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Grand Central Station (Chicago)

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Architecture; Railway
transport

   The north-west corner of Grand Central Station (facing Harrison Street)
   in July 1963. Notice the B&O advertising.
   Enlarge
   The north-west corner of Grand Central Station (facing Harrison Street)
   in July 1963. Notice the B&O advertising.

   Grand Central Station was a passenger railroad terminal in downtown
   Chicago, Illinois from 1890 to 1969. It was located at 201 West
   Harrison Street in the south-western part of the Chicago Loop, the
   block bounded by between West Harrison Street, South Wells Street, West
   Polk Street and the Chicago River. Grand Central Station was designed
   by architect Solon Spencer Beman for the Wisconsin Central Railway, and
   was completed by the Chicago and Northern Pacific Railroad.

   The station was built with the intention of its eventually becoming the
   eastern terminus for the transcontinental Northern Pacific Railway
   which was leasing the Wisconsin Central at the time of construction,
   and seeking access to the railway hub of Chicago. However, the Northern
   Pacific bankruptcy of 1893 ended the plan.

   Grand Central Station was eventually purchased by the Baltimore and
   Ohio Railroad, which used the station as the Chicago terminus for its
   passenger rail service, including its glamorous Capitol Limited to
   Washington, D.C.. Major tenant railroads included the Soo Line
   Railroad, successor to the Wisconsin Central, the Chicago Great Western
   Railway, and the Pere Marquette Railroad. The station was eventually
   shuttered in 1969 and torn down in 1971.

Construction

   In October 1889, a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Central Railroad (WC)
   began constructing a new passenger terminal at the southwest corner of
   Harrison Street and Wells Street (then called Fifth Avenue) in Chicago,
   to replace a temporary facility built nearby. The location of this new
   depot, along the south branch of the Chicago River, was selected to
   take advantage of the bustling passenger and freight market travelling
   on nearby Lake Michigan.
   The waiting room of Grand Central Station had 26 foot (8 meter)
   ceilings; the floor was made of marble from Vermont.
   Enlarge
   The waiting room of Grand Central Station had 26 foot (8 meter)
   ceilings; the floor was made of marble from Vermont.

   The station was executed in the Norman Castellated architectural style
   by architect Solon S. Beman, who had gained notoriety as the designer
   of the Pullman company neighbourhood. Constructed of brick, brownstone
   and granite, it was 228 feet (70 meters) wide on the side facing
   Harrison Street and 482 feet (147 meters) long on the side facing
   Wells. Imposing arches, crenellations, a spacious arched carriage-court
   facing Harrison Street, and a multitude of towers dominated the walls,
   but its most famous feature was an impressive 247 foot (75 meter) tower
   at the northeast corner of the property. Early on, an 11,000 pound
   (4,990 kilogram) bell in the tower rang in the hours. At some point,
   however, the bell was removed, but the tower (and its huge clock, 13
   feet (4 meters) in diameter — at one time among the largest in the
   United States) remained.

   The interior of the Grand Central Station was decorated as impressively
   as the exterior. The waiting room, for example, had marble floors,
   Corinthian-style columns, stained-glass windows and a marble fireplace.
   The station also had a restaurant and a hotel, but accommodations ended
   late in 1901.
   The train shed of Grand Central Station.
   Enlarge
   The train shed of Grand Central Station.

   The glass and steel train shed, 555 feet (169 meters) long, 156 feet
   (48 meters) wide and 78 feet (24 meters) tall, was the second largest
   in the world at the time it was constructed, and self-supporting. Grand
   Central housed six tracks and had platforms long enough to accommodate
   fifteen-car passenger trains; it was considered an architectural gem
   and a marvel of engineering when it was built.

   The structure was formally opened on December 8, 1890 by the Chicago
   and Northern Pacific Railroad, a subsidiary of the Northern Pacific
   Railway which had purchased the terminal and the trackage leading up to
   it from the Wisconsin Central; it had cost one million dollars to
   construct. When it opened, Grand Central hosted trains from the WC
   (which connected with its former trackage in Forest Park, Illinois),
   and the Minnesota and Northwestern Railroad (M&NW), which made also a
   connection at Forest Park. By December 1891, the tenants also included
   the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. In 1903, the Pere Marquette Railway
   also started using the station.

