Grand Central Terminal,

Waldorf-Astoria platform Passenger service: no regular service Existing abandoned portions: non-revenue platform on sidings Touring: On Metro North trains leaving Grand Central, look out to the right as the train leaves the station. construction and operation The Waldorf-Astoria platform is not really an abandoned station, but it might as well be mentioned here. Grand Central Terminal was constructed from 1903 to 1913 on the site of an older Grand Central Depot, which was replaced in gradual steps. The original depot that opened in 1872 was at street level, filling the space between Vanderbilt Ave and Depew Place from 42 St to 45 St. A large trainyard also at street level grew to take up much of the next few blocks almost from Madison Ave to Lexington Ave. The tracks narrowed to the width of Park Ave at 49 St and entered the Park Ave tunnel at 56 St. In a bold and visionary move, the New York Central Railroad spent an enormous sum to relocate the entire terminal and yard below street grade, on two track levels and occupying even more property, making a large rectangle bounded by 42 St, Lexington Ave, 50 St, and a line between Vanderbilt Ave and Madison Ave. The monumental station building was placed at the end of the tracks, centered on Park Ave from 42 St to 44 St. Once the terminal was completed, the rest of the valuable real estate was made available for buildings over the tracks. The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was built in 1929-1931 on one of the Grand Central lots, a whole block from 49 St to 50 St between Park Ave and Lexington Ave. It replaced four buildings less than twenty years old. The New York Central had an electrical power building along the 50 St side of the entire block. Along the 49 St side were the railroad YMCA at Park Ave, a large railroad powerhouse in mid block, and a building for the Adams Express Company package service on Lexington Ave. The powerhouse supplied steam to the station and some of the other buildings, and the attached electrical building had transformers and storage batteries supplying traction power to the railroad. Both buildings became surplus in 1929 when the railroad began getting steam and electric power from Con Edison. (A second electrical powerhouse had been built underground in 1918 under 43 St near Lexington Ave, deep under what is now an arcade of shops, and it is still partly functional in supplying traction power.) The heritage of the lot left an interesting backwater area of sidings below the Waldorf and nearby streets and lots, which are still in use to hold trains out of the way. Gratings in the sidewalk of 49 St and other streets allow glimpses of tracks and train roofs just below. The two wide platforms for the powerhouse and Adams Express are still there. The Waldorf-Astoria was allowed a partial basement along the 50 St side but is otherwise directly over the tracks and the two platforms. The "abandoned platform" that concerns us is the former loading platform for the powerhouse. The platform was of course never used or intended to be used in regular passenger service, and it was not even built for the hotel; it just happens to be in the right place. A stairway and a freight elevator run from the platform to a street entrance on 49 St. A comparison of plans before and after construction of the Waldorf-Astoria shows that the freight elevator is not original. At some date after 1913, it was built in the location of a former pipe shaft, and this was probably not possible until after the powerhouse closed in 1929. Therefore, it was installed together with construction of the hotel. Although it is within the envelope of the hotel building, it opens only onto the street. There is also another stairway exit, without an elevator, on the 50 St side of the hotel building. the story The New York Times of 8 September 1929 carried a story titled "NEW WALDORF GETS OWN RAIL SIDING" that states: The new Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, to be erected in the block bounded by Park Avenue, Lexington Avenue, Forty-ninth and Fiftieth Streets, will have a private railway siding underneath the building, it was learned yesterday. Guests with private rail cars may have them routed directly to the hotel instead of to the Pennsylvania Station or the Grand Central Terminal, and may leave their cars at a special elevator which will take them directly to their suites or to the lobby. The arrangement is made possible because of the fact that the New York Central tracks pass directly beneath the block, which has been obtained by the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria Corporation from the New York Central Railroad on a sixty-three-year leasehold, the lease being in reality only for the "air rights" on the site. The platform is mentioned in the W P A New York City Guide (New York: Random House, 1939): "Eighty per cent of the building is over the tracks of the New York Central, and private railroad cars may be shunted to a special entrance." William D Middleton provided the canonical account of the Waldorf platform in his book Grand Central: the world's greatest railway terminal (San Marino CA: Golden West Books, 1977), as follows: Its location above the tracks permitted the celebrated hostelry the unique distinction of its own railroad side track in the basement, so to speak. Officially identified as Track 61 in one of Grand Central's storage areas, with a freight elevator providing access to the hotel, the siding was used on occasion for the arrival or departure of distinguished guests traveling by private railroad cars. General John J Pershing was the first to use it, on a visit to the city in 1938. During the 1944 campaign Franklin D Roosevelt gave a foreign policy address at the Waldorf and then descended into the "basement" to the presidential rail car for the journey home to Hyde Park. On other occasions the siding has been used for such diverse affairs as a 1947 "debut at the Waldorf" for a new 6,000 horsepower diesel locomotive, or for a 1965 "underground party" for pop artist Andy Warhol. Middleton's account follows the Times story in giving the impression that the elevator is one of the hotel's elevators that runs up to hotel floors. But something seems to have changed while the hotel was being built. For one thing, the siding was not used for private cars for seven years, and then when it was finally used, the elevator did not go directly into the hotel. The press accounts of General Pershing's