Grand Central Terminal was designed and built with two main levels for passengers: an upper for intercity trains and a lower for commuter trains. This configuration, devised by New York Central vice president
William J. Wilgus, separated intercity and commuter-rail passengers, smoothing the flow of people in and through the station. File:Grand Central map.png|Floor plan of the main level of the terminal File:Single black brick.jpg|A single black brick was left behind during 1998 renovations as a reminder of the effects of indoor smoking.
Passageways and ramps In their design for the station's interior, Reed & Stem created a circulation system that allowed passengers alighting from trains to enter the Main Concourse, then leave through various passages that branch from it. and the network of tunnels in Grand Central North, which lead to exits at every street from 45th to 48th Street. Its walls and seven large
transverse arches are made of coursed ashlar
travertine, and the floor is
terrazzo.
The ceiling is composed of seven
groin vaults, each of which has an ornamental bronze chandelier. The first two vaults, as viewed from leaving Grand Central, are painted with
cumulus clouds, while the third contains a
1927 mural by Edward Trumbull depicting American transportation. The middle passageway houses Grand Central Market, a cluster of food shops. The site was originally a segment of 43rd Street which became the terminal's first service dock in 1913. In 1975, a
Greenwich Savings Bank branch was built in the space, which was converted into the marketplace in 1998, and involved installing a new limestone façade on the building. The southernmost of the three, the Lexington Passage, was originally known as the Commodore Passage after the
Commodore Hotel, which it ran through. The Oyster Bar ramps lead down from the Main Concourse to the
Oyster Bar and Dining Concourse. The Northwest Passage and Northeast Passage run parallel to the tracks on the upper level, while two shorter cross-passages run perpendicular to the tracks. Pedestrians can also take an elevator to the 47th Street passage from the north side of East 47th Street, between Madison and Vanderbilt avenues; this entrance adjoined the former
270 Park Avenue. Proposals for these tunnels had been discussed since at least the 1970s. The MTA approved preliminary plans in 1983, gave final approval in 1991, Originally, Grand Central North had no restrooms or air-conditioning. Five years after they opened, the passageways were used by about 30,000 people on a typical weekday. Since summer 2006, Grand Central North has been closed on weekends. As a precaution during the
COVID-19 pandemic, Grand Central North closed on March 26, 2020. It reopened in September of that year with hours from 6:30 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 7 p.m. In 2021, its original hours were restored. On November 1, 2021, the entrance to the northeastern corner of Madison Avenue and 47th Street was "closed long-term to accommodate the construction of
270 Park Avenue". After Grand Central Madison begins full service, Grand Central North will be open from 5:30 a.m. until 2 a.m., seven days a week.
Other spaces on the main floor Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Foyer The main entrance into the terminal, underneath the Park Avenue Viaduct, opens into the
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Foyer. The room is a short passage with a sloped floor and arched shop windows along its side walls. It is adorned with glass and bronze chandeliers, a classical cornice, and a decorative
tympanum above the doors leading to Vanderbilt Hall. The tympanum has sculpted bronze garlands and a
caduceus below an inscripted panel that reads: "To all those with head, heart, and handToiled in the construction of this monument to the public serviceThis is inscribed." Above the panel is a clock framed by a pair of carved cornucopias.
Vanderbilt Hall Vanderbilt Hall is an event space on the south side of the terminal, between the main entrance and the Main Concourse to its north. The room is lit by Beaux-Arts chandeliers, each with 132 bulbs on four tiers. As long-distance passenger service waned, the space became favored by the homeless, who began regularly living there in the 1980s. In 1989, the room was boarded up in preparation for its restoration in 1991. During the process, a temporary waiting room was established on an upper level of the terminal. Around 1998, the renovated hall was renamed in honor of the
Vanderbilt family, which built and owned the station. as well as for special exhibitions and private events. From 2016 to 2020, the west half of the hall held the Great Northern Food Hall, an upscale Nordic-themed food court with five pavilions. The food hall was the first long-term tenant of the space; the terminal's landmark status prevents permanent installations. Since 1999, Vanderbilt Hall has hosted the annual
Tournament of Champions squash championship. Each January, tournament officials construct a free-standing glass-enclosed squash court. Like a
theatre in the round, spectators sit on three sides of the court. A men's smoking room and women's waiting room were formerly located on the west and east sides of Vanderbilt Hall, respectively. who also ran the food hall. The firm opened a wine bar, a quick-service restaurant named City Jams, and a
farm-to-table restaurant named Cornelius in these spaces that November.
Biltmore Room The Biltmore Room, originally known simply as the incoming train room, is a marble hall Later, the room held a newsstand, flower stand, and shoe shine booths. As part of the project, the room's booths and stands were replaced by a pair of escalators and an elevator to Grand Central Madison's deep-level concourse, The room's blackboard displayed the arrival and departure times of New York Central trains until 1967,
Former theatre One of the retail areas of the Graybar Passage, currently occupied by wine-and-liquor store Central Cellars, was formerly the Grand Central Theatre or Terminal Newsreel Theatre. Opened in 1937 with 25-cent admission, the theater showed short films, cartoons, and
newsreels The theater's interior had simple pine walls spaced out to eliminate echos, along with an
inglenook, a fireplace, and an illuminated clock for the convenience of travelers. The walls of the lobby, dubbed the "appointment lounge", were covered with world maps; the ceiling had an astronomical mural painted by Sarg. but continued operating until around 1979, when it was gutted for retail space. The terminal's late-1990s renovation added stands and restaurants to the concourse, and installed escalators to link it to the main concourse level. Since 2015, part of the Dining Concourse has been closed for the construction of stairways and escalators to the new LIRR terminal being built as part of
East Side Access. A small square-framed clock is installed in the ceiling near Tracks 108 and 109. It was manufactured at an unknown time by the
Self Winding Clock Company, which made several others in the terminal. The clock hung inside the gate at Track 19 until 2011, when it was moved so it would not be blocked by lights added during upper-level platform improvements. By 2002, the bureau was collecting "3,000 coats and jackets; 2,500 cellphones; 2,000 sets of keys; 1,500 wallets, purses and ID's ; and 1,100 umbrellas" a year. The 40-plus retail stores include newsstands and chain stores, including a
Starbucks coffee shop, a
Rite Aid pharmacy, and an
Apple Store. The Oyster Bar, the oldest business in the terminal, sits next to the Dining Concourse and below Vanderbilt Hall. In 1999, it opened as a bar, the Campbell Apartment; a new owner renovated and renamed it the Campbell in 2017.
