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REAL ESTATE
AND
NEW YORK, JULY 5, 1913
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THE GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL
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A Modem T5^e of Electric Railway Station and Train Yard—Opens I
a New Era in Transportation—A Marvel of the Intensive Use of Land.
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SOME ten years ago the railroads of
the country were in a decidedly
unpromising situation. Their roadbeds
and their rolling stock had been modern¬
ized with a view to increased speed and
augmented carrying capacity. But the
expansion of traffic contemplated by
these improvements could be only partly
realized. It was limited by the restric¬
tions imposed through existing termi¬
nal facilities. The longer, more numer¬
ous and faster trains provided in re¬
sponse to natural growth of traffic had
brought about, at the train yards of main
stations in all large cities, a degree of
congestion extremely wasteful to indus-
extended northward, partly through tun¬
nel, partly over elevated structure, for a
distance of si.x miles. The train move¬
ments, in 1903, averaged 856 a day. To
increase this number without recon¬
structing the terminal was impracticable.
The Terminal Problem.
The narrow train yard had, perforce,
been laid out with dead-end tracks, and
these could not be cleared rapidly
enough to utilize the full capacity of the
tunnel. Finally, there was a large pro¬
portion of waste circulation in the yard
and in the tunnel. Locomotives had to
be turned, while empty trains had to be
sent out to Mott Haven for storage,
The management of the New York
Central was, of course, aware that the
substitution of electricity for steam must
be the fundamental element of any plan
for reconstructing the Grand Central
Terminal on an adequate scale. Electric
traction, however, was still largely in
the experimental stage, and the manage¬
ment could hardly have gone beyond a
preliminary study of the subject, when,
in 1903, the New York Central was en¬
abled by the Legislature to do away
with steam locomotives.
Solved by Electricity.
This act made it possible to take up
at once the project of reconstructing
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THE GRAND CE.N'TRAL TERMINAL WITH ITS PROSPECTIVE SETTING OF REVE.NUE PRODUCl.NG BUILDINGS.
try and impossible of correction except
through radically novel, and conse¬
quently untried, devices. Under estab¬
lished railway practice, there was no
remedy save in the purchase of exten¬
sive areas of prohibitively costly city
real estate.
As it was presented in connection
with the Grand Central Station, the
question of terminal expansion was par¬
ticularly difficult. The station was used
in common by two great trunk line sys¬
tems, the New York Central and the
New York, New Haven and Hartford,
each of which served locally a fast
growing suburban district. It was in
the heart of the city, surrounded by ex¬
pensive private buildings, and was placed
at the end of a four-track stem which
only to be brought back still empty
when needed again for service.
With steam as motive power, an open-
air train yard was essential, because of
the smoke and gases generated by loco¬
motives. Buildings could not be erected
over the terminal area. There could be
no intensive utilization of the land which
it comprised. Public sentiment was
averse to permitting any further en-)
largement of the terminal surface so
long as steam locomotives were to be
used. Besides, the comparatively nar-
now margin of profits in the transpor¬
tation business precluded the purchase
of any considerable area of high-priced
city real estate, unless the acquired prop¬
erty could be made to help pay interest
on the investment.
the entire terminal, as the increase in op¬
erating capacity which might be obtained
through the use of eletcricity could not
be realized with the old train yard lay¬
out. The decision to rebuild having!
been arrived at, it was determined to
plan the work in a way that would take
care of the traffic expansion to be ex¬
pected during the space of at least one
generation.
The process of reconstruction was be¬
gun in 1903, with the widening of the
throat of the yard. The substitution of
electric power for steam was finished
within the terminal zone in 1906. The
main work of enlarging and rebuilding
the yard was taken up in 1907, and the
greater part of it had been completed
when, on February 2, 1913, the new