Photo courtesy Patrick Cashin / Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Located in the center of the terminal's Main Concourse, the clock on top of the information booth is a quintessential New York City meeting spot.

The latest expansion is the $8.24 billion East Side Access project - a bi-level, eight-track tunnel that will bring Long Island Rail Road Main and Port Washington trains to the terminal starting in 2019. A two-year, $200 million revitalization was finished in 1998 while Grand Central North, which provides access from 45th, 47th, and 48th Streets, opened in 1999. Managed by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's Metro North Railroad, the terminal is also a successful shopping center with separate food concourse, five exquisite restaurants and cocktail lounges, central market, and 68 specialty shops. A decade later the court justices upheld the city's landmarks law and set a national precedent for historic preservation. Supreme Court in Penn Central Transportation Co. New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission twice rejected the proposal, a decision terminal owner Penn Central contested all the way to the U.S. A proposal was unveiled to replace the iconic terminal - designated a city landmark just six months earlier - with a skyscraper more than 800 feet tall. The terminal's closest brush with total ruin came in 1968, four years after the nearby Pennsylvania Station was razed. Wilgus also suggested using a larger portion of the air rights above the 48 acres occupied by the terminal and adjoining rail yard than previously considered, which helped finance construction. This meant the expansive staging area required for steam-driven locomotives could be placed underground and designed to accommodate two levels of track. The New York State Assembly subsequently banned the use of steam by locomotives between 42nd Street and the Harlem River, setting the stage for a revolutionary idea by New York Central and Hudson River Railroad chief engineer William J Wilgus: require engines serving the terminal to be powered by electricity not steam. The genesis for Grand Central was a 1902 disaster involving two steam-powered trains that collided in the 58th Street tunnel and killed 15 people. The terminal's 42nd Street facade includes three tall, arched windows beneath a simple roof line that is topped by a monumental sculptural group of Roman gods by Jules Coutan and the world's largest Tiffany-glass clock. Inside the Grand Concourse - approximately three-fourths the size of a football field or 275 feet long by 120 feet wide by 125 feet high - is a glorious, vaulted plaster ceiling with hundreds of star constellations designed by French artist Paul Helleu. Modeled on Roman imperial baths, the Beaux-Arts terminal used by 750,000 people a day or more than 21 million people each year, was designed by two teams of architects led by the firms of Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore. The celebrated Grand Central Terminal marked its 100th anniversary in February 2013. Hailed as a temple to the everyday commuter, this cathedral-like building was constructed to honor you, its visitors.Education, Work, and Experience Verification Grand Central Terminal is one of the country’s great architectural achievements and New York City’s unofficial meeting place with thousands of people choosing to “meet me at the clock” –rendezvousing with friends and loved ones each day at the opal-faced Main Concourse Information Booth Clock. In 1978, architect Philip Johnson and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis campaigned to secure landmark status for the Terminal, ensuring the building would serve New Yorkers for generations to come. Opened to the public in February 1913, Grand Central Terminal is a story of great engineering, survival, and rebirth. This historic world-famous landmark in Midtown Manhattan is not simply a transportation hub - it’s also a shopping, dining, and cultural destination all under one magnificent roof. Be transported by the iconic beauty and lasting legacy of Grand Central Terminal.

Grand central station nyc