(Train 51 leaves 8:31; No. 3, 8:46; No. 41, 1:01; No. 25, 2:46; No. 19, 5:31. Eastbound: train 6 arrives 9:22; No. 26, 9:40; No. 16, 4:00; No. 22, 5:25.)[1]
[1. Throughout this handbook the time is given at which trains are scheduled to leave or pass through the cities or towns mentioned. From New York to Chicago, Train No. 51 is the Empire State Express; No. 3, the Chicago Express; No. 41, The Number Forty-one; No. 25, the Twentieth Century, and No. 19, the Lake Shore Limited. In the reverse route, from Chicago to New York, No. 6 is the Fifth Avenue Special; No. 26 is the Twentieth Century; No. 16, the New York and New England Special, and No. 22, the Lake Shore Limited. The time given is Eastern Standard Time at all points east of Toledo, and Central Standard Time, which is one hour slower, at Toledo and all points west. (When Daylight Saving Time is adopted during the summer it is one hour faster than Standard time, but all time given in this booklet is Standard time.) The time between 12.01 o'clock midnight and 12.00 o'clock noon is indicated by light face type; between 12.01 o'clock noon and 12.00 o'clock midnight by dark face type. The use of an asterisk (*) indicates places recommended as especially worth visiting. Population figures are those of the 1920 U.S. Census.]
Fifty years ago when Commodore Vanderbilt began the first Grand Central Station—depot, they called it, in the language of the day—he made one error of judgment. His choice of a site proved to be magnificently right, though he selected a spot that was practically open country, then technically known as 42nd St. The story goes—it is a typically American story—that his friends laughed at him, remarking that a person might as well walk to Boston or Albany as go away up to 42nd St. to take a train for those cities. But the people did come, and they admired the commodore's new station, which is perhaps not surprising, since the commodore had set himself to build the greatest terminal in the world. Many Americans considered the new "depot" as only second to the capitol at Washington, and it served as an excellent show place when visitors came to town. Europe might have its cathedrals, but it had no Grand Central Station!
The commodore's one mistake lay in thinking that his fine new station would last a century. Within ten years an addition had to be built; in 1898 it had to be entirely remodeled and enlarged, and fifteen years later it was entirely demolished to make way for the present building which would be adequate for handling the city's ever-increasing millions.
There seems to be little doubt that the city of N.Y. and its environs has become within the last decade larger even than London. The population of greater London (including all the separate administrative entities within the Metropolitan Police District) is estimated at 7,435,379. Jersey City, Hoboken, and the other N.J. cities on the west, as well as Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, New Rochelle, etc., on the north, although politically detached, are included in the "city" of N.Y. in the larger sense, their political detachment being in a certain sense accidental. Including these, the population of N.Y. area corresponding to the Metropolitan London area is 7,583,607. The population of N.Y. City proper is 5,261,151. The London area comparable with this, viz., the part of London governed by the London County Council has a population of 5,028,974. Comparing the areas of the two—N.Y.C. with 327 sq. miles and London with 692 sq. miles, it is hard to understand how the respective populations should approximate each other so nearly until it is remembered that New York grows perpendicularly instead of horizontally, that it usurps more air rather than more land. In some of the downtown business streets, such as Wall or Rector, the buildings tower so high above the narrow thoroughfare that they form a kind of deep canyon along which the wind is drawn as through a tunnel.
Commodore Vanderbilt
Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794-1877) at the age of 16 bought a sailboat in which he carried farm produce and passengers between Staten Island, where he lived, and N.Y. He was soon doing so profitable a business that in 1817, realizing the superiority of steam over sailing vessels, he was able to sell his sloops and schooners, and became the captain of a steam ferry between N.Y. and New Brunswick. His projects grew enormously. He inaugurated steamship lines between N.Y. and San Francisco, N.Y. and Havre, and other places. In 1857-1862 he sold his steamships and turned his attention more and more to the development of railways, with the result that before his death he had built up and was a majority share owner in the N.Y. Central & Hudson River, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, the Harlem, and the Michigan Central & Canada Southern railways, and had holdings in many others. He died at N.Y. in 1877.
In the colonial period Philadelphia was the most important city, commercially, politically and socially, while just before the War of Independence, Boston, with a population of 20,000 was the most flourishing town in all the colonies. During the Revolutionary War, N.Y.C. had fallen to a population of 10,000 and in 1790 it had barely gained a position of leadership with 33,131, but by 1840 N.Y.C. had grown to be a city of 313,000 while Philadelphia had 95,000 and Boston 93,000.
Today one of the most remarkable features of New York is the Grand Central Terminal. The exterior finish is granite and Indiana lime-stone; the style somewhat Doric, modified by the French Renaissance. Over the entrance to the main building is a great arch surmounted by a statuary group wherein Mercury, symbolizing the glory of commerce, is supported by Minerva and Hercules who represent mental and moral force.