Hotel New Yorker tunnel to Penn Station

[ORNHOO]

I wonder how many other hotels, etc., had private access tunnels like this:

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170417-a-secret-tunnel-to-new-yorks-best-view

[mudchicken]

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170417-a-secret-tunnel-to-new-yorks-best-view

I would imagine there are more than a few (Waldorf Astoria and Macy's come to mind)...My old hometown of Cincinnati had connections to the subway that never was and Chicago's merchants railway come to mind as well.

[DSchmitt]

Chicago Tunnel Company.  2 ft gauge freight hauler. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Tunnel_Company

 

[DSchmitt]

Duplicate post

 

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I'm not sure if it's quite the same but the Royal York has a direct connection under the street to Toronto Union Station.

[Deggesty]

CSSHEGEWISCH

I'm not sure if it's quite the same but the Royal York has a direct connection under the street to Toronto Union Station.

 

There was also one in Ottawa, between the Chateau Laurier Hotel and the station. These two are/were public, and there was no secret aboout them. My wife and I used the one in Toronto; when a bellhop took us back to the station, he took us right across the street--in the middle of the block (it wasn't raining). 

[wanswheel]

http://untappedcities.com/2016/06/22/video-rediscovering-the-new-yorker-hotels-underground-tunnel-to-penn-station/

[samfp1943]

mudchicken

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170417-a-secret-tunnel-to-new-yorks-best-view

I would imagine there are more than a few (Waldorf Astoria and Macy's come to mind)...My old hometown of Cincinnati had connections to the subway that never was and Chicago's merchants railway come to mind as well.

 

Not sure if they would count, but in the days when Large cities had multiple rail terminals; some cities had terminals that allowed the transfer of freight and baggage between those terminals via tunnel networks...I recall a trip that a number of us ( Marines, on leave, going home) were offered a move from one Atlanta station to another ( Boarding Frisco for points west). We went via those ubiquitous Railway Express carts, and bagage tug. The Conductor of the inbound train was wanting to make sure we boarded our connection and got out of town... He had given us a secure ride (locked the door!) in our own coach from Wilmington,N.C. I think,I remember we were in a tunnel in Atlanta(?)

[CMStPnP]

ORNHOO

I wonder how many other hotels, etc., had private access tunnels like this:

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170417-a-secret-tunnel-to-new-yorks-best-view

 

The White house has underground access tunnels as well.    One I know about goes to the Treasury Building next door.    There is another that crosses the street and I think goes into the old Executive Office building.   GM's former World HQ on Grand Blvd in Detroit also had tunnels radiating out in several directions.    Some publically used others not.     Usually the tunnels were built for steam line access then expanded.    Sometimes as in the case of GM and the White House to have an extra secure entrance and exit point.

[Electroliner 1935]

There are two hotels, THE NEW YORKER, A WYNDHAM at 481 8th Ave, New York, NY 10001 and the NEW YORKER HOTEL. The article is about the first. I wanted to see where it was. I went to Google Maps and entered NEW YORKER HOTEL. It showed me one at 240 E 38th St, New York, NY by 2nd Ave. This confused me because the distance was 1.3 miles between them. I reviewed the diagram @ 0.16 sec in the video and then went back to Google maps and found the correct one. I had stayed at the HOTEL PENNSYLVANIA in the 60's and it was and is across 7th Ave from Penn Station and it had a direct under street (7th Ave) passage to the station. 

 

 

[RME]

Electroliner 1935

I'm confused. Google Maps shows the NEW YORKER HOTEL at 240 E 38th St, New York, NY

You must be from Illinois. 

We're talking about the New Yorker at 34th and 8th that the Moonies bought in the mid-Seventies.  I believe for the past couple of years it has operated as a Wyndham hotel.

[Electroliner 1935]

Any idea about the place Google maps shows at 240 E 38th St? It didn't have any tel # nor web listed.

[Deggesty]

I can't tell what it is from the Bing map. It is, to me, some strange structure which is certainly not any kind of hotel that I have ever seen. Is it, perhaps, the Bottlenose Wine Company building, which seems to open off 2nd Avenue?

[MidlandMike]

There is a connection between the Montreal station and the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.  I don't remember if it is exactly a tunnel, but there are many interconnected pedestrian tunnels under Montreal that are lined with shops.

[wanswheel]

Electroliner 1935

Any idea about the place Google maps shows at 240 E 38th St? It didn't have any tel # nor web listed.

1967 New York Telephone Co. building, later Verizon, once full of wires and stuff, now a branch of NYU Langone Medical Center.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/NYU+Langone+Ambulatory+Care+Center/@40.7473331,-73.9924445,14z/data=!4m8!1m2!2m1!1snyu+langone+ambulatory+care!3m4!1s0x89c25904452c7f33:0xfb7e5f35e92effcb!8m2!3d40.7472938!4d-73.9749349

[blue streak 1]

For the 1944 Democratic convension in Chicago a tunnel was built from Midway airport to a Henry Ford auto plant.  Don't know any specifics.            

