“Meet me under the clock at Grand Central,” he says to me. No further precision is required. It is the city’s most famous meeting point and has been for 100 years  This week New York City celebrates the birthday of the famous railway terminus with marching bands, speeches and prices rolled back to what they were on February 1, 1913 — well, for one day only! Grand Central Terminal (please note, this is the correct terminology, as explained by its Station Master, is the largest train station in the world if you consider the number of platforms. Trains start and end their journeys here as opposed to just rumbling through. There are 44 of them, on two levels, transporting commuters to points north of the city, including Connecticut and counties of New York State.  More than 21,000,000 people pass through it each year, making it the sixth most visited site in the US; so be sure to stop in when you are in New York.

The first thing that strikes you, as you walk into the cavernous hall to your appointed meeting under the opal clock, is the 125-foot ceiling. Once obscured by decades of pollution, the lustrous canopy over your head with 2,500 softly twinkling stars is a backward map of the sky (except for the constellation of Orion). The artist, Frenchman Paul-Cesar Helleu, explained that it was “God’s perspective of the universe.” At Christmas a laser light show often lights up the ceiling, competing with the stars to dazzle the visitors.

If you look very hard you will notice a small dark circle in the sky near Pisces. In 1957, after the Russians launched a Sputnik into space, a Redstone missile was displayed in Grand Central. Someone miscalculated the height of the rocket, so a hole was cut into the roof to accommodate it

Helleu was only one of the Frenchmen who contributed to the beauty of Grand Central, which looks as if it was picked up from Paris and put down in New York. Walk outside and look up at the facade on 42nd Street and Park Avenue, and you will see the work of Jules Felix Coutan. His sculptures of Minerva, Hercule, and Mercury surround the clock with its 13-foot circumference, the world’s largest example of Tiffany glass.

Another, Sylvain Salieres, was brought to New York by Whitney Warren, the architect of Grand Central, to decorate the inside. As you walk around the huge hall, look for the small details like the ornate acorn and oak leaf carvings in the marble West staircase, symbols of the original financiers of the building, the Vanderbilts.

Grand Central isn’t just a train terminal; it is the iconic New York experience. Wander down to the Lower Level where the Oyster Bar and Restaurant has held court since 1913 when oysters were as ubiquitous as hot dogs are today. Just outside the door under the arches is a “whispering” gallery. Stand in one corner facing the wall and whisper something to your friend standing in the opposite corner.

If oysters aren’t your thing (the Bar serves other seafood too), there are many more dining choices (34 eateries of various descriptions) on both levels of the building, accessed through the many ramps that lead up or down. At the time of its inauguration, the ramps were considered a novel new approach to moving people up and down levels. Nooks and crannies abound in Grand Central although you won’t be able to visit them. One houses a hidden platform and rail car used by dignitaries like Franklin D. Roosevelt and General John Pershing to reach the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, five blocks north on Park Avenue. Another is the spiral staircase inside the information booth that is used by staff to move between levels.

As train travel declined in the years after World War II, we almost lost this beautiful Beaux-Arts building to developers who wanted to tear it down and put up monstrous skyscrapers. It took someone with the stature of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to lead the fight to save the building. Restorations returned both the inside and outside of the structure to its original grandeur and preserved it for future generations.  So the next time you need to meet someone in New York City, remember the Clock in Grand Central Terminal.

PHOTOGRAPHY TIP
The best vantage point for a wide-angle shot of the terminal is at the top of the West Marble staircase. If you not allowed to use a tripod, you can place your camera on the marble balustrade. A wide-angle lens will capture the entirety of the terminal. Although lighting can be a challenge, on a sunny day, sunlight streaming through the windows onto the floor will create a unique effect, as will a long exposure that will turn the people in the terminal into “ghosts.’

For the facade on 42nd Street, walk to Park Avenue and 39th Street where the Park Avenue underpass emerges. The traffic island at the mouth of the tunnel provides a wonderful vantage point to photograph Grand Central Terminal. Watch out for traffic!

IF YOU GO
Grand Central Terminal is located on 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan. It is open from 0530 to 0200 every day. Grand Central Oyster Bar is located on the lower level of the Terminal (Tel 212-490-6650; Ope 1130-2100 Monday to Friday; 1200-2130 on Saturday; closed on Sunday.

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