“GRAND CENTRAL,” BY SAM ROBERTS.

Whenever someone, who has never been to New York City, asks me what’s it like my standard response has always been the same: “Love it or hate it, it is the one place you should visit in your lifetime. There is nothing like it.”

OR

To quote Truman Capote, not word for word, but close enough, “I walk down any other street, in any other place, and I get a few images running through my mind every minute. I walk down a street in NYC and I get a thousand images passing through my mind every minute.”

Sam Roberts’ biography, “Grand Central: How a Train Station Transformed America,” is a comprehensive, engrossing, history of this famous terminal from it’s very beginning when river boat mogul Cornelius Vanderbilt decided to become a railroad magnate and built the terminal, around the late 1800’s, to just about present day, 2016, when an estimated one hundred million commuters pass through the terminal every year.

Back in the late 1970’s when I was a frequent visitor to Manhattan’s New York City Library’s annex, down a few streets from the famous Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street Library, I would pass by the glorious Grand Central Terminal’s main entrance at 42nd street, occasionally going in and marveling at its stunning, breathtaking design, at least 3 to 4 times a week.

It was just about this time that a few politicians and a state Supreme Court Judge came up with the brilliant idea to tear down this majestic engineering, architectural work of art. It is simply amazing what idiotic ideas, that almost become reality, can happen when a few politicians and a Judge a little too high on his own power can come up with. (a 1970’s version of the current Republican Party)

Thankfully a few Preservations, most notably Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, intervened and saved the day. Since then the terminal has undergone a major restoration returning the terminal to its original glory, expanding it, and in my humble opinion making it more remarkable than ever. A city within a city.

The book is filled with amazing pictures and just in case you don’t have time to read the book you might want to go to: www.grandcentralterminal.com/info/aud…

I highly recommend this book and like I said earlier, love it or hate it, one should visit NYC at least once in your lifetime. Grand Central Station would be a great place to start.