From 1790 to 1860, the population of New York City had grown nearly 25-fold. Its population boom had just begun.
Arguably, no other New Yorker harnessed the power of this population growth like Cornelius Vanderbilt, the poor Staten Island boy who became America’s first tycoon.
Born in 1794, he quit school at 11 to help his father with his boating service. Five years later, he asked his parents for a $100 loan so he could start his own business ferrying people between Manhattan and Staten Island.
From Steamboat to Railroad
During the 1860s, Vanderbilt purchased the Long Island Railroad, the New York and Harlem Railroad, the Hudson River Railroad, and the Central Railroad, eventually merging them into the New York Central Railroad. By the time he finished purchasing rail lines, which later included the Lakeshore and Michigan Railway, the Michigan Southern, the Canadian Southern, and the Michigan Central Railroad, he owned the largest railway transportation system in the United States.
While he purchased his railroads, two New Yorkers were born who would come to have great influence over the Vanderbilt lines and the history of rail in general. Whitney Warren, born in New York City in 1864, and William Wilgus, born in Buffalo, New York, in 1865, would pursue the industries of architecture and civil engineering, respectively. But it was Vanderbilt who would create the groundwork for what would become their greatest achievement.
People, Trains, and Disaster
In 1886, to further accommodate the depot traffic a seven-track annex was installed. It would be a far cry from enough. In the three decades following the construction of the Depot, the city’s population had more than tripled from 942,292 in 1870 to 3,437,202 in 1900. By 1900, the Vanderbilt railroad business was run by William K. Vanderbilt, Cornelius’s grandson.
For Warren and Wilgus, their pursuits proved suited for a booming city. Warren, who had studied architecture at Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, believed in creating architecture fit for a metropolis, and one that was quickly becoming the center of the world’s commerce. Wilgus, who had spent his early career constructing railroads in the Midwest, had returned to New York to work for New York Central Railroad. In six years, from 1893 to 1899, Wilgus had risen from division engineer in one of the smaller branches to its chief engineer.
‘The Most Daring Idea’
While the New York Legislature reacted by passing a bill that would restrict steam locomotives from entering Park Avenue south of the Harlem River starting July 1, 1908, Wilgus had a different idea, which he proposed to the New York Central Railroad’s president.
Construction: Beginning to Completion
Wilgus was promoted to vice president and was given full control over construction of the new rail system design. His underground station would be an all-electric double-level station with the terminal controlled by 760 levers housed in a four-story building. With this underground design, it eliminated the need for the rail yards and freed up approximately 30 blocks in Manhattan for development, which Wilgus famously called “air rights.” These “air rights” resulted in commercial construction of numerous businesses, including the Biltmore Hotel, Commodore Hotel, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, and the Helmsley Building. This commercial usage helped offset the massive cost of building the new train station.This underground endeavor required blasting through 50 feet of rock and dirt. It also required the relocation of approximately 25 miles of sewer system and the removal of the original train shed. Altogether, 1.6 million and 1.2 million cubic yards of rock and dirt, respectively; 350 tons of cast iron; 1,350 tons of wrought iron; 90,000 square feet of corrugated iron; and 60,000 square feet of glass was removed from the site. Despite the construction, train service continued.
For Warren, his architectural goals were lofty, and his connections during his days in Paris proved to make those goals attainable. He commissioned his former classmate, Jules-Félix Coutan, who was director of the Académie des Beaux-Arts at the time, to design the sculpture for the three-arch façade. Coutan designed a model version from plaster and had it shipped to New York. The design was of a standing Mercury, the god of travel; with Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, seated on his left; and Hercules, the representation of strength, seated on his right. Below them would rest a large clock. This model was recreated in larger-than-life scale, and was considered at the time to be the largest group of sculptures in the world.
Warren also commissioned French artist Sylvain Saliéres to design and create bronze and stone carvings, which included the symbols of the Vanderbilt family crest (acorns and oak leaves). Arguably, the most famous aspect of the train station is the main concourse’s ceiling mural, painted with 2,500 stars and 12 constellations. It was created by Warren’s friend and colleague, French artist Paul Helleu.
Altogether, the construction for the replacement of the Grand Central Depot and Grand Central Station took 10 years. Covering nearly 70 acres with 30 platforms and 46 train tracks, and held together by an 18,600-ton steel skeleton, the project cost $80 million (approximately $2.48 billion today). Although construction was ongoing, and it would be another year before the mythological sculpture would be placed atop the building’s façade, it was during this week in history, on Feb. 2, 1913, that Grand Central Terminal opened.
