Old Penn Station New York City with aerial & skyline views of Manhattan & Empire State Building etc.
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- Fullscreen quality (click on "HD") slide show of New York City's old Pennsylvania Station which opened in 1910 and was demolished in 1963-'64. Madison Square Garden now occupies the site with the new Penn Station, essentially the original track level, beneath it.
![[4k, 60 fps] A Trip Through New York City in 1911](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hZ1OgQL9_Cw/mqdefault.jpg)
![A Day in New York 1940s in color [60fps, Remastered] w/sound design added](/img/n.gif)
Really depressing. Such a tragic loss. NYC has lost a lot of beautiful buildings to greedy developers, but Penn Station is the most unbelievable of them all. Looking at the concourse photos makes me want to cry.
@eddie1967 Fascinating subject - Manhattan had several EL lines - 2nd Ave., 3rd Ave., 6th Ave., and Ninth Ave lines. The 2nd Ave Line had a branch that ran over the 59th St Bridge and onto the Flushing Line. Flushing Line riders had a choice of taking what is today's No. 7 train - or taking the 2nd Ave El line over the bridge. The 3rd Ave line was the last to be torn down - about 1955. There were El trains on the Brklyn Bridge that were part of the Brooklyn El system operated by the BMT.
I remember arriving in New York City for the first time in 1954 . I stepped out of the train, walked up to the main concourse and looked around me. I was stunned. It was like being at the center of a majestic gesture of being welcomed to a city of pride and glory. I had to stand still and drink it all in. .. Now, new arrivals scurry out the nearest exit , their eyes and minds focused on where they're going.
As others have noted, I thank God that Carnegie Hall and Grand Central Station were saved. Even though I don't live in NY, I feel a great sadness at the loss of beauty such as Penn Station and the short-sitedness of the PRR who "sold the air" above the location for cash. It must be the kind of sadness and grieving that the Native Americans felt when deeply meaningful and symbolic places and ways of life were irretrievably lost. Thanks for putting this up.
@randomsource. Glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for your comment!
The grace & beauty that once was is gone for good.
Jackie Kennedy was so outraged by this demolition that she became the public figure for the historic preservation movement in the 1970's. She is the one to thank for the thousands of buildings that have been saved since from the wrecking ball. When she was in the White House 1961-63 she redecorated the White House and then gave the very first TV tour of the White House. She liked French Provincial, so in the early 1960's French Provincial was a very popular style for furniture, etc.
I'm glad you liked the video. Thanks for commenting!
You're welcome. Thanks for your nice comment!
It still makes me sick to see these photos. Shocking that anyone would bulldoze it to make that hideous Madison Square dump. Amazing video, thanks for sharing.
I see Penn Every day! As a new yorker to me, it's a beautiful thing PENN is a miniature city underneath the city!
Even though it has a feeling of being in a tight catacomb. it is a haven for The Homeless, The Rats and Pigeons!
By the time I had reached the end of this wonderful and informative documentary I couldn't help feeling deep sadness that such a work of great historic art should have been destroyed and thrown away, as if it wasn't worth fighting for. I never got the privilege to see the original Penn station, but I'd have given a great deal to do so. I say this because I realise that a building as awesome and as beautiful as this would have been worth the journey for me, and that journey would have been from England where I reside. I have no idea why the great people of America did not protest in their millions to make sure that Penn Station was preserved. I know that most of you with any love for that iconic land mark would have loved to have seen it still standing today, for your grandchildren to see and to be astonished by its grandeur and to be awed by its majesty. For them to realise how a great nation was founded, and that was on its railways and the great men that founded and built them,all to the glory of America.
I am deeply shocked that Penn Station is no more, all to make way for those that only saw the land that it stood on as a way to make a swift buck to erect something that was of lesser beauty and inspiration. Where were your politicians, why did they not make sure that this travesty, this vandalism of a great and rare piece of historic architecture, was not set aside, and by law to keep it standing? I have tears in my eyes that Penn Station is no more to be seen and admired by the world. Such a shame, such a loss. Why do we not realise and see the great beauty, yes even in Railway Stations? Thank God that the USA authorities have changed their ways now, and that at least 'Grand Central Terminal' is to be preserved and never to be destroyed, and is now considered a historical national landmark, here here! But too late for Penn Station, it was even more stunning than Grand Central, that is my opinion, Penn was truly magnificent, and I think that even though I never beheld it with my own eyes, wow! I'd have loved to have done that, to have seen it for myself!
