Datasets:
HHazard
/
continuous-learning

Dataset card Data Studio Files
xet
Community
1
text
stringlengths
13
991
The terminal was used for intercity transit until 1991. Amtrak, the national rail system formed in 1971, ran its last train from Grand Central on April 6, 1991, upon the completion of the Empire Connection on Manhattan's West Side. The connection allowed trains using the Empire Corridor from Albany, Toronto, and Montreal to use Penn Station. However, some Amtrak trains used Grand Central during the summers of 2017 and 2018 due to maintenance at Penn Station.
In 1988, the MTA commissioned a study of the Grand Central Terminal, which concluded that parts of the terminal could be turned into a retail area. The agency announced an $113.8 million renovation of the terminal in 1995. During this renovation, all advertisements were removed and the station was restored. The most striking effect was the restoration of the Main Concourse ceiling, revealing the painted skyscape and constellations. The renovations included the construction of the East Stairs, a curved monumental staircase on the east side of the station building that matched the West Stairs. An official re-dedication ceremony was held on October 1, 1998, marking the completion of the interior renovations.
On February 1, 2013, numerous displays, performances, and events were held to celebrate the terminal's centennial. The MTA awarded contracts to replace the display boards and public announcement systems and add security cameras at Grand Central Terminal in December 2017. The MTA also proposed to repair the Grand Central Terminal train shed's concrete and steel as part of the 2020–2024 MTA Capital Program. In February 2019, it was announced that the Grand Hyatt New York hotel that abuts Grand Central Terminal to the east would be torn down and replaced with a larger mixed-use structure over the next several years.
The East Side Access project, underway since 2007, is planned to bring Long Island Rail Road trains into the terminal when completed. LIRR trains will reach Grand Central from Harold Interlocking in Sunnyside, Queens, via the existing 63rd Street Tunnel and new tunnels under construction on both the Manhattan and Queens sides. LIRR trains will arrive and depart from a bi-level, eight-track tunnel with four platforms more than below the Metro-North tracks. The project includes a new 350,000-square-foot retail and dining concourse and new entrances at 45th, 46th, and 48th streets. Cost estimates have jumped from $4.4 billion in 2004, to $6.4 billion in 2006, then to $11.1 billion. The new stations and tunnels are to begin service in December 2022.
The Park Avenue Viaduct, which wrapped around the terminal, allowed Park Avenue traffic to bypass the building without being diverted onto nearby streets, and reconnected the only north–south avenue in midtown Manhattan that had an interruption in it. The station building was also designed to accommodate the re-connection of both segments of 43rd Street by going through the concourse, if the City of New York had demanded it.
Every train at Grand Central Terminal departs one minute later than its posted departure time. The extra minute is intended to encourage passengers rushing to catch trains at the last minute to slow down. According to "The Atlantic", Grand Central Terminal has the lowest rate of slips, trips, and falls on its marble floors, compared to all other stations in the U.S. with similar flooring.
All of the terminal's light fixtures are bare light bulbs. At the time of the terminal's construction, electricity was still a relatively new invention, and the inclusion of electric light bulbs showcased this innovation. In 2009, the incandescent light bulbs were replaced with energy- and money-saving fluorescent lamp fixtures.
When Grand Central Terminal opened, it hired two types of porters, marked with different-colored caps, to assist passengers. Porters with red caps served as bellhops, rolling luggage around Grand Central Terminal, and were rarely paid tips. There were more than 500 red-capped porters at one point. Porters with green caps, a position introduced in 1922, provided information services, sending out or receiving telegrams or phone messages for a fee. They later started dropping off and picking up packages as well. There were only twelve green-capped porters, as well as two messengers who brought messages to an exchange on the west side of the terminal.
Grand Central Terminal was built to handle 200 trains per hour, though actual traffic never came close to that. It had 46 tracks and 30 platforms, more than twice Penn Station's 21 tracks and 11 platforms. Its rail yard could hold 1,149 cars, far more than the 366 in its predecessor station, and it dwarfed Penn Station's yard.
As constructed, the upper level was for intercity trains, and the lower level for commuter trains. This allowed commuter and intercity passengers to board and exit trains without interfering with each other.
