#Grand central station location windows

The waiting room, for example, had marble floors, Corinthian-style columns, stained-glass windows and a marble fireplace, and a restaurant. The interior of Grand Central Station was decorated as extravagantly as the exterior. At some point, however, the bell was removed, but the tower (and its huge clock, 13 ft (4.0 m) in diameter-at one time among the largest in the United States, remained. Early on, an 11,000 lb (5,000 kg) bell in the tower rang on the hour. Beman, an early advocate of the Floating raft system to solve Chicago's unique swampy soil problems, designed the tower to sit within a floating foundation supported by 55 ft (17 m) deep piles. Its most famous feature, however, was an impressive 247 ft (75 m) tower at the northeast corner of the structure. Imposing arches, crenellations, a spacious arched carriage-court facing Harrison Street, and a multitude of towers dominated the walls. The structure measured 228 ft (69 m) along Harrison Street and 482 ft (147 m) along Wells. Beman, who had gained notoriety as the designer of the Pullman company neighborhood, designed the station in the Norman Castellated and chose brick, brownstone and granite for construction. The waiting room of Grand Central Station had 26 ft (7.9 m) ceilings the floor was made of marble.Īrchitect Solon S. The location of this new depot, along the south branch of the Chicago River, was selected to take advantage of the bustling passenger and freight market traveling on nearby Lake Michigan. In October 1889, a subsidiary of the Wisconsin Central Railroad began constructing a new passenger terminal at the southwest corner of Harrison and Wells Streets (then called Fifth Avenue) in Chicago, to replace a nearby temporary facility. The station opened December 8, 1890, closed November 8, 1969, and was demolished in 1971. Major tenant railroads included the Soo Line Railroad, successor to the Wisconsin Central, the Chicago Great Western Railway, and the Pere Marquette Railway. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad purchased the station in 1910 and used it as the Chicago terminus for its passenger rail service, including its Capitol Limited service to Washington, D.C. Grand Central Station was designed by architect Solon Spencer Beman for the Wisconsin Central Railroad (WC), and was completed by the Chicago and Northern Pacific Railroad. It was located at 201 West Harrison Street on a block bounded by Harrison, Wells and Polk Streets and the Chicago River in the southwestern portion of the Chicago Loop.

Grand Central Station was a passenger railroad terminal in downtown Chicago, Illinois, from 1890 to 1969.