Grand by Design
February 17, 2014 2:30 PM Subscribe
Grand by Design is a Centennial Celebration of Grand Central Terminal. It's a looong page with a lot of nice images and facts from the history of the Grand Central Depot/ Station/ Terminal. (Previously)
Dan Brucker, who appears way down towards the end, is the lead tour guide at GCT and one of New York's absolute treasures. If you visit Grand Central and you see Dan leading a tour, insinuate yourself on the fringe of the tour group as long as you can. You won't regret it. He's knowledgable and entertaining.
posted by How the runs scored at 5:08 PM on February 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by How the runs scored at 5:08 PM on February 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
I fondly recall when a passage through there was a near daily event for me. Thank you for the link.
posted by scottymac at 9:55 PM on February 17, 2014
posted by scottymac at 9:55 PM on February 17, 2014
Dan Brucker, who appears way down towards the end, is the lead tour guide at GCT and one of New York's absolute treasures. If you visit Grand Central and you see Dan leading a tour, insinuate yourself on the fringe of the tour group as long as you can.
Yes. Brucker is a national treasure, and I think of him as the Mayor of Grand Central. When I wrote for an architecture magazine, we filmed a series of interviews with architects talking about their favorite New York City buildings. Bernard Tschumi picked Grand Central as his, and so we got to spend the better part of an afternoon with Dan Brucker.
He took us on the walkway high above the floor of the great hall and told us fantastic stories with arm-waving enthusiasm, like the one about a Fifth Column plot to foil the allied war effort. As I remember it, most of the American soldiers on the East Coast who departed for Europe were being funneled through New York City, and hence, through Grand Central. It seems there was a massive dynamo a hundred feet below the deepest train tracks underground. The power it supplied kept the region's trains, and hence, the US Army, in motion.
As we stood on that glass catwalk, closer to the Zodiac above than the madding crowd below, Dan told us the saboteurs' scheme: one of them was going to dump a bucket of sand in the exposed gears of the delicately-tuned contraption, which would have brought train traffic in the Northeast—and the American war effort—to a screeching halt. (They were foiled). I think of this every time I pass through Grand Central, and I'll remember it fondly long after I finally up and quit the city.
Nice link, filthy light thief.
posted by andromache at 1:02 PM on February 18, 2014
Yes. Brucker is a national treasure, and I think of him as the Mayor of Grand Central. When I wrote for an architecture magazine, we filmed a series of interviews with architects talking about their favorite New York City buildings. Bernard Tschumi picked Grand Central as his, and so we got to spend the better part of an afternoon with Dan Brucker.
He took us on the walkway high above the floor of the great hall and told us fantastic stories with arm-waving enthusiasm, like the one about a Fifth Column plot to foil the allied war effort. As I remember it, most of the American soldiers on the East Coast who departed for Europe were being funneled through New York City, and hence, through Grand Central. It seems there was a massive dynamo a hundred feet below the deepest train tracks underground. The power it supplied kept the region's trains, and hence, the US Army, in motion.
As we stood on that glass catwalk, closer to the Zodiac above than the madding crowd below, Dan told us the saboteurs' scheme: one of them was going to dump a bucket of sand in the exposed gears of the delicately-tuned contraption, which would have brought train traffic in the Northeast—and the American war effort—to a screeching halt. (They were foiled). I think of this every time I pass through Grand Central, and I'll remember it fondly long after I finally up and quit the city.
Nice link, filthy light thief.
posted by andromache at 1:02 PM on February 18, 2014
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posted by NoxAeternum at 3:12 PM on February 17, 2014