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Grand Central Terminal Station 100th Anniversary, New York City, United States
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French sculptor Jules-Alexis Coutan created what was, at the time of its unveiling in 1914, considered the largest sculptural group in the world. It is 48 feet (15 m) high, the clock in the center having a circumference of 13 feet (4.0 m). It depicts Mercury flanked by Hercules and Minerva and was carved by the John Donnelly Company.
- Covering Park Avenue
To accommodate ever-growing rail traffic into the restricted Midtown area, William J. Wilgus, chief engineer of the New York Central Railroad took advantage of the recent electrification technology to propose a novel scheme: a bi-level station below ground.
Arriving trains would go underground under Park Avenue, and proceed to an upper-level incoming station if they were mainline trains, or to a lower-level platform if they were suburban trains. In addition, turning loops within the station itself obviated complicated switching moves to bring back the trains to the coach yards for servicing. Departing mainline trains reversed into upper-level platforms in the conventional way.
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