
The Untold Secrets of Grand Central Terminal - ayanai
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-23/the-untold-secrets-of-grand-central-terminal
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scott_s
The room behind the clock made me think of the movie Hugo. See, for example
[http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/pp273/monochorme/monochro...](http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/pp273/monochorme/monochrome/MBandF/Huge-
movie-20.jpg). I wonder if that was deliberate on Scorsese's part, or if it's
just convergent evolution. (Large train terminals will tend to have large
clocks, and clocks that size will inevitably have _some_ room behind them. And
hidden rooms are always cool.)

And there's _tennis courts_ in Grand Central?! I'm more surprised by the fact
that there are operating tennis courts than I am by them being used for skiing
in the past.

Grand Central is magnificent. I try not to take it for granted when I go into
the city.

~~~
ascagnel_
It's kind of sad that Grand Central is such a beautiful building, while Penn
Station has been relegated to a literal basement, with a sometimes-dangerous
track layout that dates to the early 1900s.

~~~
greglindahl
Penn Station (both Amtrak and LIRR) is moving across the street to the Post
Office building. It looks like it's going to be pretty beautiful when they're
done:

[https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/nyregion/penn-station-
new...](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/28/nyregion/penn-station-new-york-
andrew-cuomo.html)

~~~
ascagnel_
Sadly, while the building may be nice, the original track layout will remain
(although I'm not sure it's feasible at this point to rework it). Some tracks,
especially 5-8, seem to have fewer exits and it can take five or more minutes
to get off of the platform during busy times.

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jtcond13
My favorite Grand Central easter egg is the 'Whispering Arch' by the Oyster
Bar. Standing in one corner, you can speak into the wall and be heard by
someone standing in the opposite corner.

[http://www.sonicwonders.org/whispering-walls-grand-
central-s...](http://www.sonicwonders.org/whispering-walls-grand-central-
station/)

~~~
Rickasaurus
I remember standing there and wondering why people kept coming up and pressing
their faces against the wall.

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rodionos
[http://www.grandcentralterminal.com/info/eventplanning](http://www.grandcentralterminal.com/info/eventplanning)

    
    
      > 93% of Grand Central Terminal commuters are college graduates.
      > 21.6 million out-of-town tourists, with a mean income of $62,000
    

Where is this data coming from? Surveys?

~~~
saalweachter
The security system the article mentions uses facial recognition to identify
the people coming in and out.

~~~
rodionos
That's a good one :). Next time I'm there I'll try distorting their median
with a $50K face.

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PLenz
So here are some better and real secret of GCT.

1) The tunnel from the 456 to the Time Square Shuttle is the original tunnel
of the first subway line. It ran from City Hall on the 456 track along the
shuttle tunnel to what is now the north end of the 123. Walk that tunnel 100
years ago and you would standing on the tracks. 2) There is an abandoned level
between the 456 concourse and the 7 train tunnel that was used for the
original trolley line that was later replaced by the 7 train. 3) During the
60s there was a full size ICBM mockup hung in the great hall. 4) There is a
body buried in the walls of the station - a construction worker who fell into
pouring concrete a century ago and the body couldn't be recovered.

~~~
danielahn
Do you have a source on #4 by any chance?

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Animats
The usual overhyped secrets of Grand Central are 1) Roosevelt's private
siding, and 2) the "generator room".

The real story of the "generator room" is here.[1] There was a coal-fired
power generation plant with reciprocating steam engines far below the station
from 1902, and an even bigger plant in 1918, when electric locomotives went
into service. Exhaust came out a smokestack built into a corner of the
Commodore Hotel. Around 1930, Grand Central finally stopped generating its own
power and bought from Con Ed. But they still needed 600 VDC for traction power
and 250VDC for lighting, and some 25Hz power (the NYC subways distributed
power at 25Hz, then converted to DC at substations) so the old generating
station space was reused for rotary converters.

In the late 1980s, all that conversion gear finally went solid-state. But it
wasn't until the 1990s that Grand Central got a complete rewiring and
everything except 600VDC traction power was converted to ordinary 60Hz AC.

Some of the more dramatic videos about this claim this station powered most of
the Northeastern rail system. It never powered anything much beyond Grand
Central Station.

"Roosevelt's private railroad siding" was actually one of several work tracks
used to support all the moves of heavy equipment required over the years. It's
still there.

[1] [http://magazine.ieee-
pes.org/julyaugust-2014/history-14/](http://magazine.ieee-
pes.org/julyaugust-2014/history-14/)

~~~
PLenz
And the vaunted 'secret car' on that track is not Roosevelt's car - it's the
old wreck crane support car from New York Central days. It's used to store
track work equipment now.

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wtbob
Very cool article, but the images are extremely low-resolution and blurry if
one has JavaScript disabled. Folks, please don't do this: HTML has an image
tag for a reason.

~~~
na85
But how could they track you to sell you discount pharmaceutical products
without JavaScript?

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a3n
Not a new terminal emulator. Damn.

