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New York's Grand Central Terminal nearing completion sometime around 1913. 8x10 glass negative, George Grantham Bain Collection. View full size.
The facility is the end of the rail line; hence the name Grand Central Terminal. Pennsylvania Station is named as such since it provides for through rail traffic.
Two different streetcar companies shared the track on 42nd Street between Madison and Park Avenues (where this photo was taken), they each had their own conduit rail to power only their own cars.
Source: "Manhattan's Lost Streetcars"; Images of Rail (2005); page 31
There appear to be two buried "third rails" on the streetcar track (contacted by a plow), and on one of the two tracks, the third rails cross and trade places. Maybe some New York trolley fan could explain this strange arrangement.
Actually there is also a Grand Central Station that has nothing to do with the Post Office - it's a former IRT transfer point that also serves the Terminal building.
I suspect that while the use of the term Grand Central Station was common in New York for a long time, it really became common usage because of the radio program of the 1930s or '40s by that name.
Grand Central Station is a POST OFFICE! This is Grand Central TERMINAL! It sez so on the building itself right below the clock, IIRC.
[cc: G.G.B. - Dave]
Here's how that entrance looks today.
Shorpy is a wonderful site--I read it every day. Keep up the great work!
Jeeze, it is incredible to see it as it was!
So many new buildings now clutter and overshadow that scene.
I wish we could get a current pic at that same angle, and compare our "progress".
I walked through that exact entrance countless times when I was in my 20s (in the 80s). It's wild to see it as it was in 1913 and to contemplate the untold millions who preceded me and those who have come after me.
The building looks like it will tumble to the right and at the same time to the front. Very strange!
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