Raymond Loewy had a hand in Penn Station: His first assignment from the PRR was to redesign the trash cans, reportedly a brush-off from PRR President Martin W. Clement. He did that well enough that he was invited to submit the eventual winning proposal for the GG1 electric locomotives.
New Yorkers of the first decade of the 20th century will be remembered for what they created. New Yorkers of the 1960's will be remembered for what they destroyed. Not only Pennsylvania Station but also the Singer Building and the Metropolitan Opera House.
@jjcjammer Glad you liked it. Thanks for your comment!
@eddie1967 Glad you liked it, Eddie. Thanks for commenting!
Irving Mitchell Felt (owner of Madison Square Garden who refused any compromise on Penn Station) and James M. Symes of the PRR (who not only lost the PRR a fortune on the Penn Station on the demolition costs and lack of royalties from MSG that lost money from its opening; he then compounded the matter by spurring on the merger of the Pennsy and the New York Central to form the Penn Central and the largest bankruptcy in history up to that time) should be at the top of your list.
What a shame that we lost this very important lankmark of the big apple. It was one of the best works of architecture in the 20th century!
@eddie1967 Hello again, Eddie. Yes, I did make this slide show and did the captioning and added the music. The images are mostly from the New York public library's digital collection. The remainder are from the Library of Congress. Good luck with your dissertation!
Thanks for your comment!
The music is one of the songs offered free by UA-cam to it's uploaders that is public domain (no copyright issues). I can't recall the name of the song or the artist. Thanks for commenting!
Penn Station was designed to last for eight centuries before any major structural work would have been necessary. It was so well-built it could have survived a nuclear blast and its destruction wound up costing the PRR 975% (no exaggeration) more that their original estimate. In fact, it took almost as long to dismantle the building as it did to build it AND its tunnels.
Thanks for the info, Joe.
I work there every day. It's hard to believe it's the same place. It's nothing more than a subway concourse. It use to work at 30th St. Station in Philadelphia. When you walk into a station like 30th Street or Grand Central, you feel like you have arrived somewhere special and classy. It's truly a shame this place was destroyed!
The west head building and Great Hall of Chicago Union Station (50% owned by the Pennsylvania RR) are still in use as a railway terminal and give a hint of what the old NY Penn Station must have been like. Unfortunately the east head building of CUS was razed in the 1960's and the area underneath it is just like the current Penn Station--all cramped, crowded corridors and food courts.
@NYKID10014 You're welcome. Thanks for commenting!
@Josquinquin Great comment. Thanks!
This beautiful station was sold to developers by the Penn Central RR who was in dire financial straits . No one in NYC intervened and the railroad went bankrupt anyway shortly thereafter. What a waste of a grand old structure that could never be built again. Long distance rail did decline at that time but the station was still busy with commuter rail traffic. It was a sad day for NY when this station was demolished.
I still find it hard to believe that developers were allowed to demolish such a historical landmark.......all in the name of greed.
Thanks for your comment, SMPSKIPPY. :)
I wish I could go see it today. Priceless Architecture meant to last for so many generations destroyed to put up ugly buildings.
The "New" current Madison Square Garden is not an ugly building. On the contrary. It was very advanced architecture for 1968!!!!!!!!!!!
I can remember my parent's generation as great as they were being gung-ho about things modern and wanting the recent past to go the way. There is this curve that falls to a low then builds as interest gets revived with so many things. The problem is spanning the time when the curve is at it's low stretch to get with the history. This was only 50 years!
The idea for the Madison Square Garden and Penn Plaza Center was to have it evoke the grace of the Trylon and Perisphere of the 1939 World's Fair. Instead, it appropriately resembles a dustbowl and a tombstone slab. And, surprise! One Penn Plaza has developed some structural issues over the decades. I don't think Felt's architectural debacle is going the last the 800 years the "Temple of Transportation" (modeled after the Baths of Caracalla and Basilica of Constantine) would have.
