20 Facts About Central Terminal

1. Grand Central Terminal had started keeping standard time a few hours before.

2. Grand Central Terminal was filmed in Technicolor for the first time in 1953.

3. Grand Central Terminal officially opened to great fanfare at 12:01 am on Sunday, February 2, 1913, and more than 150,000 people visited the new terminal on its opening day.

4. Grand Central Terminal was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976, giving it official protection from developers who wished to demolish it.

5. Grand Central Terminal features public art by a variety of artists.

6. New York Central Terminal, facing bankruptcy, merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1968, forming the Penn Central Railroad.

7. Grand Central Terminal has a post office at 450 Lexington Avenue, built from 1906 to 1909.

8. Grand Central Terminal was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by Reed and Stem and Warren and Wetmore.

9. Grand Central Terminal was built with five signal control centers, labeled A, B, C, F, and U, that collectively controlled all of the track interlockings around the terminal.

10. Grand Central Terminal was named after the New York Central Terminal Railroad, the company that constructed the station house and its two predecessors.

11. Grand Central Terminal covers 48 acres and has 44 platforms, more than any other railroad station in the world.

12. Grand Central Terminal served intercity and commuter trains until 1991, when Amtrak intercity trains moved to nearby Penn Station.

13. Grand Central Terminal was built by and named for the New York Central Railroad, though it served New York Central's successors as well as the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.

14. Grand Central Terminal contains a variety of stores and food vendors, including a food court on its lower-level concourse.

15. Grand Central Terminal is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

16. Grand Central Terminal now houses restaurants, cocktail lounges, and various fast food outlets as well as delis, bakeries, newsstands, a gourmet and fresh food market, an annex of the New York Transit Museum, and more than 40 retail stores.

17. Grand Central Terminal has both monumental spaces and meticulously crafted detail, especially on its facade.

18. Grand Central Terminal is one of the busiest train stations in the world, and serves nearly 200,000 New York City commuters every day.

19. Grand Central Terminal has intricate designs both on its inside and outside, lending to its landmark designations, including as a US National Historic Landmark.

20. Grand Central Terminal is a commuter, rapid transit and intercity railroad terminal.