Grand Central Station, the crossroads of the world. Ask any New Yorker. Of course they’ll tell you it’s not only the crossroads, but the center of the world, or maybe that it IS the world.
Whatever, Grand Central Station is a wonderful place. We went on a free walking tour today with a guide from the Grand Central Conservancy who took us both around the station and around the neighborhood. He was a fast-talking, fast-walking New Yorker who often was disappointed in us as an audience because we didn’t respond, but frankly, he moved so fast there was no time to respond. He told us that when he came to NY 30 years ago he was just like us and that 9 years of Catholic school definitely didn’t make him the pushy, loud, fast New Yorker he is today.
A few facts that I can remember. Some had pictures. Where Grand Central is today used to be a railyard which was approximately 30 feet below where the street is today. About a half a mile in midtown Manhattan is actually a metal bridge covering that old railyard which is still in use. You cannot tell that this is the case, the streets have asphalt, sidewalks, and buildings. But the buildings are on huge piers and the streets rest on huge metal plates. Because of that, the asphalt and cement are continually crumbling and must be replaced frequently.
The grand hall of the station could hold 10 ten-story buildings, and in an area where the price of real estate is measured by the square inch (I’ll have to look up how much per square inch it’s worth), it was highly desirable to tear it down. The rallying cry in New York is about having torn down Penn Station to make room for more office buildings. The original beautiful station was built to last “750 years” though it was torn down in less than 60. As he said: Money rules in New York.
We looked at old banks, with huge stones, huge marble pillars, and every other architectural trick to look substantial and trustworthy and strong. Across the street was a new bank, all glass, to show that they’re not sneaking around doing anything with your money that they shouldn’t be. I guess in neither case was what the architecture showing what was really going on.
Inside GCS is a place called the Campbell apartment, which is a cozy, understated bar furnished in dark colors and with an amber glow from old fixtures, wood paneling. The message conveyed by the amber lights is relaxation, hominess, etc.
Various areas within the station, by their architecture are meant to move people in fast and out faster.
In earlier times, the long distance trains were relegated to a lower floor than the commuter trains, because people getting off a train from a long journey wouldn’t move fast enough and would be run over by the commuters if they shared the same space. Near the tracks for the long distance trains, they have the chalkboard showing the first day of operation of the station.
It's this picture that looks like a window with venetian blinds. I'm a fine photographer.
By the time we finished our tour, and there was much more than I have mentioned – it was an hour and 45 minutes, -- it was raining. We ended up buying some umbrellas, because I had decided against carrying any of Martha’s giant umbrellas around town all day, and figured we could wait out any rain. But we decided we didn’t want to, so we bought umbrellas, which of course made the rain stop.
We got back on the subway and went to the Morgan library.
The exhibit we went to see was a lot of Winston Churchill’s original speeches, all of which he wrote himself, and various letters by and to him regarding important issues in the two wars. A charming one was written by a doctor and was a prescription for Churchill to have “medicinal alcohol for dealing with pain” and which was to be used “in an amount as needed.” This was apparently a somewhat common prescription available during Prohibition. Churchill was visiting the US at the time and had been hit by a car while stepping out of a car. He looked the wrong way. We also sat in a small viewing room which had various pictures of the time and the audio was Churchill delivering the speeches.
The other exhibit at the Morgan that we looked at was a number of pen and ink drawings from Venetian masters. It was probably really good if you can draw, but not enough color to interest me. We went to the café because John was starving (quelle sorprese) and had two cups of coffee and five cookies (of the size you would get in a $3 bag of 50 cookies, for a mere $15. Accompanied by service from arguably the worst waiter in NYC.
We did manage to stop at a bead shop on the way home, but not a very interesting one. I wanted to buy some beads to make some earrings for Martha, so I kept my focus and tried not to look at anything else. I have an entire card table covered with beads that I have no other place to put – and that’s with an entire closet devoted to beads. Whether I can maintain that level of discipline for my whole trip is another story.
We ordered in for dinner tonight from an Indian restaurant at 94th and Broadway, and I swear it was here sooner than it would have been brought to our table if we had been in the restaurant. (94th and Broadway is approximately 2 blocks from here).
I have been doing my PT, but not as much as I should. However, I do have help.
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