Grand Central Station

Introduction

Grand Central Terminal is located in Manhattan (New York) and is one of the most famous and most visited train stations in the world. It's an important tourist stop in Manhattan.

Grand Central Terminal was opened in 1923 and is one of the architectural jewels among train stations worldwide. In addition to its charming and elegant interior, it's the train station with the highest number of platforms in the world (44 platforms and 67 tracks). Grand Central Station has four floors: two above ground, and two underground.

As well as being a train station, visitors to Grand Central Terminal are not only travellers, but also tourists who have just come to admire it, or to visit one of the restaurants or shops located inside.

Vanderbilt Hall

The main thing to see in the Terminal is its impressive 1, 500 metre square hall. This hall is called Vanderbilt Hall, and is a waiting room where you can buy train tickets and access the many platforms. It's extremely elegant, and is definitely the best hall I've seen in all the public transport I've ever used.

Main exterior facade

The main entrance's facade is also beautiful, though not so like the interior. There is a clock on the top part, and it is crowned by a statue which I think is of an angel. It's just next to a small bridge, which prevents you from viewing it in all its glory.

Anecdotes

The first time I saw this station was in the TV series Gossip Girl, and it's one of the best-known episodes right at the beginning when Serena arrives. The station has also been used in other series and films.

Something strange which happened to me in Vanderbilt Hall is that when I went with a friend who had to catch a train to the outskirts of Manhattan in the early hours of the morning, while we were buying her ticket a man shouted something, and suddenly everyone in the hall started to walk in the same direction. We realised later on that he was filming, very common in New York, but a bit strange for those who aren't actors!

How to get there

To get to Grand Central Terminal, there are three options. The first is that you arrive on one of the trains that stop at the station, and if not, then arrive by metro or bus. The metro stop is called Grand Central Terminal and the lines are numbers 4, 5, 6, 7 and S. You can catch buses M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M42, M98, M101, M102, M104 and Q32 to reach the station.