This video is much better in HD !!!
The demolition of Penn Station is such a huge loss to New York. What a fabulous landmark it was! What replaced the old Penn Station is a travesty.
NY's leadership didn't care. Back in the 60's, the thinking was all about "out with old and in the with new" in the name of "progress". Penn Station was privately owned by the Penn Railroad. It's loss lead to the creation of the NYC Landmarks Commission. Thank God they saved Grand Central.
The greatest of beautiful architecture lives in the present not only for aesthetic purposes but also add an element of vitality to the areas they occupy and surrounding environs, like Grand Central station does for example. MSG by comparison sucks up space and contributes little, so if it were demolished it would be little missed and rightly so.
The current Madison Square Garden contributes greatly to the sporting world of New York City and is a far cry better than the old warehouse of a arena that use to occupy the area on 50th street
Thanks for the memories. I remember as a youngster waiting with my dad and sister for my mom to arrive back to NYC from a weekend trip to Richmond, Va. I vividly recall the taxi stands, main concourse, and when her train arrived behind one of those legendary GG-1. Of course she was riding in a Pennsylvania Railroad Budd tuscan red coach.
Thank God through the efforts of Jackie Kennedy that the Grand Central Station didn't suffer the same fate.
@colmalbar Thanks for your comment!
“One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat" -Architectural historian Vincent J. Scully Jr.
Peter Jackson's KING KONG showed many scenes from the air over this part of town, but sadly left this enormous landmark out of his recreation of 1930s New York - it should have been mere blocks away, but it was missing!! I was looking for it when i watched the film in the theater, to no avail.
You're quite welcome! Very glad you liked it. Fortunately, the loss of the station seems to have been taken as a lesson learned on the need for preservation of important historic structures. Thanks for your comment!:)
@Str8211 Thanks for your comment!
besides the track level, is there any bit of the original station left? even any part of the concourse where the stairs are to get down to the platform level? what a shame, it looked like an amazing station, better than philly's 30th street station
My pleasure Paul. Glad you liked it. Thanks for commenting! :)
thank you for the video.. i know it's off topic..but what's the background music?
The demolishing of Pennsylvania Station gives cause to ponder the mindset of those who would contemplate such an action. What is today considered an iconic symbol of a bygone era was perhaps to those who actually lived in that era just another building, with no special value other than utilitarian. And as for MSG, why is that there was no outcry when the old MSG on 8th Avenue was demolished?
It's called progress. The old MSG on 8th Ave & 50th street was a warehouse with a marquee out front. The current Madison Square Garden was a architectural masterpiece for 1968
The original architecture reflected self respect and a sense of reaching. Its interior lit by natural sunlight and fit for a king. What replaced it is just crass and vulgar. That it's a haven for rats and pigeons is so fitting. What a shame.
@Str8211 yes but it seems like a super sized subway station I saw the old Penn Station just as it was being demolished and it was a great loss and a disgrace Thank God Grand Central didn't share its I've heard there have been plans to make the GPO across the street, planned by the same architects, into a much more suitable waiting room etc. as the tracks run right under it Was anything ever done does anyone know? Originally the plans called for the two stations to be connected why weren't they??
@dfirth224 Great comment! Thanks!
I'd say no, NONE of those buildings are worth any fond recollections. The only fond memories associated with them are attending sporting events with friends and family, which could be done anywhere; the buildings and facilities themselves were dirty eyesores, each of them. Penn Station on the other hand was "just" a train station, but one so glorious that it uplifted the spirits of everyone who passed through it. "We used to enter the city like kings; now we enter like rats."
I wish they would tear down that ugly Madison Square Garden and rebuild the beautiful New York Penn Station the way it was originally! NY PENN Station is SO ugly now...
Absolutely agree!
Superbe sujet ! Mais quel quel dommage !
Un bel édifice comme ça détruit, imaginons ce que cela aurait pu donner avec le parc autour !
La citation de Churchill postée par TigerRocket est importante :
"Nous façonnons nos édifices; par la suite ils nous façonnent"
Comment éduquer les générations sans leur laisser voir ce que le génie, l'audace, la volonté, le travail et le talent on su créer ?
