GREAT RAILWAY STATION.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14343, 1 May 1912, Page 7

GREAT RAILWAY STATION.

A NEW YORK FEAT.

(feom orn own corhespondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, April 3. New York has scarcely pot over boastins about the Pennsylvania Railroad Company's vast station, covering 25 acres of land, but the city will soon have something even more comforting to its pride in big things. The Grand Central Station, now. in course of erection, will unquestionably be the largest railway terminal in tlio world. Moreover, it will occuny one of the most expensive sites obtainable,, standing in the most central portion of New York City, namely, at 42nd street, near Broadway and Fifth Avenue. The total area which this gigantic structure will cover is 72 acres. Within the station will be 32 miles of tracks. There mc two track levels, one above the other, express trains using the upper and suburban trains the lower. -it is from the Grand Central Station that a very largo proportion of New York's daily suburban traffic is handled, two ekctric companies usin£ it as a city terminal. Two hundred trains an hour, able to handle 70,000 passengers, will be operated. Tho yearly capacity of the station is computed to be "100,000,000 passengersOver a portion of the station will Tie erected a twenty-throe storey hotel, able to accommodate 1200 guests. For oijrht yoars the construction of the Grand* Central station has been in progress, and yet the task has been carried on without the elishtcst interruption of traffic. As each new Bet # of tracks was completed, a corresponding number of old tracks was torn up. This required constant shifting of trains from ono set of tracks to another, temporary tracks being used at times for only one day. In removing the old tra:n shed thousands of tons of iron and glass w<ere taken away while passengers wero walking beneath, hut no accident was reported through the dropping of debris. There are some novel features about the Grand Contra) Station.' What is known as the "kissins gallery" is a balcouy .built into the incoming section of the station where passengers may be welcomed by their waiting friends. Pro-perly-equipped dressing-rooms, whore suburbanites coming into the city for the evenine may change their clothes are provided for both sexes. Stairs are almost entirely eliminated: Ramps, or inclined walks, lead wherever. »Un or down, a person want* to p;o. Careful expprinKrnts were conducted to find out tho best angles at which -to-build the , ramps, testimony bo : ng eive-n by fat men onrryin.tr bundles, tall women in ] ticrht skirts, and oven by children. It wns ascertained that a riso of 8 feet in \ 100 was about as steep an incline as the j experimenters wanted to climb, but most of the ramps present an easier grade than that. i