracalla, 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 seven acres, it was, said the Baltimore Sun in April, 2007, "As grand a corporate statement in stone, glass and sculpture as one could imagine".^[8] 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".^[9]

During the more than half-century timespan of the original station under owner Pennsylvania Railroad (1910-1964), hundreds of intercity passenger trains arrived and departed daily, serving distant places such as Chicago and St. Louis on "Pennsy" rails, and beyond on connecting railroads to Miami, Florida, and the west. In addition to the Long Island Railroad, 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.^[10] 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 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.^[8]. The New York Times editorialized:

"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."^[11]

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, Missouri. There is also a caryatid at the sculpture garden at the Brooklyn Museum, and all of the Penn Station eagles still exist.

Charles McKim may have doomed his own structure by not allowing Alexander Cassatt to include multi-story office buildings as part of the Penn Station complex. By the 1960s, the air rights of Penn Station were too valuable to be left idle. If there had been office space, the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was losing money at the time, would have had one less incentive to tear down the beautiful building. McKim opposed high rises because he considered them anti-urban.

Ottawa's Union Station, built a year after Penn Station (in 1912), is another replica of the Baths of Caracalla. 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.

Views of the original structure

The concourse and steps down to the tracks

The Corinthian columns of the Main Waiting Room

The concourse in 1962

The East (7th Ave.) exterior facade

Demolition

1968 advertisement showing architect's model of the final plan for the Madison Square Garden Center complex, which replaced the original Pennsylvania Station.

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), the above-ground components of this structure (the platforms are below street level) were demolished in 1964. Although the demolition did not disrupt the essential day-to-day operations, it made way for present-day Madison Square Garden, along with two office towers.

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 citizens of New York City were unwilling to shoulder the costs of maintaining and cleaning their beloved station. 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". An easy-to-maintain "modern" slab was precisely what the "city that never sleeps" was after.^[1] 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.^[2]

Four eagles salvaged from the station reside on the Market Street Bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania across from that city's 30th Street Station. Another is located at the Long Island Rail Road station in Hicksville, New York. 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 Zoo 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 Terminal 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. A similar debate and demolition took place in London, England, where the Victorian architectural masterpiece Euston Station was destroyed in 1962. It was replaced by an unsympathetic glass and steel structure. This loss galvanized activism in Great Britain that produced strict building preservation laws. St. Pancras station, possibly the finest gothic revival building in the UK, was thus saved when threatened with demolition in the mid-1960's.

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.^[3]

Future

Penn Station's underground Long Island Rail Road concourse

The current Pennsylvania Station, which can be compared to a low-ceilinged catacomb with some large rooms and several hallways, is often criticized for its lack of charm ^{[citation needed]}, especially compared to the larger yet less used Grand Central Terminal. That image persists although owner Amtrak and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority renovated the station in the 1990s to improve the look of the waiting/concession areas, sharpen the station information systems (audio and visual) and remove much of the grime. New Jersey Transit also worked to improve its sections. The 34th Street Long Island Rail Road entrance now features an old four-sided clock from the original depot. The walkway from its escalator has a mural with elements alluding to the old Penn Station's architecture.

Hope for a grander railroad terminal lies one block west. Across Eighth Avenue from Penn Station sits New York's General Post Office, the James Farley Post Office. Under pressure from the late 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,(which is a NY State and National Landmark) is to be named Moynihan Station West, in honor of the late Senator.^[4].

Initial design proposals were laid out by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill. In a series of events reminiscent of many large complicated projects, the project schedule has 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 Place 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 local commuter passengers. Signs of construction appeared in November 2005, with plywood barriers installed on the sidewalks and orange nets covering main facade on 8th Avenue^[5].

Northeast Corridor
Legend Boston South Station Boston Back Bay Route 128 Providence Springfield Hartford New Haven Stamford New York City Newark Metropark Princeton Junction Trenton Philadephia Wilmington Baltimore BWI Airport Washington DC

Amtrak, however, has pulled out. New Jersey Transit is to be the Moynihan Station's anchor tenant. NJ Transit has been negotiating a 99-year lease on the Farley Post Office ^[6][7]. In the meantime, Cablevision, owner of Madison Square Garden, is considering relocation of the Garden to the west flank of the Farley Building. Such a project could lead to Vornado Realty Trust building an office complex on the current Garden site. ^[8].

News reports are vague as to where the proposed new Madison Square Garden would be located and what will be done to the Farley building, other than preserve the facade. Facade preservation has started. Scaffolding is up and the Empire State Development Corporation is looking for advertisers for that scaffolding.^[9]. The project has been in limbo, pending approval by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver. He has cited the need for greater integration of the project with the larger Midtown renovation plan proposed by developers and Cablevision.^[10][11]

Silver and New York Governor Eliot Spitzer seem to favor the Madison Square Garden owners' proposal, which suggests a westward move of Madison Square Garden. This would provide "daylight" to Penn Station. It would enable the current Penn Station site to be redeveloped.

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 [1]. 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. [2].

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Pennsylvania Station

• Grand Central Terminal
• Hoboken Terminal
• James Farley Post Office
• Pennsylvania Railroad
• Pennsylvania Station (Newark)
• Pennsylvania Tunnel and Terminal Railroad
• Transportation in New York City

External links

• Newpennstation.org
• Amtrak - Stations - Pennsylvania Station

• Ridership figures, FY 2004
• Ridership figures, FY 2005
• Ridership figures, FY 2006

• Photos and commentary documenting the demolition, by Norman McGrath
• Pennsylvania Station immortalized by Hollywood
• Plans for the future Penn Station
• Newer plans for the future Penn Station
• Remnants of the old Penn Station
• American Society of Civil Engineers paper 1157: The New York tunnel extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad describes the construction of the tunnel to Penn Station.

• Maps and aerial photos for 40°′″N 73°′″W / 40.75098, -73.99430Coordinates: 40°′″N 73°′″W / 40.75098, -73.99430
  • Maps from WikiMapia, Google Maps, Live Search Maps, Yahoo! Maps, or MapQuest
  • Topographic maps from TopoZone or TerraServer-USA
  • Hybrid satellite image/street map from WikiMapia

References

Sources

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