www.forgotten-ny.com

"Most people who have commuted into New York City from New Jersey or Long Island, or perhaps taken the train from other parts of the country like Washington, Boston, or Chicago in the past 35 years, have thought of Penn Station as the basement under the Felt Forum on 33rd Street. A large basement, with shops, newsstands and ticket booths, but still a basement.

Between 1910 and 1964, though, a great monument to travel existed on this site. The largest building ever erected for rail travel, Pennsylvania Station, commissioned by Pennsylvania Railroad President Alexander Cassatt and built by architectural firm McKim, Mead and White, stood between 31st and 33rd Streets and 7th and 8th Avenues -- over eight acres. It was truly a temple of transportation.

With the 277-foot long waiting room designed to resemble the Roman Baths of Caracalla and the Basilica of Constantine, the grand edifice used 500,000 cubic feet of granite; was supported on 650 steel columns; required the digging of tunnels over 6600 feet long under the Hudson River; required the demolition of over 500 buildings and the removal of over 3,000,000 cubic yards of soil and bedrock. Pennsylvania Station had a 150-foot ceiling."

Pennsylvania Station sat on two city blocks, stretching from 33rd to 31st Streets. Half a mile of pink granite, quaried in Milford, Mass., was used to build McKim's monumental gateway. A Roman Doric colonnade ran along its Seventh Avenue entrance, surmounted by a low attic. Twenty-two eagles, fashioned by sculptor Adolph Weinman, perched over the station's four entrances, alongside sets of maidens who were draped over huge clocks.

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/6217/oldpennext13lo.jpg


Pennsylvania Railroad President Alexander Cassatt wanted to give travelers arriving in New York City a preparation before they walked outside. The arcade was a metal-faced boulevard of shops, modeled after the arcades in Milan and Naples. It led to the station's main entrance, a Doric columned vestibule

http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/9454/oldpennarcade1bf.jpg


Modeled after the Roman Baths of Caracalla and comparable in size to the nave of St.-Peters in the Vatican, this elegant room was made of travertine marble, a honey-colored stone imported from Tivoli, Italy, that grew lustrous with the human touch. Standing on its pink marble floors, one looked up 150 feet to a coffered, vaulted ceiling.

http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/9780/oldpenn6xd.jpg


http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/593/oldpenn11fn.jpg


http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/2749/oldpennairy3gx.jpg


http://img226.imageshack.us/img226/6629/oldpennmain3dm.jpg


Flanking the Seventh Avenue entrance to Penn Station, two carriageways, modeled after the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, brought passengers to the Main Waiting Room. A passenger taking a Pennsylvania train would ask to be taken the the "Penn side," while passengers who wanted the Long Island Railroad would request the "Long Island side."

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/830/oldpenncarriage0ga.jpg


Architect Charles McKim had the great train sheds of Europe in mind when he designed this metal-and-glass birdcage of a room. Light filtered down from its barrel vaulted ceiling, through glass-and-cement floors to the train tracks below street level.

http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/7360/oldpenn29wx.jpg


http://img235.imageshack.us/img235/8162/oldpenn35ar.jpg


http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/9947/oldpenntracks1gh.jpg


"Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves. Even when we had Penn Station, we couldn’t afford to keep it clean. We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tinhorn culture. And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed."
- "Farewell to Penn Station," New York Times editorial, October 30, 1963

http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/53/destruction25ps.jpg


http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/9651/destruction15df.jpg


http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/93/destruction33si.jpg

9/10 ;)

Wow!! Simply stunning! This building was absolutely incredible! It really saddens (and infuriates) me though that it was destroyed! I can't BELIEVE people can be SO stupid so as to delete something so remarkable! That could have been the world's greatest station by now, and one of America's most celebrated structures! :(

10/10

I guess if you are trying to find a silver lining in the cloud that is the destruction of the original penn station, it's that it jumpstarted the NYC Landmark's Commission. This quote best represents the feeling most of us get when we arrive in NYC from Jersey:


"We used to come into New York like Gods when we came into Penn Station. Now we come into the new Penn Station like rats."

- Vincent Sailey

the poll is wrong

you would have to do it again ;)

10
9.5
9
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8
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4
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3

9/10

9/10

9/10

10/10

9/10

Amazing! 10/10
It should be a crime to destroy such buildings.

What was built on it's place? Pictures?

10/10, amazing station!

^ As far as I know that's where the Madison Square Garden is today

10/10. Nothing less. A great landmark of the greatest city in the world. NYC rocks.

"We used to come into New York like Gods when we came into Penn Station. Now we come into the new Penn Station like rats."

- Vincent Sailey

Yeah, we certainly *eat* like rats in that station, too. Plenty of crappy food down there to go with the architecture...layout grand as a sewer system.

One of the greates travesties ever inflicted on the city....

8/10

9/10
beautiful

10/10 Robert Moses was behind this he didnt want people using the train and wanted them to use cars so he got this knonked down.

10/10 :)

What a grand structure. The guy responsible for its demise should be hung. 10/10

9/10.

One of the world's best train stations. Had no idea New York City had a stunning grand railway station there before the one that exists now.

As an US-American, I would surely miss this grand building! :)
What a pity it was torn down... One more proof how stupid humans actually can be!

9/10.

9/10

9/10

It's destruction was a crime against architecture.

9/10

Very Sad that this was destroyed - London made a similar mistake when Euston Station was destroyed in the 1960's.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/sts/cain/projects/euston_grove/art/euston_arch_1896.gif

On a brighter note, the magnificent refurbished St Pancras reopens in 2 Weeks time.

Amazing! 10/10
It should be a crime to destroy such buildings.

What was built on it's place? Pictures?

I'd like to think no one has ever taken pictures of the monstrosity that shouldn't even bear the name Pennsylvania Station, but I'm sure someone can post some for you.

9/10

I'd like to think no one has ever taken pictures of the monstrosity that shouldn't even bear the name Pennsylvania Station, but I'm sure someone can post some for you.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/119/294376416_3eeb201db7_o.jpg

8/10

This should be in the Indutrial age part :yes:. However, not a bad building for that age.

8/10

11/10 icon!

8/10

Does this belong to modern architecture?

Deja vu?

I've seen this thread in other part of the subforum...:wtf:

9/10

9. Very good. Regards.

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8/10