The original NYC Penn Station in a great photo sequence.
What a shame. But then, maybe Penn Station had to die for Grand Central Terminal to live. Sometimes the only thing that wakes people up is a 2x4 to the back of the head.
The eagle shown being lowered to the ground at the start of the demolition, where is it now?
The destruction of Penn Station woke up the preservation movement and begat the National Register of Historic Places, as well as equivalent state registers.
I would suppose that before that demolition, most people couldn't dream that such an edifice would be destroyed, or simply didn't care.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
matthewsaggie The eagle shown being lowered to the ground at the start of the demolition, where is it now?
PS: Don't let the name "Meadows" fool you, it's really a huge swamp!
16 of the 22 eagles are known to survive - see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Station_(1910%E2%80%931963)#Surviving_elements
http://untappedcities.com/2013/06/27/daily-what-where-are-22-eagles-original-penn-station/
The other 6 may be in the Meadowlands (along with Jimmy Hoffa ).
From the New York Times in Feb. 2012, at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/arts/design/a-proposal-for-penn-station-and-madison-square-garden.html
“One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat,” is the familiar lament from Vincent J. Scully Jr., the Yale architectural historian, about the difference between the former and present Penn Stations.
- Paul North.
wanswheelIt’s more than a mourned station. It’s the reason there’s a northeast corridor.
Yes, but...
The actually important parts of Penn Station in that respect clearly survived the Madison Square Garden 'conversion' and in fact survive today. The actual part of Penn Station that concerned getting on and off the actual reason for its existence pretty well sucked in 1910, and still sucks today -- lame narrow stairs and narrow little platforms. You always scuttled like a rat in the first and last few hundred feet of getting off or on a train, even if the view up above was grand.
While we certainly mourn the loss of a significant landmark building, we shouldn't extend that to claim that the building had anything to do with operation of the railroad itself. It was a celebration of PRR's coming to New York, a big sock in the eye to what NYC was doing over on 42nd St... but nothing more than a jewel in a setting, over the practical business of running trains.
Paul_D_North_Jr http://untappedcities.com/2013/06/27/daily-what-where-are-22-eagles-original-penn-station/
they make you go all the way to page 5, and don't give a great photo, but I've always been fond of the 4 on Philadelphia's Market St bridge over the Schuylkill right next to 30th St station.
http://untappedcities.com/2013/06/27/daily-what-where-are-22-eagles-original-penn-station/5/
Patrick Boylan
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Great photos. Thanks for sharing
ChuckCobleigh The original NYC Penn Station in a great photo sequence.
Great photos. Thanks for sharing.
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