(rshsdepot) Grand Central Terminal (New York, NY)

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From the Hartford Courant.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
 
A Grand Place
Historic Rail Hub Holds Tales Of Hitler, Avenging Widow
By JESSE LEAVENWORTH 
Courant Staff Writer 
March 3, 2008 
 
 
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Ten stories below the marble floors of _Grand  Central Terminal_ 
(http://www.courant.com/topic/travel/transportation/railway-transportation/grand-central-te
rminal-PLTRA0000120.topic) , a stairwell door opens to a rock wall lined with 
the drill  marks that gouged this great hole in midtown _Manhattan_ 
(http://www.courant.com/topic/us/new-york-state/new-york/manhattan-PLGEO100100804010000.
topic)   almost a century ago.

Five stories above the rail hub's main concourse,  light washes through a 
quartz-floored catwalk that skirts the arched windows  along the huge half-barrel 
ceiling.

These views of Grand Central's far  corners and seldom-visited vantage points 
came courtesy of an infrequently  offered tour last week. The sights also 
included an acoustic marvel on a ramp to  the lower concourse and New York City's 
deepest basement. Stories told along the  way included one involving _Adolf  
Hitler_ 
(http://www.courant.com/topic/unrest-conflicts-war/adolf-hitler-PECLB002403.topic)  and another about a little old lady who gained revenge for an 
unhappy  marriage.

The tour guide was Metro North Railroad spokesman Dan Brucker,  an animated 
man who raised his voice and bent at the waist to stress particular  points. 
Brucker began by saying he would reveal some secrets, including the  existence 
of a train station within the terminal that is "still SO SECRET"  (Brucker bent 
and shouted these last words at the floor in his thick _New  York_ 
(http://www.courant.com/topic/us/new-york-state-PLGEO100100800000000.topic)  accent) 
that employees reject any inquiries from the public and refer  to the station by 
code name.

Speaking to a group that included British  college students, Brucker threw 
out some fast facts as the tour began at the  central information booth in the 
main concourse:

Construction of Grand Central, then owned by the Vanderbilt family, was  
completed in 1913. The main concourse is 88,000 square feet, while the entire  
terminal covers 49 acres.

Every day, 700,000 people pass through the terminal. Those include train  
passengers, patrons of the many restaurants, and people who come just to shop at  
the terminal's stores.

Operated by Metro North, the terminal has 45 train platforms, 42 of which  
are in use. Train lines serve _Connecticut_ 
(http://www.courant.com/topic/us/connecticut/new-haven-county-PLGEO100100205000000.topic)   commuters in 
_Fairfield_ 
(http://www.courant.com/topic/us/connecticut/fairfield-county/fairfield-(fairfield-connecticut)-PLGEO100100201070000.topic)   and _New  Haven_ 
(http://www.courant.com/topic/us/connecticut/new-haven-county/new-haven-(new-haven-connec
ticut)-PLGEO100100205150000.topic)  counties. During rush hours, a train 
arrives at the terminal about  every 58 seconds.

From the realm of widely known statistics and facts,  the tour descended 109 
feet below the floor of the lower concourse. The elevator  door opened on a 
cavernous room housing a power substation. Now lined with  modern electrical 
equipment, the room also held relics of the original power  plant — 15-foot-high 
rotary converters made by _General  Electric Co._ 
(http://www.courant.com/topic/economy-business-finance/general-electric-company-ORCRP006396.topic)  For 
about 80 years, these huge machines spun with deafening  noise and smothering 
heat to convert alternating current to direct current and  shoot that juice to 
the third rails that powered the trains.

Although the  power station was not on any diagrams, Hitler knew the 
location, probably from  someone who had worked at the terminal, Brucker said. Seeking 
to disrupt massive  troop and material transports during World War II, Hitler 
sent saboteurs by  submarine to the U.S. coast in 1942. The German operatives 
were to make their  way to Grand Central and disable the power station. They 
were caught before they  could do any damage, and a subsequent attempt also 
failed, Brucker  said.