Balloon loops surrounding the station eliminated the need for complicated switching moves to bring the trains to the coach yards for service. At the time, passenger cars did not run on their own power, but were pulled by locomotives, and it was believed dangerous to perform locomotive shunting moves underground. Trains would drop passengers off at one side of the station, perhaps be stored or serviced in the rail yard, then use the turning loops and pick up passengers on the other side. The loops extended under Vanderbilt Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenue to the east.
Burying the terminal's tracks and platforms also allowed the railroads to sell above-ground air rights for real-estate development. Grand Central's construction thus produced several blocks of prime real estate in Manhattan, stretching from 42nd to 51st Streets between Madison and Lexington avenues. By the time the terminal opened in 1913, the blocks surrounding it were each valued at $2 million to $3 million. Terminal City soon became Manhattan's most desirable commercial and office district. From 1904 to 1926, land values along Park Avenue doubled, and land values in the Terminal City area increased 244%.
The district came to include office buildings such as the Chrysler Building, Chanin Building, Bowery Savings Bank Building, and Pershing Square Building; luxury apartment houses along Park Avenue; an array of high-end hotels that included the Commodore, Biltmore, Roosevelt, Marguery, Chatham, Barclay, Park Lane, and Waldorf Astoria; the Grand Central Palace; and the Yale Club of New York City. The structures immediately around Grand Central Terminal were developed shortly after the terminal's opening, while the structures along Park Avenue were constructed through the 1920s and 1930s.
The Graybar Building, completed in 1927, was one of the last projects of Terminal City. The building incorporates many of Grand Central's train platforms, as well as the Graybar Passage, a hallway with vendors and train gates stretching from the terminal to Lexington Avenue. In 1929, New York Central built its headquarters in a 34-story building, later renamed the Helmsley Building, which straddled Park Avenue north of the terminal. Development slowed drastically during the Great Depression, and part of Terminal City was gradually demolished or reconstructed with steel-and-glass designs after World War II.
The area shares similar boundaries as the Grand Central Business Improvement District, a neighborhood with businesses collectively funding improvements and maintenance in the area. The district is well-funded; in 1990 it had the largest budget of any business improvement district in the United States. The district's organization and operation is run by the Grand Central Partnership, which has given free tours of the station building. The partnership has also funded some restoration projects around the terminal, including installation of lamps to illuminate its facade and purchase of a streetlamp that used to stand on the Park Avenue Viaduct.
The terminal is served by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department, whose Fifth District is headquartered in a station on the Dining Concourse. The police force use specialized vehicles to traverse the interior of the terminal and other large stations; these vehicles include three-wheeled electric scooters from T3 Motion and utility vehicles by Global Electric Motorcars.
Various actions by MTA officers in the terminal have received media attention over the years. In 1988, seven officers were suspended for behaving inappropriately, including harassing a homeless man and patrolling unclothed. In the early 2000s, officers arrested two transgender people — Dean Spade in 2002 and Helena Stone in 2006 — who were attempting to use restrooms aligning with their gender identities. Lawsuits forced the MTA to drop the charges and to thenceforth allow use of restrooms according to gender identity. In 2017, an officer assaulted and arrested a conductor who was removing a passenger from a train in the terminal.
The brigade's fleet, stored in a bay next to Track 14, includes three electric carts equipped with sirens and red lights: a white-painted ambulance no wider than a hospital bed that carries a stretcher, oxygen tanks, defibrillators, and other medical equipment; a red pumper that carries 200 gallons of water and 300 feet of fire hose; and a red rescue truck with air packs, forcible entry tools, and turnout gear.
Among the permanent works of public art in Grand Central are the celestial ceiling in the Main Concourse, the "Glory of Commerce" work, the statue of Cornelius Vanderbilt in front of the building's south facade, and the two cast-iron eagle statues adorning the terminal's facades. Temporary works, exhibitions, and events are regularly mounted in Vanderbilt Hall, while the Dining Concourse features temporary exhibits in a series of lightboxes. The terminal is also known for its performance and installation art, including flash mobs and other spontaneous events.
