GREAT RAILWAY STATION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 115, 13 May 1912, Page 6

GREAT RAILWAY STATION.

A NEW 10RK FEAT. ENCLOSES' SEVENTY-TWO' ACRES. (Post Correspondent.) : SAN FRANCISCO, Apil 3. New I'ork has scarcely got over boasting about the Pennsylvania" Railroad. Company's vast station, covering TiwenLy-nv© acres of land; but the city will soon have something even more .coiniorting to its pride m big things v The Grand Central station, now in course of erection, will unquestionably bo the largest railway terminus v* the world. Morevover, it will occupy one of the most expensive sites obtainable, standing in the most central portion of. New York City—namely, at Forty-second Street, near Broadway and Fitth Avenue. The total area which this gigantic structure v/ill - cover is seventy-two acres. Within the station there will be thirty-two miles of tracks. There are two track levers, one above the other, express"1 trains using the upper and suburban trains the lower. It is from the Grand Central station thst a very large pipportion of New York's daily suburban traffic is handl■od, two electric companies using it as a city terminal. Two hundred/trains an hour, able to handle 70,000 passengers, wil.1 be operated. The yearly capacity of the station is computed to be 100,000,000 passengers. Over a portion of the station will.be erected a twenty-three storey hotel, able to accommodate 1200 guests. For eight years the. construction of the Grand Central station has been in progress, and yet the task has been carried on. without the slightest intei ruption of traffic. As each new set of tracks was completed a corresponding number of old tracks was torn up. This required constant shifting of trains from one set of blacks to another, temporary tracks being used at times for only one day. In.'removing the old tram shed thousands of tons of iron and glass were taken away while passengers were walking beneath, but no accident was reported through the dropping of debris.. There are some novel features about the Grand Central station. What is known as/the "kissing gallery", is a balcoy built into '; the incoming section of the station where passengers may be 'welcomed by their waiting

friends. Properly equipped dressing rooms, where suburbanites coming, into the city for the evening may change their clothes, are provided for both sexes. Stairs are almost entirely eliminated^ Ramps, or inclin-ed-walks, lead wherever, up or down, a person w,auts to go. Careful experiments were conducted to find out thp best angles afc which to build tho ramps, tcstinionjr being given by fat men carrying bundles, tall women in tight skirts, and even by children. Tt was ascertained that a rise of Bft id. 100 ft was about as steep an incline as the experimenters wanted to climb, by.& most of the ramps present an easier grade than that.

The station has two waiting rooms, one for suburbanites and the other for passengers travelling longer distances. The main waiting room is 200 ft long, 80ft wide, and'soft high.