Sommes nous obligés de détruire pour améliorer ?
Newark Penn station in newark still retains some of its old world charm definitely and has some similarities to this station in a way. I have a feeling NJ has something to do with nyc original penn station getting taken down. They dont take care of their landmarks or tear them down entirely. It seems they didnt want to pay for the costs of keeping up such a beautiful place like this. So im sure they had something or alot to do with it getting taken down.
Madison Square Garden is cool, but seeing pictures of the train station that used to sit on that spot makes me hate it.
It's called progress. Look at pictures of the old MSG on 50th street in the 50's. The new & current Madison Square Garden is an architectural masterpiece compared to the 3 other MSG's of the past
The "new" Penn station is so uninspiring. Sterile, low ceilings, no natural lighting. Even the ACELA lounge is a bit claustrophobic. At least Grand Central was saved thanks in part to Jackie.
@uboob67 Thanks for your comment!
odd thing about the demolition process was that when they got through the lengthy process of demolishing the outside, the inside they came to discovered was nothing but plaster and chicken wire
Took 3 years to take down could see how well built that station was.
To contiinue: Isn't MSG also worthy of a moment for fond recollection? And what about Ebbets Field, the Polo Grounds, Shea Stadium and the original Yankee Stadium? Should these edifices have been demolished too? The only thing that is constant is change. Many beautiful buildings of the past are now ruins and for many others, nothing remains.
Later this year will be the 100th anniversary of the opening of the original Pennsylvaina Station. It's a shame that there won't be anything there to celebrate.
What adds to the tragedy is that Pennsylvania Railroad could have kept the Northeast Corridor, Penn Station, Long Island and New Jersey commuter rails, sold the rest and remained in business! Everyone lost out with the sale of the upper portion of Penn Station. The company still went bankrupt and every other station it left is still used by Amtrak!
I brought my daughter to Manhattan by train and that was the time for her to get off the train and say "wow we're in New York now." Instead the traveling just continued without a clear arrival. I want Wall Street to serve society, buy the block and rebuild the old Penn Station!
altoM40
@farmer63980 Thanks!
@devildoc225 yeah and that's not all we got to thank him for, he may have got a lot of necessary projects completed but he allowed the subway system to go to hell, When the 3rd ave. EL was torn down it was supposed to be replaced by a subway I can remember back in the 70s the excavation for the subway but only a small section was ever completed. the majority of the tunnel is unused I believe, I heard there were plans to complete it finally but I'll believe it when I see it, God Save New York NY!
Chopping down a monument as great as Pennsylvania Station has to be the ultimate sin. A grand struture such as this could never be build again and it happened in Chicago as well where only part of Union Station remains as a remenent to railroadings great days.
@Str8211
Is New York still artistic at all like it was in the seventies
A rebuilt Penn station would be great. Thanks for commenting!
To tear down this station in New York, or Northwestern Station and The Old Stock Exchange in my hometown were crimes, it was the hard work of many people to design every inch of those buildings, its like someone who would set fire to a Van Gogh painting and replace it with a crayon doodle, except they would get arrested.
so so so so sad... greed destroyed such beautiful thing
Irving Mitchell Felt, owner of Madison Square Garden (whose brother James had created the Landmarks Preservation Commission and then promptly abstained from any action regarding Penn Station), made this remark that was typical of the self-serving and publicly sheltered suits of the time: "In fifty years when the time comes for our Center to be torn down, another group of architects will protest."
And the ironic thing is, those "group of architects" were themselves.
It was dirty and neglected for years before they tore it down. They blocked off the archways connecting the concourse and the waiting room, and let tacky little storefronts set themselves up around the perimeter.
I read the Night and Day clock sits in a landfill right now but they know where it is. Why havent they rescued it and at least given it some love and respect and put it in a nice garden or something?? Something should be done about that.
Thank you for posting this video! Beautiful station, what a loss. The good thing is that the Farley Post Office building in your video is the Moynihan Station and it shares the old Penn Station architecture. I think it is amazing how much of the trackage has been covered over.
Seeing what was, and knowing what is....