   The B&O purchased Grand Central (and the all the terminal trackage) at
   foreclosure in 1910 to form the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal
   Railroad.

Services

   Trains to Grand Central Station ran over the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago
   Terminal Railroad. Notice the circuitous route taken by trains from the
   east to the station, including a nearly seven mile (eleven kilometer)
   detour along Rock Island Line trackage.
   Enlarge
   Trains to Grand Central Station ran over the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago
   Terminal Railroad. Notice the circuitous route taken by trains from the
   east to the station, including a nearly seven mile (eleven kilometer)
   detour along Rock Island Line trackage.

   The smallest of Chicago's passenger rail terminals, Grand Central
   Station was a relatively quiet place, even during its heyday. Grand
   Central never became a prominent destination for large numbers of
   cross-country travellers, nor for the daily waves of commuters from the
   suburbs, that other Chicago terminals were. In 1912, for example, Grand
   Central served 3,175 passengers per day — representing only 4.5 percent
   of the total number for the city of Chicago — and serviced an average
   of 38 trains per day (including 4 B&O suburban trains). This number
   paled in comparison to the 146 trains served by Dearborn Station, the
   191 by LaSalle Street Station, the 281 at Union Station, the 310 by the
   Chicago and North Western Terminal and the 373 trains per day at
   Central Station.

   The station hosted some of Baltimore and Ohio's most glamorous trains,
   including the fabulous Capitol Limited to Washington, DC.
   Unfortunately, however, the circuitous trackage leading up to the
   station from the east led these trains miles out of their way through
   the industrial southwest and west side of the city (See map to the
   left). As for the other tenants, the Soo Line Railroad (which purchased
   the WC in 1909), the M&NW (which became known as the Chicago Great
   Western Railway in 1893), and the Pere Marquette Railway (which was
   merged into the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway in 1947), none were
   particularly serious players in the intercity passenger rail market.

Intercity Passenger Trains

   Grand Central Station served as a terminal for the following lines and
   intercity trains:
   B&O EA Number 55 heads the Capitol Limited at Grand Central Station,
   August 1939. Grand Central's bell tower can be seen at the extreme left
   side of this photograph.
   Enlarge
   B&O EA Number 55 heads the Capitol Limited at Grand Central Station,
   August 1939. Grand Central's bell tower can be seen at the extreme left
   side of this photograph.
     * Baltimore and Ohio Railroad - Capitol Limited to Washington, DC,
       Columbian to Jersey City, New Jersey, Shenandoah to New York City.
       Other trains to Cumberland, Maryland and Wheeling, West Virginia.

     * Chicago Great Western Railway (until 1956) - Legionnaire, later
       Minnesotan, both to Minneapolis, Minnesota. Other trains to Kansas
       City, Missouri and Omaha, Nebraska.

     * Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railway (Soo Line)
       (until 1899, and from 1912 to 1965; used Central Station in between
       and after) - Laker to Duluth, Minnesota.

     * Pere Marquette Railway - Grand Rapids Flyer and Grand Rapids
       Express to Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Michigan, and ultimately
       Buffalo, New York. Upon the 1947 merger with the Chesapeake and
       Ohio Railway, PM trains were renamed Pere Marquette.

     * From December 1900 to July 1903, the Lake Shore and Michigan
       Southern Railway ( New York Central Railroad) and Chicago, Rock
       Island and Pacific Railway used Grand Central, as their LaSalle
       Street Station was being rebuilt.

Suburban Commuter Trains

   In addition to intercity passenger rail service, Grand Central Station
   also served as a terminal for a short-lived suburban commuter line
   first operated by the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad in 1900. The
   service, which was continued when the line was purchased by the B&O in
   1910, ran six trains a day between Grand Central and Chicago Heights,
   stopping in Blue Island, Harvey, Thornton and Glenwood. The line was
   unsuccessful and ended as early as 1915. None of the other tenant
   railroads operated commuter trains out of Grand Central Station.

The End

   Grand Central Station, looking south down Wells Street in 1963. The
   streets are practically deserted on this mid-summer's day.
   Enlarge
   Grand Central Station, looking south down Wells Street in 1963. The
   streets are practically deserted on this mid-summer's day.