Vanderbilt Tennis Club and former studios From 1939 to 1964,
CBS Television occupied a large portion of the terminal building, particularly in a third-floor space above Vanderbilt Hall. Broadcasts were transmitted from an antenna atop the nearby
Chrysler Building installed by order of CBS chief executive
William S. Paley, its two tennis courts were once deemed the most expensive place to play the game—$58 an hour—until financial recessions forced the club to lower the hourly fee to $40. Gazdag's business was evicted from Grand Central in 1976, amid a lease dispute. In 1984, the club was purchased by real estate magnate
Donald Trump, who discovered it while renovating the terminal's exterior. In 2009, the MTA planned a new conductor lounge in the space, and terminated Trump's lease that year. It divided the space into three floors, with the lounge on the original third floor. A single tennis court was added on the new fourth floor in 2010, along with two practice alleys on the new fifth floor. Trump found the new space too small to release, and so the current Vanderbilt Tennis Club operates independent of Trump. It occupies a four-story space with an area of .
Platforms and tracks The terminal holds a
Guinness World Record as the railroad station with the most platforms: 28, which support 44 platform numbers. All are
island platforms except one
side platform. Odd-numbered tracks are usually on the east side of the platform; even-numbered tracks on the west side. , there are 67 tracks, of which 41 are in regular passenger use, serving Metro-North. At its busiest, the terminal is served by an arriving train every 58 seconds. Tracks 12, 22, and 31 do not exist; track 12 was replaced with a platform, while the paths of tracks 22 and 31 are occupied by the Grand Central North passageways. it was mentioned in
The New York Times in 1929 and first used in 1938 by
John J. Pershing, a top U.S. general during World War I. Roosevelt would travel into the city using his personal train, pull into Track 61, and take a specially designed elevator to the surface. It has been used occasionally since Roosevelt's death. The upper level also contains 22 more storage sidings. The lower Metro-North level had 27 tracks numbered 100 to 126, east to west. Two were originally intended for mail trains and two were for baggage handling. The lower-level balloon loop, whose curve was much sharper than that of the upper-level loop and could only handle
electric multiple units used on commuter lines and track 115 is used for garbage loading, similar to track 14 on the upper level---> Tracks 116–125 were demolished to make room for the
Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)
concourse constructed underneath the Metro-North station as part of the
East Side Access project. The upper and lower levels have different track layouts and, as such, are supported by different sets of columns. The upper level is supported by ultra-strong columns, some of which can carry over . The LIRR terminal constructed as part of East Side Access has four platforms and eight tracks numbered 201–204 and 301–304 in two double-decked caverns below the Metro-North station. It has four tracks and two platforms in each of the two caverns, with each cavern containing two tracks and an island platform on each level. A mezzanine is located on a center level between the LIRR's two track levels.
Office spaces and control center Upper floors of the terminal primarily hold MTA offices. These spaces and most others in the terminal are not open to the public, requiring key cards to access. The fifth floor holds the office of the terminal's director, overlooking the Main Concourse. The seventh floor contains Metro-North's situation room (a board room for police and terminal directors to handle emergencies), as well as the offices of the Fleet Department. the center is operated by a crew of about 24 people. The terminal was originally built with five
signal control centers, labeled A, B, C, F, and U, that collectively controlled all of the track
interlockings around the terminal. The interlockings used to be of
electro-mechanical type, supplied by
General Railway Signal (GRS). Each switch was electrically controlled by a lever in one of the signal towers, where lights illuminated on track maps to show which switches were in use. In 1993, the original interlockings machines were replaced with 17 GRS VPI
microprocessors. Tower U controlled the interlocking between 48th and 58th streets; Tower C, the storage spurs; and Tower F, the turning loops. A four-story underground tower at 49th Street housed the largest of the signal towers: Tower A, which handled the upper-level interlockings via 400 levers, and Tower B, which handled the lower-level interlockings with 362 levers.
Hospital During the terminal's construction, an "accident room" was set up to treat worker injuries in a wrecking car in the terminal's rail yard. Later on, a small hospital was established in the temporary station building on Lexington Avenue to care for injured workers. The arrangement was satisfactory, leading to the creation of a permanent hospital, the Grand Central Emergency Hospital, in Grand Central Terminal in 1911. The hospital was used for every employee injury as well as for passengers. In 1915, it had two physicians who treated a monthly average of 125 new cases per month and 450 dressings. The space had four rooms: Room A (the waiting room), Room B (the operating room), Room C (a private office), and Room D (for resting patients). The hospital was open at least until 1963; a
Journal News article that year noted that the hospital treated minor to moderate ailments and was open every day between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Libraries Located on an upper floor above the Apple Store, the Williamson Library is a meeting space and research center for the New York Railroad Enthusiasts. or placed in storage. The now-8,000-volume library was moved to the
Shore Line Trolley Museum in Connecticut in 2014, where it could operate with more staff attention and public access. == Architecture ==