Passenger Trains > How Penn Station saved New York's architectural history

The destruction of Penn Station seen as a saviour of other New York noteworthy buildings. I didn't realise that Penn Central fought the decision to preserve Grand Central all the way to the Supreme Court

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32890011



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/28/15 07:04 by 86235.

86235 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The destruction of Penn Station seen as a saviour
> of other New York noteworthy buildings. I didn't
> realise that Penn Central fought the decision to
> preserve Grand Central all the way to the Supreme
> Court
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32890011

Yes.  It was viewed as a Titanic struggle over a firm's right to do with its own property what it felt was best for the company.  Some legal observers have described this as one of the last stands before the idea of "stake holders" came into fashion.  Neighbors, quality of life, the local environment, work of art, etc.

Yes, but what a price to pay.

Bob
 

I'm reminded of the abandonment of the Pacific Electric interurban system in the Los Angeles area, and in particular, the San Gabriel Valley.  PE ran the numbers on upgrading the Pasadena Short Line and the line to Monrovia in the late 1940s.  This would involve rebuilding the track (which even a ten-year-old boy could tell was long over due for replacement) and buying a fleet of PCC cars.  But PE was losing money, and had no funds for capital improvements.  Various proposals were made, but some public officials objected to the idea of using taxpayer money to help a subsidiary of the Southern Pacific Co.  In the end, it never got past the "Wouldn't It Be Nice" stage, nobody put their money where there mouth was, and that was all she wrote for the Red Car system.  I think the same thing applied to Penn Station.  The powers that be in New York didn't see that the Pennsylvania RR of 1962 was a far cry from the PRR of 1912.