   The lightly-used terminal became ominously quiet through the 1950s and
   '60s. Trains were dropped, service trimmed back, and by 1956, one
   railroad, the Chicago Great Western, had stopped operating passenger
   service into Chicago altogether. Whereas immediately after the Second
   World War, Grand Central had served 26 intercity passenger trains —
   down from nearly 40 at its busiest — by 1963, only ten intercity trains
   — of which six were operated by the Baltimore and Ohio — remained. The
   number of passengers that used the remaining service also shriveled: by
   1969, the year the station closed, the station only served an average
   of 210 passengers per day.

   Declining intercity passenger rail traffic nationwide and corporate
   consolidation within the railway industry both created excess terminal
   capacity in Chicago. However, it was a political effort within the city
   to close Grand Central — described by the Chicago Tribune as "decaying,
   dreary, and sadly out of date," — that ultimately sealed the fate of
   the station. The Soo Line re-routed its trains into Central Station in
   1965. The remaining six B&O and ex-Pere Marquette trains last used
   station on November 8, 1969 and were routed into their new terminus at
   the Chicago and North Western Terminal the following day.

   Sitting unused with acres of abandoned terminal trackage to its south,
   Grand Central Station's value as an architectural and engineering
   masterpiece was discounted by its railroad owner, which believed the
   value of the land for urban redevelopment to be very substantial. As a
   result, all the trackage was scrapped, and the entirety of the terminal
   was razed by the railroad in 1971.

Present-day

   Redevelopment of the property, however, has been slow. A 17-story
   apartment building known as River City was constructed in 1986 on the
   former coach yard and approaches to the terminal, but, ironically, the
   lot on which the station itself stood, still mostly owned by CSX
   Transportation (the successor company to the B&O), continues to be
   vacant. River City was designed to continue south to Roosevelt Road and
   at an earlier point meant to be a complex of three 68-story office and
   residential towers. Plans for an office tower, condominiums, or retail
   development on the Grand Central Station terminal site have all been
   proposed over the past several years, and all have been shelved. The
   site is currently a de facto dog park used by local residents, although
   outlines of platforms and building foundations hint at the lot's former
   use.

The B&OCT Bascule Bridge

   The B&OCT Bascule Bridge over the Chicago River, as seen from the
   northwest, circa 1988. This view shows the abandoned bridge in its
   locked upright position, with that of the St. Charles Air Line Railroad
   in the background.
   Enlarge
   The B&OCT Bascule Bridge over the Chicago River, as seen from the
   northwest, circa 1988. This view shows the abandoned bridge in its
   locked upright position, with that of the St. Charles Air Line Railroad
   in the background.

   At the time Grand Central was completed, passenger trains approached
   the terminal by crossing the Chicago River to the southwest over a
   bridge between Taylor Street and Roosevelt Road, constructed in 1885.
   This first bridge was replaced by a taller structure in 1901 to
   accommodate larger boats and ships on the south branch of the river.
   When the Chicago River was straightened and widened in the 1930s, the
   War Department insisted the B&O build a new bridge adjacent to that of
   the St. Charles Air Line Railroad which crossed the river between
   Fifteen and Sixteen Streets. The new bridge's location, about seven
   blocks south of their previous crossing, exacerbated the circuitous
   route of the B&OCT trackage leading to Grand Central Station. Both the
   B&O bridge, and of the St. Charles Air Line immediately adjacent to it,
   were built in 1930, and both are bascule bridges.

   The B&OCT bridge, like the terminal and the tracks, has been abandoned.
   It was not dismantled and remains permanently locked in an "open"
   position. Because they are bascule bridges, both the B&OCT and the Air
   Line bridges each have a counterweight of their own, and in this case
   they share a common third counterweight between them. This design
   allowed them to operate in unison, with an operator from the B&OCT in
   charge of both bridges. This has led to a curious historical oddity, as
   the CSX, successor railroad to the B&O, owns a useless bridge that it
   cannot abandon, because it is needed to continue operating a bridge it
   does not own. An uncertain but inevitable future awaits the old B&OCT
   bridge, as the trackage it once served will likely never be rebuilt.
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
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