TOUR: Grand Central Terminal

Sponsored by the New York Botanical Garden, Members Trips. (To take this tour, you must be a member of the Botanical Garden – click here for membership details.) Reservations required: call 1-718-817-8703, email membership@nybg.org, or click here (scroll down to find the tour) to register on-line.

On February 1st, 1913, the brand-new Grand Central Terminal opened its doors to an admiring public. On February 1st, 2013, the beautifully restored Terminal – rescued from destruction by a seminal 1978 Supreme Court decision – celebrated its Centennial, accompanied by exhibitions, events, and the new book: Grand Central Terminal: 100 Years of a New York Landmark. The Terminal’s creation combined engineering bravado (sinking two train yards below ground), technological wizardry (electrifying the trains to eliminate steam and enable their underground functioning), and real-estate savvy (replacing the original street-level train yard with 16 blocks of newly prime Midtown Manhattan real-estate, whose development paid for it all) with innovative planning (interior ramps and looping tracks) and Paris-inspired Beaux-Arts design. This walking tour brings the Terminal to life – its remarkable history, stunning architecture, and central role in creating midtown Manhattan.