How much did it cost to build Grand Central Terminal?

Most people cannot answer that question ($80 million, as it happens), in part because it no longer seems very salient. Whatever the price, New York received an enduring landmark in exchange, a portal to the city that has never lost its power to inspire awe.

If the World Trade Center Transportation Hub is ever to emerge from under the shadow of its $3.94 billion price tag (double Grand Central’s, adjusted for inflation), it will have to do more than move PATH commuters efficiently. It will have to lift hearts.

Perhaps it can.

A visit to the monumental station on Wednesday left the impression that its main transit hall may be the most hopeful element at the trade center complex when it opens in 2015.

Now full of light and air, it will one day be full of people, movement and life, as well. It could become a destination in its own right, even for those who are not among the 200,000 or so commuters traveling daily to and from New Jersey.