I have the privilege of spending part of my commute in the main concourse of Grand Central Station. I believe it to be the greatest standing American monument to mass transportation. It is majestic and awe inspiring, as the hundreds of tourists who stand on its inner balconies each day snapping photograph after photograph testify.
I remember the first time I emerged from the subway into the main concourse. The most similar experience I can relate to you is of walking up the tunnel into Boston's Fenway Park on a clear summer's day. You've heard about how great it is, you've seen pictures, it's in a few movies...but actually seeing it with your own eyes is a revelation. Now you are able to understand the power and magnificence, as you are beginning to choke up.
The ceiling of Grand Central Station has on it the constellations in a background of sky blue. The floor area is roughly ¾ the size of a football field, and there are ticket tellers stationed on the long side, helpful guides, and gates leading to the subway and commuter trains. Wherever your destination in the station is, I guarantee you a long walk. No one seems to mind.
Grand Central Station should be a lesson to mass-transit and city planners everywhere. If trains and stations are well designed and maintained, the riders who know them most intimately will respect and appreciate them.
Grand Central and I see each other almost every day, but the experience is still a pleasant one and makes going to work all the more worthwhile.