visit are clear on where the elevator was. Pershing had had a heart attack in February and had not been expected to attend his son's wedding in New York. The New York Times of 21 April 1938 describes it this way: Elaborate precautions were taken to save the general from any undue exertion, for he was fatigued from the long journey from Tucson, Ariz., where he made a remarkable recovery. From Grand Central station his special railroad car was shunted to a ramp under the Hotel Waldorf-Astoria that had never been used before. [He remained in the car while doctors checked him, and then] the General emerged, surrounded by detectives. . . camera bulbs flashed rapidly and then the general entered a freight elevator. . . [and] entered the hotel between two lines of private guards. The article includes a photograph of Pershing, evidently taken to one of those flashing bulbs on the Waldorf platform. From the account, clearly when he left the freight elevator, he then had to walk some short distance into the hotel itself. An article titled "Discovering the secrets of Grand Central Terminal", from the Journal-News of 9 Sep 2001, describes the freight elevator used by Pershing. [Metro North spokesman Dan Brucker said that President Roosevelt's] "armor-plated Pierce Arrow car would drive off the train, onto this platform and into the elevator, and it would bring him and his car into the hotel garage." ... The 6-foot-wide elevator, built to accommodate a 6,000-pound armored car, is kept in shape by elevator mechanic Darick Jones. Once at street level, Jones yanks the elevator gates open to reveal 49th Street. Driving an automobile with a slim profile, one could still make a sharp, right U-turn into the Waldorf garage. . . . The locked entrance to the secret station is down a stairway concealed behind a brass door marked 101-121 49th St, below a sign that reads "Metro-North Fire Exit". The Roosevelt story has taken on new dimensions here, with the automobile riding the train and taking the elevator. Recall that Middleton mentions just one use of the elevator. Many re-tellings of the tale now assume that Roosevelt used the platform routinely. For example, take this account in an academic book, Grand Central Terminal: railroads, engineering, and architecture in New York City by Kurt C Schlichting (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001): When President Franklin Roosevelt stayed at the Waldorf, his train would stop on the upper level of the underground train yard directly under the hotel. This enabled the president's aides to carry the paralyzed Roosevelt through a special door and then by elevator directly to his room, avoiding the public altogether. Unfortunately I have been unable to confirm even the one use that Middleton refers to. It must be Roosevelt's visit to the city on 21 October 1944 to address the Foreign Policy Association (see the New York Times). He made a very public arrival with a four hour tour of four boroughs in an open top automobile in the rain, to let the people see him. The secret platform on that trip was outdoors at Bush Terminal: Robert Sherwood, an eye witness, says that's where the train arrived, in his book Roosevelt and Hopkins. Nothing is said about a carfloat, so the private car must have gone through Penn Station and then via Long Island lines. The Times does not disclose Roosevelt's hotel, but a followup story puts him still in the city the next day, attending a dinner party in his honor at the Astor Hotel. Did he then go to Hyde Park? Roosevelt made no public appearances between the dinner in New York on 22 October and an afternoon press conference in Washington DC on 24 October, but that still doesn't give him much time, and his health was weakening, despite the impression he gave the public. He died in April 1945 of heart disease. It seems most likely to me that he journeyed to Washington on 23 October, ruling out use of the Grand Central platform. There is perhaps still room (but not much) to argue. later use There is only scattered documentation of later use of the platform, which is to be expected since it was so often used for privacy. A "new streamlined 6,000-horsepower Diesel-electric locomotive was placed on exhibition for the first time . . . on the Waldorf's private siding beneath the hotel", according to the Times of 23 September 1946. The Alco product could be seen that day and the next. This model was to begin service not on the New York Central but on the Santa Fe. A small notice in the Times of 26 January 1947 mentions the group of notable New Yorkers who held titles as Vice President of the small Lancaster and Chester Railway, South Carolina. The president of the company explained that they get one free ride a year, and "they are also expected to rally around the president's private car when it is parked under the Waldorf". The car was Loretta, formerly owned by Charles Schwab. The Boston clothing store Filene's and the New Haven railroad staged a fashion show of beach clothes in Grand Central, said the Times of 11 June 1948. The press and fashion executives were treated to a lunch in the New Haven's diner car Whaler, "which was brought to the Presidential siding under the Waldorf Astoria Hotel for the occasion". General Douglas Macarthur took up residence in the Waldorf upon his return from Korea in April 1951. The Times of 27 July 1951 reports that he returned from addressing the Massachusetts legislature in Boston by special train. "The General's private car and the observation car, from which MacArthur's five-star flag was flying, were run off onto the "presidential siding" beneath the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Employes of the hotel had rolled out a red carpet across the platform to an elevator. General MacArthur, in uniform, and Mrs MacArthur, in a dark blue ensemble, posed for press photographers with Frederic C Dumaine Jr, president of the New Haven Railroad, and Mrs Dumaine, who had accompanied them. The party then entered the elevator and was taken to the MacArthur suite." The photograph below was taken on the Waldorf platform, but lacks any notation. The man fifth from the left, dark suit, just to the right of the column appears to be Governor Adlai Stevenson (Illinois), a candidate for President in 1952. He gave a speech at the Waldorf on 28 August 1952, and it is tempting to suppose that the occasion here was his arrival in New York. The shortest man, third to the right of Stevenson, is Senator John O Pastore (Rhode Island).