Most people refer to this Beaux-Arts beauty as Grand Central Station but it's actually a Terminal because this is where train lines originate and terminate.

As you approach 42nd Street and Park Avenue from downtown, you'll be facing this triumphant facade featuring a fifty foot pediment with statues of Hercules, Minerva and Mercury surrounding a thirteen foot clock. This was designed by architect Whitney Warren in 1913.

The interior of Grand Central is also an amazing sight and will transport you to another time. The Main Concourse seen here is an immense space 120 feet wide, 375 feet long and 125 feet high.

New York City used to have another equally impressive train station - Pennsylvania Station. Although there is still a Penn Station, the original was an awe-inspiring building of beauty that was torn down in the name of progress. 

Grand Central Terminal almost met the same fate but preservationists like Jacqueline Kennedy had it declared a landmark in the mid-1960's. Although the Terminal had suffered neglect in the '70's and '80's, a massive four year restoration project was recently completed and you'll be amazed at how new this place looks!

One of the biggest jobs of this restoration was to the vast vaulted ceiling. Painted like an evening sky with gilded stars and constellations, it allows New Yorkers something they never get to see - a nighttime sky above the Big Apple!

If you're meeting someone at Grand Central, it'll probably be by the famous four-sided, brass clock atop the Information Booth in the center of the Main Concourse. It is as indelible an image of Grand Central as the Mercury statue!

Let's visit more of Grand Central!