Brucker did not take the tour to another place in the bowels of the  
terminal. Although Metro North employees won't talk about it, the train station  built 
for _President  Franklin Delano Roosevelt_ 
(http://www.courant.com/topic/politics/franklin-delano-roosevelt-PEPLT005656.topic)  is not really a secret. The 
New York Post, for  example, reported in 2003 that a train was kept ready at 
the station under the  Waldorf- _Astoria_ 
(http://www.courant.com/topic/us/new-york-state/queens-county-PLGEO100100805000000.topic)   Hotel so that 
_President  George W. Bush_ 
(http://www.courant.com/topic/politics/government/executive-branch/george-bush-PEPLT000857.topic) , who was staying at the hotel, could 
escape quickly if  terrorists attacked. Brucker did not dispute the Post's 
account.

Still  parked at this mini-station is a rail car designed to carry 
automobiles. This  car, however, is armored and has wheels designed to provide extra 
cushioning.  Although the origins and purpose of the rail car are still disputed, 
Brucker  said Metro North officials believe it was the car that carried 
Roosevelt's  Pierce-Arrow limousine.

The president rode inside the automobile in the  rail car when he visited the 
city. The armor and the over-built wheel carriages  — meant to minimize 
lateral movement and keep the handicapped president steady  on the train ride — 
point to the probability that the car was made for FDR,  Brucker said.

Asked about stories of homeless people living in the  terminal's many tunnels 
and recesses, Brucker said there were some so-called  "mole people," but the 
stories were greatly exaggerated. He said gates and  lights have been added to 
keep people out of restricted areas.

The much  greater problem was with the homeless who occupied the terminal's 
main waiting  room and other public areas, Brucker said. As the nation focused 
on airlines and  highways after World War II, passenger train service 
declined, and stations fell  into disrepair.

Increasingly, Grand Central became a great flophouse.  During bad weather, 
Brucker said, as many as 700 homeless people took shelter  inside the terminal. 
A call to demolish the place in the 1960s was halted with  the help of former 
first lady _Jacqueline  Kennedy Onassis_ 
(http://www.courant.com/topic/entertainment/jacqueline-kennedy-onassis-PECLB003345.topic) , who is honored with a 
plaque in the terminal's Vanderbilt  Hall.

The terminal's great transformation began in the 1990s, when it was  cleaned 
and renovated, and many shops and restaurants were added. The total  cost, 
Brucker said, was about $250 million. Cleaning the ceiling of the main  concourse 
— which bears a massive painting of the constellations — was a major  task. 
Tests revealed that the black gunk smeared across the entire ceiling was  from 
tobacco smoke. A small black rectangle remains on the ceiling as testament  
to the transformation.

Another fact about the main concourse ceiling —  it's not right. The artist 
painted a mirror image of the constellations instead  of the view from Earth. 
The Vanderbilt family reportedly diverted attention from  the mistake by saying 
the view was actually from heaven looking  down.

Lower down in the terminal, at a walkway intersection near the  Oyster Bar, 
two people can stand 30 feet apart in diagonally opposite corners,  whisper 
into the corners and hear each other clearly. The arched ceiling,  special tiles 
and lack of vents and carpeting in the "Whispering Gallery"  enables sound 
waves to travel uninhibited, Brucker said.

"We don't know  if it was designed on purpose or by accident," he said.

One of the last  stops on the tour was the lost-and-found section, which 
houses yards of shelving  stuffed with umbrellas, full shopping bags, cellphones, 
laptop computers,  backpacks, toys, coats, gloves and scarves. Metro North 
returns about 80 percent  of the 1,600 items people leave behind each month, 
Brucker said. After 90 days,  items of lower value, such as umbrellas and gloves, 
are taken to a salvage  store, which pays the railroad about $30,000 a year.

The best  lost-and-found story happened more than 10 years ago, Brucker said, 
when a  little old lady asked for a vase she had left on the train. She knew 
precisely  which train and even the number of the car she was on, Brucker 
said. She got her  vase and left but returned a few minutes later to ask the 
lost-and-found workers  if they'd like to hear her story. Of course they would.

She told of a  long, unhappy marriage to an unfaithful man.

"He would claim that he fell  asleep on the train, wound up in the train yard 
and had to spend the night  there, when she knew damn well he was spending 
the night someplace else,"  Brucker said.

So when he died, Brucker continued, the cheater's wife had  him cremated, had 
the ashes put in a vase and — saying to herself, "if you like  to stay on the 
damn train so much..." — left the vase in a rail car, returning  for it after 
three weeks.

"So who had the last laugh on that?" Brucker  said.

Contact Jesse Leavenworth at  leavenworth_@_courant.com.

 
 



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