Penn Station

The old Pennsylvania Station was a historic railroad station in New York City, named for the Pennsylvania Railroad, its builder and original tenant. The station occupied an 8-acre plot bounded by Seventh and Eighth Avenues and 31st and 33rd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. It was designed by McKim, Mead, and White and completed in 1910. Its head house and train shed were considered a masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style and one of the great architectural works of New York City. As the terminal shared its name with several stations in other cities, it was sometimes called New York Pennsylvania Station. Passenger traffic began to decline after World War II, and in the 1950s, the Pennsylvania Railroad sold the air rights to the property and shrank the railroad station. Starting in 1963, the above-ground head house and train shed were demolished, a loss that galvanized the modern historic preservation movement. Over the next six years, the below-ground concourses and waiting areas were heavily renovated, becoming the modern Pennsylvania Station, while Madison Square Garden and Pennsylvania Plaza were built above them. The sole remaining portions of the original station are the platforms at the station's lowest level, as well as scattered artifacts on the mezzanine level above it. The new Pennsylvania Station, is the main intercity railroad station in New York City and the busiest in the Western Hemisphere, serving more than 600,000 passengers per weekday as of 2019. Penn Station is in Midtown Manhattan, close to Herald Square, the Empire State Building, Koreatown, and Macy's Herald Square. Entirely underground, the station is located in Midtown South beneath Madison Square Garden, with additional exits to nearby streets. Penn Station has 21 tracks fed by seven tunnels. It is at the center of the Northeast Corridor, a passenger rail line that connects New York City with Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and intermediate points. Intercity trains are operated by Amtrak, which owns the station, while commuter rail services are operated by the Long Island Rail Road and New Jersey Transit. Connections are available within the complex to the New York City Subway, and buses. An underground passageway formerly provided an indoor connection with the 34th Street–Herald Square subway station and 33rd Street PATH station. Penn Station is named for the Pennsylvania Railroad, its builder and original tenant, and shares its name with several stations in other cities. The current facility is the remodeled underground remnant of the original Pennsylvania Station, a more ornate station building designed by McKim, Mead, and White and completed in 1910. Considered a masterpiece of the Beaux-Arts style, its head house was torn down in 1963, galvanizing the modern historic preservation movement. The rest of the station was rebuilt in the following six years. Future plans for Penn Station include adding railway platforms at the station's south end to accommodate two proposed Gateway Project tunnels. Plans also call for adding entrances and concourses to the adjacent James A. Farley Building. The Farley Post Office was built as a companion to the 1910 station. Moynihan Train Hall, part of the Empire Station Complex, will add new concourses for the LIRR and Amtrak within the Farley Post Office building and is being built in phases.

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