New York Penn Station information desk, 1970s.
Color slide showing the information desk at New York Penn Station; image probably dates to the 1970s.
- Film Slide Details
-
- Date Archived:
- July 8, 2015
- Geography:
- Northeast
- Decade:
- 1970s
- Data Format:
- Image
- Download the full-sized version of this photo
New York Penn Station occupies two full city blocks between 7th and 8th Avenues and 31st and 33rd Streets in the West Midtown area of Manhattan. The original Pennsylvania Station, which took the name of its owner and builder, the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), was opened to the public in the fall of 1910.
From 1963 to 1966, the station building was demolished to make way for the current Madison Square Garden sports and entertainment arena, as well as the 2 Penn Plaza office building. While the new buildings rose above the underground concourses, the trains continued to run. Today, the platforms are shared among Amtrak, NJT, and LIRR, and each company maintains its own concourse.
As of 2015, more than half a million people pass through its concourses every day, making Penn Station the busiest rail hub in North America. It is also readily accessible from 14 lines of the New York City subway, and the Port Authority Trans-Hudson rapid transit system has a station one block away.
Photographer: Unknown for Amtrak. From the Amtrak Corporate Collection.
