Midtown Manhattan Landmarks

Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan

Grand Central Terminal is a Beaux-Arts rail terminal at 89 East 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan. It opened on February 2, 1913, and is known for its Main Concourse, its turquoise celestial ceiling and the four-faced clock above its central information booth.

Quick facts

Where: 89 East 42nd Street, Midtown Manhattan
Opened: February 2, 1913 (construction ran from 1903 to 1913)
Architects: Reed and Stem, and Warren and Wetmore (Whitney Warren designed the exterior)
Style: Beaux-Arts
Platforms: 44 numbered platforms
Main Concourse: 275 feet long, 120 feet wide and 125 feet high
Rail service: the southern terminus of Metro-North's Harlem, Hudson and New Haven Lines; Long Island Rail Road service to the Grand Central Madison concourse beneath the terminal began in January 2023
Landmark status: facade a New York City landmark since 1967 and interior since 1980; National Historic Landmark since 1976

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History

Grand Central Terminal was designed by two firms working together, Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore, with Whitney Warren handling the exterior design. It opened on February 2, 1913.

The Main Concourse's celestial ceiling was conceived in 1912 by Warren and the painter Paul César Helleu and painted in 1913 by the Hewlett-Basing Studio of Brooklyn. By the 1920s the original, painted directly on the ceiling, was water-damaged and faded. It was later covered by a replacement version. Today's mural shows more than 2,500 stars and gold bands on a turquoise background. Its constellations are reversed left to right, an error a commuter reportedly noticed in 1913.

The four-faced brass clock above the central information booth has opalescent glass faces. A popular story says the faces are made of precious opal worth millions of dollars. That is a myth.

In 1968 the terminal's owner, Penn Central, proposed building an office tower on or beside the terminal, and the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected the plans. The dispute reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled on June 26, 1978, in Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City, that the city's landmark designation was not an unconstitutional taking.

What to look for

The celestial ceiling above the Main Concourse
The four-faced clock on the central information booth
The arches over the ramps by the Oyster Bar, which form a whispering gallery: someone speaking softly in one corner can be heard in the diagonally opposite corner
The departure board, which has changed from a chalkboard (1913 to 1967) to split-flap, LCD and, since 2019, LED screens
The two grand staircases, which were modeled on the Palais Garnier in Paris

Visiting Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central is a working rail terminal. Metro-North carries about 67 million passengers a year through it (a fiscal-year 2018 estimate). SUMMIT One Vanderbilt is across Vanderbilt Avenue, and the Chrysler Building is a short distance east on 42nd Street. To see Midtown by pedicab, see our tours.