Planning and construction Until the early 20th century, the PRR's rail network terminated on the western side of the
Hudson River (once known locally as the
North River) at
Exchange Place in
Jersey City, New Jersey. Manhattan-bound passengers boarded
ferries to cross the Hudson River for the final stretch of their journey. The rival
New York Central Railroad's line ran down Manhattan from the north under
Park Avenue and terminated at
Grand Central Depot (later replaced by
Grand Central Terminal) at
42nd Street. Many proposals for a cross-Hudson connection were advanced in the late 19th century, but financial panics in the 1870s and 1890s scared off potential investors. In any event, none of the proposals advanced during this time were considered feasible. An early proposal for a bridge was considered but rejected. The alternative was to tunnel under the river, but this was infeasible for
steam locomotive use. The development of the
electric locomotive at the turn of the 20th century made a tunnel feasible. In 1901, PRR president
Alexander Cassatt announced the railroad's plan to enter New York City by tunneling under the Hudson and building a grand station on the West Side of Manhattan south of
34th Street. The station would sit in Manhattan's
Tenderloin district, a historical
red-light district known for its corruption and prostitution. Beginning in June 1903, the two single-track
North River Tunnels were bored from the west under the Hudson River. A second set of four single-track tunnels, the
East River Tunnels, were bored from the east under the
East River, linking the new station to
Queens, the PRR-owned Long Island Rail Road, and
Sunnyside Yard in Queens, where trains would be maintained and assembled. Construction was completed on the Hudson River tunnels on October 9, 1906, and on the East River tunnels on March 18, 1908.
Original structure A small portion of Penn Station opened on September 8, 1910, in conjunction with the opening of the
East River Tunnels, and
LIRR riders gained direct railroad service to
Manhattan. On November 27, 1910, Penn Station was fully opened to the public. With the station's full opening, the PRR became the only railroad to enter New York City from the south. During half a century of operation by the Pennsylvania Railroad (1910–1963), scores of intercity passenger trains arrived and departed daily to
Chicago and
St. Louis on "Pennsy" rails and beyond on connecting railroads to
Miami and the west. Along with
Long Island Rail Road trains, Penn Station saw trains of the
New Haven and the
Lehigh Valley railroads. A side effect of the tunneling project was to open the city up to the suburbs, and within 10 years of opening, two-thirds of the daily passengers coming through Penn Station were commuters. demolition of the above-ground
head house began in October 1963. A giant steel deck was placed over the tracks and platforms to allow rail service to continue during construction. Photographs of the day showed passengers waiting for trains even as the head house was demolished around them. The demolition of the Penn Station head house was controversial and caused outrage internationally. "One entered the city like a god. One scuttles in now like a rat," the architectural historian
Vincent Scully famously wrote of the original station. The controversy over the demolition of such a well-known landmark, and its deplored replacement, is often cited as a catalyst for the architectural preservation movement in the United States. Within the decade, Grand Central Terminal was protected under the city's new
landmarks preservation act, a protection
upheld by the courts in 1978 after a challenge by Grand Central's owner,
Penn Central (the corporate successor of the PRR, following its merger with the rival New York Central Railroad).
Under Madison Square Garden Post-1968, the core Penn Station has been underground, sitting below Madison Square Garden, 33rd Street, and Two Penn Plaza. The core has three levels:
concourses on the upper two levels and
train platforms on the lowest. The two levels of concourses, while renovated and expanded during the construction of Madison Square Garden, are original to the 1910 station, as are the tracks and platforms. Over the following decades, various renovations attempted to add service and some concourse space. The West End Concourse under Eighth Avenue opened in 1986. In 1987, a rail connection to the
West Side Rail Yard opened, and in 1991, the opening of the
Empire Connection allowed Amtrak to consolidate all of its New York City trains at Penn Station; previously, trains from the
Empire Corridor terminated at
Grand Central Terminal, a legacy of the two stations' respective roots in separate railroads. In 1994, the station was renovated to add the 34th Street LIRR entrance and central corridor, along with artwork and improved waiting and concession areas. The new entrance consisted of a structure with a glass and brick facade, a clock salvaged from the original station, and air-conditioning units for the terminal. In 2002, the NJ Transit concourse was created in space previously occupied by retail and Amtrak office space, although the concourse could only be accessed from the Amtrak entrance on 32nd Street. and the entrance opened in 2009. In 2020, the ticketed waiting room on the main concourse was renovated by Amtrak and NJ Transit to include furniture with USB outlets, an additional entrance, and a lactation suite. After the
September 11 attacks, security was increased and passenger flow curtailed. In 2002, $100 million of work added security features such as lighting, cameras, and barricades. The taxiway under Madison Square Garden, which ran from 31st Street to 33rd Street at mid-block, was permanently closed off with concrete
Jersey barriers. Escalators providing direct access to the lobby of Madison Square Garden were closed and later removed. The underground
Gimbels Passageway connecting pedestrians to
34th Street–Herald Square has been sealed off since 1986, after decades of safety concerns and sexual assaults. Despite the modest renovations, the underground Penn Station continued to be criticized as "reviled", "dysfunctional", and a low-ceilinged "
catacomb" lacking charm, especially when compared to the much larger and more ornate Grand Central Terminal. The
New York Times, in an editorial supporting development of an enlarged terminal, said that "Amtrak's beleaguered customers...scurry through underground rooms bereft of light or character," and
Times transit reporter Michael M. Grynbaum called Penn Station "the ugly stepchild of the city's two great rail terminals." After its nadir in the 1960s, ridership exploded in subsequent decades, a situation never contemplated by the structure's designers. By the 2010s, the station operated at almost three times its intended capacity; over 600,000 passengers used the station daily in 2019. Many redevelopment or expansion concepts were proposed over the 1990s and 2000s, but none reached fruition until funding from the 2009
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act enabled the expansion of the West End Concourse of the LIRR under the Farley Building in 2016. In 2016 New York Governor
Andrew Cuomo announced plans for the renovation of Penn Station and redevelopment of the Farley Building to include a new train hall, calling his plan the Empire Station Complex.
Moynihan Train Hall opened in January 2021 and was named for the man who had conceived it. The $1.6 billion, renovation retained the landmarked Beaux Arts Farley Building, added a central atrium with a glass roof, and provided access to Amtrak and LIRR trains, receiving the 2021
Prix Versailles for passenger stations. A new 33rd Street entrance to the LIRR concourse opened at the same time. Following the opening of the 33rd Street entrance, the LIRR concourse was doubled in width from , and the ceilings were raised to a minimum height of by removing seven "head knockers", low-hanging steel beams only above the concourse's floor which were part of the original Penn Station; the expansion was completed in March 2023. 33rd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues was converted into a pedestrian plaza and permanently closed to vehicular traffic, opening in June 2024 as part of a $65 million project funded by Vornado. == Services ==