Grand Central Terminal is one of the world's ten most visited tourist attractions, with 21.6 million visitors in 2018, excluding train and subway passengers. The high visitor traffic makes it one of the most-photographed places in New York City and the United States. A 2009 Cornell University study mapping out geotagged photos worldwide indicated the station was the fourth most photographed place in New York City. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has partnerships with the Municipal Art Society for daily docent-led tours of the station, and with audio tour producer Orpheo USA for half- and full-hour tours with headsets. The audio tour is also available as a smartphone app. The tours debuted in 2013, in conjunction with the terminal's centennial celebration.
Transit passenger traffic makes the terminal the third-busiest train station in North America, after New York Penn Station and Toronto Union Station.
Grand Central Terminal has been the subject, inspiration, or setting for literature, television and radio episodes, and films.
Almost every scene in the terminal's train shed was shot on Track 34, one of the few platforms without columns.
The first filmed scene in which Grand Central Terminal appears may be the 1909 short comedy "Mr. Jones Has a Card Party". The terminal's first cinematic appearance was in the 1930 musical film "Puttin' On the Ritz", and its first Technicolor appearance was in the 1953 film "The Band Wagon". Some films from the 20th century, including "Grand Central Murder", "The Thin Man Goes Home", "Hello, Dolly!", and "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" used reconstructions of Grand Central, built in Hollywood, to stand in for the terminal. Additionally, the terminal was drawn and animated for use in the animated films "Madagascar" (2005) and "Wreck-It Ralph" (2012).
Other films in which the terminal appears include:
Notable documentaries about the terminal include "Grand Central", a 1982 film narrated by James Earl Jones and featuring Philip Johnson and Ed Koch.
On October 19, 2017, several of these films were screened in the terminal for an event created by the MTA, Rooftop Films, and the Museum of the Moving Image. The event featured a cinematic history lecture by architect and author James Sanders.
Grand Central Terminal's architecture, including its Main Concourse clock, are depicted on the stage of "Saturday Night Live", an NBC television show. The soundstage reconstruction of the terminal in Studio 8H was first installed in 2003.
"Grand Central Station", an NBC radio drama set at the terminal, ran from 1937 to 1953. Among the video games that feature the terminal are "Marvel's Spider-Man", "", and "Tom Clancy's The Division".
The Allegheny Portage Railroad was the first railroad constructed through the Allegheny Mountains in central Pennsylvania, United States; it operated from 1834 to 1854 as the first transportation infrastructure through the gaps of the Allegheny that connected the midwest to the eastern seaboard across the barrier range of the Allegheny Front. Approximately long overall, both ends connected to the Pennsylvania Canal, and the system was primarily used as a portage railway, haulting river boats and barges over the divide between the Ohio and the Susquehanna Rivers. Today, the remains of the railroad are preserved within the Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site operated by the National Park Service.
Except for peak moments of severe storms, it was an all-weather, all-seasons operation. Along with the rest of the Main Works, it cut transport time from Philadelphia to the Ohio River from weeks to just 3–5 days. Considered a technological marvel in its day, it played a critical role in opening the interior of the United States beyond the Appalachian Mountains to settlement and commerce. It included the first railroad tunnel in the United States, the Staple Bend Tunnel, and its inauguration was marked with great fanfare.
The entire Main Line system connecting Philadelphia and Pittsburgh via the Philadelphia-Columbia railroad, the Columbia-Hollidaysburg canal, the Portage railroad linking Hollidaysburg to Johnstown, and a canal from Johnstown to Pittsburgh, was long. A typical ride took 4 days instead of the former 23-day horse-wagon journey. The Old Portage Railroad was in operation for twenty years being considered "the wonder of America." Charles Dickens wrote a contemporary account of travel on the railroad in Chapter 10 of his "American Notes." Quoted at length in the Pennsylvania guide, Dickens "described travel on the Portage in 1842," describing aspects of the Portage Railroad's immediate social and geographic context, as well as mechanical strategies used by the Railroad for coping with the steep grades encountered on the route :
In the 1850s, the Main Line of Public Works and its portage railroad was rendered obsolete by the advance of railway technology and railroad engineering. Early in 1846 the Legislature chartered the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) to cross the entire state in response to plans by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad to reach the Ohio Valley through Virginia. In December 1852 trains started to run between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh shortening the travel time from 4 days to 13 hours.
