![]() ![]() When work on the New York Pennsylvania Station was at its peak in 1908, it was considered a masterpiece that the city would look up to and talk about. ( Cervin Robinson) Description of the Penn Station Finally, after all the efforts were put in, work on the enormous Pennsylvania Station was officially finished in August 1910 with all underground tunnels in place. Lands were purchased and work on one of the biggest railway stations began with excavations and construction starting in full swing.Īlthough the tunnel project began facing initial hiccups, with many laborers dying, working in extreme conditions and some physical damage to the tunnel, construction on the station building went on without halts. PRR also proposed for a post office to be constructed across the railway station, which the US government considered with a positive outcome. Working closely with Charles McKim of the McKim, Mead and White firm, Cassatt planned a huge building that would house three floors, have twenty-five tracks for trains and would measure a whopping 1,500 feet in length and 500 feet in width. ( Library of Congress)Īlexander Cassatt, who found inspiration in the Gare d’Orsay station on his visit to the French capital of Paris, wanted his New York Penn Station to be even bigger than the Beaux-Arts styled Parisian building. Photo of the waiting room from another angle. ![]() The Pennsylvania Railroad bounded the Seventh and Eighth Avenues completely and its facades were built in a way that it patterned after the grand Caracalla baths and temples of ancient Roman civilization. It followed the Roman and Greek Doric style of architecture and the entire length of the building was approximately 788 feet, which allowed for sidewalks on both sides of the street. It covered the 31st and 33rd streets of Manhattan and was constructed in less than six years time. Designed by McKim, Mead and White, one of the highest-flying architectural firms in the US during that time, the Pennsylvania Station was built on a sprawling eight-acre piece of land and covered more territory than any other building ever constructed in the world then. Finally, in the year 1904, work on the new railroad expansion project took form and the railway terminal, which would go on to become a feat of engineering started taking shape. It was only in the year 1903 when the then PRR president Alexander Johnston Cassatt finalized the construction of the Parisian-style electric engine railroad approach to expand the railway network that a green signal was given to the project. The PRR then looked to build a railway tunnel under the river instead, but the stringent laws of the state of New York did not allow steam engines to ply in enclosed spaces for fear of pollution and so the idea did not materialize sooner. ![]() But since the project had to be a joint venture between the railroad networks of the states of New York and New Jersey (since it connected both), the latter did not consider the option seriously. So PRR decided to construct a railway bridge across the river to ease the commute. History of Penn StationĮarlier until the twentieth century, the railway network of Pennsylvania Railroad, also known as PRR, ended on the western side of the Hudson River and commuters who had to travel further over to Manhattan had to take ferries to cross the Hudson. But when Pennsylvania Station in New York City in the United States of America was built between the years 19, it was not just a beautiful monument but it became a moment in history for everyone to hold on to. Soon enough each developed nation (of those times) tried to outdo the other by building railway terminals that would be better than the others. Almost every nation followed suit and the world was connected with railroad networks in no time. When the world first got to know that there would be vehicles that would carry a thousand commuters together at one time and that these vehicles would run on tracks instead of roads, it went into a tizzy. ![]()
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