(rshsdepot) Grand Central's secret stariways

[Jim Dent <jdent1_@_optonline.net>]

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-nor.rrties1jan09,0,1965159.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines
Grand Central's secret stariways
By Mark Ginocchio
Staff Writer

January 9, 2007

NEW YORK -- Each day at Grand Central Terminal, commuters scale dozens 
of steps as they head to train and subway platforms, and the dining 
concourse on the lower level.

But the view of most visitors are a number of staircases that lead to 
expensive artifacts, secret train platforms and what is presumed to be 
the biggest basement in New York City.

They are as much a part of the history of Grand Central as the celestial 
ceiling, the gold clock atop the information booth in the main concourse 
and the statues of Hercules, Mercury and Minerva at the entrance.

One of the staircases cuts through the bedrock of New York City, 109 
feet, or 10 stories, below the lower level of the terminal.

The gray rusted steel steps and the jagged granite walls that have been 
blotched yellow and red with age lead to M-42, a secret basement that 
occupies 88,000 square feet underneath New York - the entire width and 
length of Grand Central.

Today, M-42 contains generators that produce traction power for 
Metro-North Railroad trains.

During World War II, M-42 may have been one of the most well-guarded 
basements in the United States. The room contained generators that 
powered the entire terminal and all of the city's trains, said Dan 
Brucker, a Metro-North spokesman and Grand Central historian.

M-42 was a well-known target of Adolf Hitler, so armed sentries 
patrolled the basement around the clock.

During the war, it was rumored that German intruders would try to 
destroy the generators by pouring buckets of sand into the turbines, 
Brucker said. If power were lost, it would have been a catastrophe.

"Anyone who came down that staircase would be arrested on site," Brucker 
said. "If anyone ever saw you with a bucket of sand, you would be shot 
on sight."

It is no longer the impenetrable fortress of the World War II era, but 
M-42 is still closed to the public. However, employees use the staircase 
to get to the basement, because the 100-year-old elevator is often out 
of service, Brucker said.

One staircase employees rarely use leads to the peak of Grand Central - 
the clock tower that houses the world's largest sample of Tiffany glass.

In the terminal's Operations Control Center, also closed to the public, 
a blue metal door is blocked by a copy machine. The copy machine can be 
moved and the door opened to reveal a small entry blocked in part by a 
concrete X. Duck beneath the X and there is the first of a series of 
thin ladders that lead to the stained-glass Tiffany clock.

Each ladder leads to a small rectangular opening and a concrete landing, 
though one has to duck beneath hot pipes to get from one to the next.

At the top, you can see the inner workings of the clock - gears covered 
with thick black grease. The gears are treated every day and the time is 
set by satellite to an atomic clock in Bethesda, Md., Brucker said.

Dust bunnies are scattered on the floor next to the gears, along with a 
few oil cans used for greasing. The clock has a heavy, stained-glass 
plate with Roman numeral VI that can be opened, revealing 42nd Street below.

It is the highest point a person can reach inside Grand Central.

Not every hidden staircase is so dramatic. One gets little notice from 
hundreds of thousands of commuters who pass by.

Inside the glass-encased information booth in the main concourse, 
customer service employees use a secret exit to get to Grand Central's 
lower level.

At the center of the information booth is a thick gold pillar with a 
sliding door. Opening the door reveals piles of boxes with old 
schedules, brochures and other papers, making the pillar appear like a 
storage room.

But inside, a narrow spiral staircase leads three stories below the main 
concourse. Halfway down is a landing that information booth employees 
use for lunch breaks.

At the bottom is a small window where Kye Martin, a customer service 
representative, answers questions for commuters in the lower level.

The only way for Martin to get to her post is to enter the information 
booth in the main concourse, open the sliding door and circle down.

"I'm up and down quite a bit," Martin said. "It's good exercise."

The lower-level booth isn't as busy as the one on the main concourse, 
which usually has at least three customer service representatives.

"The main concourse carries the big business," Martin said. "It really 
only picks up down here during the business rush hour."

Copyright © 2007, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.


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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1477
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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org