Construction on the New Portage Railroad, a 40-mile realignment to cross the Allegheny Ridge bypassing inclines, started in 1851 and cost $2.14 million. The PRR raised sufficient investment and had enough quick success that they bought the existing Portage railroad and other parts of the Main Line of Public Works from the state on July 31, 1857. The PRR abandoned most of the line and used the rest as local branches; "anything of value was either sold or stripped from the Allegheny Portage Railroad."
Nearly half a century later, the graded roadbeds of the descending section east of the Gallitzin Tunnel were re-railed with standard gauge freight tracks. The line reopened as a freight bypass line in 1904.
Pennsylvania Railroad successor Conrail abandoned this line to Hollidaysburg and most of the branch trackage along the Juniata River in 1981 and removed the rails.
The National Historic Site was established on in 1964 and is about west of Altoona, in Blair and Cambria counties.
The park service operates a visitor center with interpretive exhibits near the old line. Nearby is the Samuel Lemon House, a tavern located alongside the railroad near Cresson that was a popular stop for railroad passengers; it has been converted into a historical museum by the National Park Service. The NPS also maintains a length of reconstructed track, an engine house with exhibits, a picnic area, and hiking trails.
A skew arch bridge, a masterwork of cut stone construction, is another feature of the site near the Lemon House. The bridge is long on the south elevation, long on the north elevation, and high. It was the only bridge on the line that was built to carry a road.
The Staple Bend Tunnel is preserved in a separate unit of the historic site, east of Johnstown.
Central of Georgia Depot and Trainshed is a former passenger depot and trainshed constructed in 1860 by the Central of Georgia Railway (CofG) before the outbreak of the American Civil War. This pair of buildings was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976, a listing that was expanded in 1978 to the .
Located on the northwest corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Louisville Road in the city's historic downtown, the red brick passenger terminal of the CofG complex houses the Savannah Visitor Center and the Savannah History Museum. The site complex includes several notable structures, including cotton yard, a blacksmith shop, a brick viaduct and the trainshed, as well as an office car and caboose. It is owned by the Coastal Heritage Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of coastal Georgia and adjacent regions.
The Savannah History Museum is located at 303 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard (Georgia State Route 25 Connector). The museum is housed inside the old passenger terminal. It contains artifacts and exhibits relating to the history of Savannah from its establishment to the current time. The shops and terminal facilities were listed separately on June 2, 1978, and the Coastal Heritage Society opened the museum on the site in 1989.
The Georgia State Railroad Museum (formerly the Roundhouse Railroad Museum) is a museum in Savannah, Georgia located at a historic Central of Georgia Railway site. It includes parts of the Central of Georgia Railway: Savannah Shops and Terminal Facilities National Historic Landmark District. The complex is considered the most complete antebellum railroad complex in the United States. The museum, located at 655 Louisville Road, is part of a historic district included in the National Register of Historic Places.
The museum is across the street from the Central of Georgia Depot and Trainshed, also part of the historic district. The complex was constructed in 1853 by the Central of Georgia Railway (CofG) before the outbreak of the American Civil War. Savannah Shops and terminal buildings were declared a National Historic Landmark in 1976, a listing which was expanded in 1978 to include additional buildings in the complex.
The historic railroad structures at the Georgia State Railroad Museum site include a partial roundhouse with operating turntable, partial machine shop, Tender Frame Shop, Blacksmith Shop, Boiler House, Storehouse & Print Shop, Lumber and Planing Sheds, Coach and Paint Shops, and a partial Carpentry Shop which now houses Savannah Children's Museum. Many of these structures are open for visitors to explore.
The Historic Railroad Shops complex is among the finest remaining examples of Victorian railroad architecture and design and is the most intact antebellum railroad repair complex in the country. It was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service. On-site displays include antique shaft driven machinery, locomotives and railroad stock, model train layouts, an operating turntable, and the oldest portable steam engine in the United States. The Historic Railroad Shops offers a valuable educational experience for students and has also become a popular local tourist attraction.
The complex has been maintained as the Georgia State Railroad Museum and a general industry museum by the Coastal Heritage Society with the assistance of the City of Savannah.