[Deggesty]

MidlandMike

There is a connection between the Montreal station and the Queen Elizabeth Hotel.  I don't remember if it is exactly a tunnel, but there are many interconnected pedestrian tunnels under Montreal that are lined with shops.

 

In the Montreal Central Station, you take an elevator up to the lobby of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel--it is built over part, at least, of the station. If you don't want the hotel restaurant fare, you have the choice of several places in the station.

In Halifax, you walk, slightly uphill as I recall, from the station into the Nova Scotian Hotel lobby (in the same bulding).

[NKP guy]

There are two hotels, THE NEW YORKER, A WYNDHAM at 481 8th Ave, New York, NY 10001 and the NEW YORKER HOTEL. The article is about the first. I wanted to see where it was. I went to Google Maps and entered NEW YORKER HOTEL. It showed me one at 240 E 38th St, New York, NY by 2nd Ave. This confused me because the distance was 1.3 miles between them. I reviewed the diagram @ 0.16 sec in the video and then went back to Google maps and found the correct one. I had stayed at the HOTEL PENNSYLVANIA in the 60's and it was and is across 7th Ave from Penn Station and it had a direct under street (7th Ave) passage to the station. 

   There's a Yuge difference between these two famous old New York Hotels.  

   The Hotel Pennsylvania is a pre World War I hotel (I think), once famous as the home for Glenn Miller and his Orchestra (the hotel's phone number was, and remains, PEnnsylvania 6 5000), and is one of the cheapest hotels In Manhattan, unfortunately for a reason.  Frankly, it's depressing to stay there.  It's not real clean.  But is in the middle of Midtown, directly across the street from NYP, as well as Macys, and this must be the tunnel referred to.  

   The New Yorker Hotel (or the Wyndham New Yorker as nobody calls it), opened in 1929 as the largest hotel ( 2,500 rooms in 40 stories) in the world, according to their information.  It today has 912 rooms, meaning they are much larger than the prison-like cells over at the Pennsylvania.  The New Yorker was completely renovated and redecorated by 2008.  It's been home to the bands of Benny Goodman, both Dorseys, and Woody Herman.  It's located at 34th & 8th Avenue and has the Penn Station subway station next to it.

   If I sound like a shill for the New Yorker, I am.  Anyone using NYP and needing a hotel in Manhattan should look at the rates for it; for the money you couldn't do better.  Suites on the 38th floor are not only affordable for NYC, but include large private outdoor terraces or balconies and a view better than the Trumps enjoy.  Seriously.

   However, the New Yorker is a block north of Penn Station and almost certainly wouldn't have a long dog-legged tunnel under two of the busiest streets in the world, one with a four track subway under it.

   Thanks for the pictures, wanswheel.

 

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

blue streak 1

For the 1944 Democratic convension in Chicago a tunnel was built from Midway airport to a Henry Ford auto plant.  Don't know any specifics.            

 

With all due respects, I'm a bit skeptical of this tunnel for a few reasons.  The Ford defense plant in question is now the Ford City shopping center at about 76th and Cicero.  The old south terminal at Midway (demolished around 1980) was at 63rd and Cicero.  Such a tunnel would have been at least a mile in length and would have had to pass under Clearing Yard, making it a major project.  Wartime restrictions would have made it difficult to impossible to obtain manpower and materiel for such a project.

[blue streak 1]

CSSHEGEWISCH

 

blue streak 1

For the 1944 Democratic convension in Chicago a tunnel was built from Midway airport to a Henry Ford auto plant.  Don't know any specifics.            

 

 

 

 

With all due respects, I'm a bit skeptical of this tunnel for a few reasons. 

Understand you being skeptical but check  this link.  One correction tunnel was completed for 1944 convention but was started in 1928.

http://www.bing.com/search?q=Tunnel+from+MDW+to+ford+plant&src=IE-SearchBox&FORM=IESR02&pc=EUPP_UE04

[sandyhookken]

Yeah, I know it's not a tunnel, but the Newark Hilton located across the street from Newark Penn Station is connected to the station by an enclosed overhead walkway.

 

[aegrotatio]

Verizon no longer occupies the offices but it still retains the "central office" (industry jargon for the switchroom) for telephone and network operations.  There are lots of pictures from the damage made on 9/11.

 

 

[wanswheel]

aegrotatio

Verizon no longer occupies the offices but it still retains the "central office" (industry jargon for the switchroom) for telephone and network operations. There are lots of pictures from the damage made on 9/11.

http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1745.pdf

[pajrr]

The Waldorf even has its own underground siding for private car arrival / storage. With the Hotel closing and being redone I don't know if the siding will be left in place or not.