The station was built between 1912 and May 1914, replacing an older structure dating from 1869. The building was designed by New York architects
Stem and Fellheimer. Construction involved the rerouting of the
Mohawk River. The Mohawk River was relocated due to the risk of flooding and the proximity of the river to the railroad, which had become a problem for the expanding city. Built as a
New York Central Railroad station, in 1915 it became tenanted by the
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and the
New York, Ontario and Western Railway as well, those two companies abandoning their own stations. At one time, the waiting room also contained three ticket windows, an information office, 15 pay telephones, a
Western Union office, two shoeshine stands, a bar and grill. The Western Union Office is no longer there. As originally built, the station featured six
island platforms with one alighting platform directly accessible from the station building, serving 12 tracks for
New York Central Railroad trains; these were numbered 5 through 16 from south to north. (Tracks 1 and 2 were, respectively, the eastbound and westbound mainline for non-stop trains between Tracks 10 and 11, while Tracks 3 and 4 ran through the yards north of the station proper.) One additional dead-end island platform on the west side of the station building served the
New York, Ontario and Western Railway (southern track) and
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (northern track), for a grand total of eight platforms serving 14 tracks. All platforms were linked by an underground passageway. The NYO&W ended its passenger service into Union Station between 1921 and 1932. Post-WWII reductions in passenger traffic led to service cuts and the eventual bankruptcy of the remaining railroads, the Lackawanna and the New York Central. The last Lackawanna trains bound for
Norwich and
Binghamton left in 1950. Into the mid-1950s sleeper cars from the
North Star and into the early 1960s the
Iroquois went to
Lake Placid from Union Station. The final NYC trains from Lake Placid on the
Adirondack Division ran on April 24, 1965. By the late 1960s, only the mainline
Water Level Route (the modern Amtrak
Empire Corridor) continued to operate regular passenger service. Over time, all but the two centermost platforms were demolished, and the space originally occupied by the first seven station-side tracks was converted into passenger parking. The interior of the large waiting room features extensive use of marble columns and revetments with terrazzo flooring throughout. The original waiting room benches, which incorporate steam pipes and vents, remain in use. The station's restoration began in 1978, but refurbishing/restoration work continues to this day. The building is listed on the NRHP, both as a stand-alone item and as part of '''Bagg's Square East National Register Historic District'''. ==Popular culture==