And Grand Central Terminal had some pretty hard years. First, they allowed it to get tacky in the 1960's and then later the City rolled over and played dead when speculators were all ready to tear it down for a new, "improved" space (wow, given what architecture in NYC was like at that time, one shivers to ponder how ghastly it would have been).
Then Jackie Kennedy Onassis to the rescue and the comeback ..just dodging the wreckers ball.
Some people like to make a big deal of the fact that Grand Central is a Terminal and not a Station, but that distinction will end in a couple of years when they finish the tunnel that will connect it to Penn Station and also other underground tunnels and improvements...
Recently saw a documentary about "The Secret Grand Central," from its generators WAY underground and weird scenes of "sandhogs" digging these cavernous tunnels over a hundred feet down...also a glimpse of what used to be a huge private apartment and is now a trendy bar and restaurant favored by those "in the know"....
They based the design on the Baths of Carcalla as I remember...I have always loved its ceiling with the recessed lights as stars in the murals of the signs of the Zodiac etc. People quibble that this heavenly vision is reversed from how it should be, but so what...
This is one place that deserves a great Centennial Year in New York...and endless thanks to "Jackie O." as they used to call her...
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