The killing of this station was an absolute architectural crime. Madison Square Garden isn't worth it.
I heard two eagles are unaccounted for
i still cant understand why they tore it down?
I didnt see anything wrong with it?
Several of the eagles are scattered along the long island railroad there is one in hicksville
@Darthbelal I just went there yesterday and you were right, it was so disgusting. even the subway station adjacent to it, very dirty and smelly. :(
to @madercic3aolcom thanks for the video..really brings back memories..
I always get subway to Penn st when in NYC' I'm from London, didn't kno about the old building till I saw this vid' what the fuck were they thinking' criminal that's it, atleast you've got Grand central, masterpiece! when in London check out the new rebuilt Saint Pancras station truely back it's former glory!!
You have to be there to experience it. Hard to imagine why it was built so large.
Thats just sad what they did to this place. What a shame. They kinda learned afterwards and realized they had fucked up and then they created the preservation board to protect buildings like these but its a shame this place got torn down. This shouldntve happened.
I wish I could have been here when this gorgeous structure was still around. What a terrible, terrible loss to New York City.
Thank you for these images. I hope that New York and Amtrak, under the Moynihan Plan, rebuilds Penn Station to its original glory.
I mean could they even rebuild this structure even if they wanted to? Building codes are so ridiculous now
Thanks for sharing, such a thoughtless loss
Thanks for your comments!
lovely video - can you tell me the music you used?
way better than the current one the modern day one is such a crap hole
“One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat.”--Vincent Scully
Capitalism both giveth and taketh away....
The loss of this building was the chief loss in the holocaust of beautiful buildings in this country. There was also a holocaust in the transit systems of most US cities when our street level rail was removed, after General Motors and several automotive companies bought the systems and abandoned them. I HATE the look of most modern buildings! But, there's hope. The Port Authority just spent on the new PATH station at World Trade Center WHAT IT WOULD COST TO REBUILD PENN STATION ACCORDING TO MCKIM'S ORIGINAL DESIGNS. If we can spend it on a PATH station, we can spend it on a new Penn once that atrocious Madison Square Garden is sent tumbling.
what lovely pictures! how beautiful was the station!
The main philistine behind the demolition was Irving Felt. What a jerk.
I know it has been said a million times but what a shame.
i still cant believe idiots at that time voted to tear down this great wonder.ITS A CRYING SHAME ITS NO LONGER HERE!
Who to blame for the demolition of this architectural masterpiece? Stuart T. Saunders, it was under his presidency of the Pennsylvania Railroad, that this monumental act of vandalism was committed. I still can't believe something this irreplaceable is lost forever and I HATE the modern look of buildings!
Inspired and Modeled after the Roman Baths of Caracalla, this is considered one of the Greatest Architectural Losses of America.
They don't build them like that anymore, and I mean that in a Good Sense.
To take a Jack Hammer to it is an Outrage.
Actually, that is not true. Saunders became president of PRR in 1963, after plans for demolition was made and announced.
Modern architecture is horses----. You want to see real architecture? Go to the Main Post offices, old churches, railroad stations, old banks, old courthouses in many cities. That is the real deal.
Tragedy ladies and gents that we couldn't save it
The classical architecture, the open vast open concourse with vaulted domes
I've been through Penn Station afterwards; a gloried basement/underground concourse of expensive goods and cheap-fast food.
oh, well
cast iron construction grows brittle and weak with age, I think that many were actually fearfull of a death of nyc due to suburban flight. but it is a shame.
Why did they kill this beautiful timeless structure? And to replace it with the ugly eyesore monstrosity standing in its place? This is a crime of epic proportions. Thank God people
came to their senses quickly after realizing the destructive mistake that was made, and saved the GCT. Many other buildings built around this time/era were also saved because of this crime. So in a way, the original Penn Station did not die in vain. R.I.P. Let's now kill this ugly eyesore of a replacement monstrosity and resurrect the original beauty.
I hate Pennyslvania Station today. It's a commuter's nightmare. With its maze-like layout, it takes more time walking to the proper train station than the actual subway ride. Horrible design.
What a loss. I wish I had been alive to see it, and not that crummy, poor excuse for a train station I commute through every day.
What's the music playing?