The Central of Georgia Railway started as the Central Rail Road and Canal Company in 1833, and built a passenger station, freight terminal and some shops in the Louisville Road area of Savannah around 1836. However, none of those structures remain today. By the mid-1840s the railway had expanded to of track, and the CG began construction of new shops in 1851. The first completed building was the carpenters' shop in 1853, followed by the original roundhouse, machine shop, tender frame shop, blacksmith shop and several other buildings in 1855. Additional buildings were constructed at the complex into the 1920s.
The roundhouse, turntable and other structures were rebuilt in the late 1920s after a major fire in 1923, as well as to accommodate larger locomotives and rolling stock.
The Central of Georgia operated several trains to the station, on an Atlanta (Terminal Station) - Macon (Terminal Station) - Savannah itinerary. The last of these was the "Nancy Hanks."
The Southern Railway purchased the CG in 1963 and closed the Savannah shops. Subsequently, the railway transferred the complex to the City of Savannah. The Coastal Heritage Society, a non-profit organization, opened the museum on the site in 1989.
The Georgetown Steam Plant, located in the Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, was constructed in 1906 for the Seattle Electric Company to provide power for Seattle, notably for streetcars.
The plant was originally built by Stone and Webster in 1906. One of the first reinforced concrete structures on the U.S. West Coast, it originally provided power for the Interurban Railway between Seattle and Tacoma; it also provided both direct current for Seattle's streetcars and alternating current for Georgetown, then an independent city. They purchased General Electric steam turbine technology, based on patents originally held by inventor Charles Gordon Curtis. At the time, this was cutting edge technology, and the Georgetown Steam Plant "marks the beginning of the end of the reciprocating steam engine" as the dominant mode of generating electricity on a large scale.
Originally located along an oxbow of the Duwamish River to provide cooling water, the plant was left inland after the original river channel was straightened in 1917. Retired after nearly 75 years of operation, it remains "surprisingly complete and operable". The plant has three Curtis turbines, manufactured by the General Electric Company between 1906 and 1917.
Puget Sound Traction and Lighting Company (now Puget Sound Energy) bought the Seattle Electric Company in 1912; the Georgetown Steam Plant powered the Seattle-to-Tacoma Interurban and Seattle streetcars; it also provided residential and industrial power to Georgetown. Originally an oil-fired plant, it converted to a coal in 1917. As hydropower was developed in the 1910s and 1920s the steam plant became uncompetitive and only used for emergencies. It last produced electricity in January 1953 when water levels at the dams were low. Decommissioning took place in 1972.
The building was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1984, and is also designated by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers as a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. At the time of its landmarking, it contained the "last operating examples of the world's first large scale, steam turbine". The building itself, "built by a fast-track construction process, was designed and supervised by Frank W. Gilbreth, later a nationally famous proponent of efficiency engineering." The building is also a Seattle City Landmark and is on the Washington State Register of Historic Places.
Paul Carosino and Lilly Tellefson founded the Georgetown PowerPlant Museum in 1995 to restore, maintain and operate the plant. It now teaches boiler firemen and steam engineers.
The plant remains owned by Seattle City Light, the city's public electric utility. Since 2014 it has opened to the general public once a month, from 10am to 2pm on the second Saturday of each month.
The plant houses the last operable examples of early vertical Curtis steam generating turbines, as well as operational reciprocating steam engines, a collection of vintage machining tools, and several smaller steam engines.
The plant was the site of the last performance of the rock band Big Black.
Cincinnati Union Terminal is an intercity train station and museum center in the Queensgate neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Commonly abbreviated as CUT, or by its Amtrak station code, CIN, the terminal is served by Amtrak's "Cardinal" line, passing through Cincinnati three times weekly. The building's largest tenant is the Cincinnati Museum Center, comprising the Cincinnati History Museum, the Museum of Natural History & Science, Duke Energy Children's Museum, the Cincinnati History Library and Archives, and an Omnimax theater.
Union Terminal's distinctive architecture, interior design, and history have earned it several landmark designations, including as a National Historic Landmark. Its Art Deco design incorporates several contemporaneous works of art, including two of the Winold Reiss industrial murals, a set of sixteen mosaic murals depicting Cincinnati industry commissioned for the terminal in 1931. The main space in the facility, the Rotunda, has two enormous mosaic murals designed by Reiss. Taxi and bus driveways leading to and from the Rotunda are now used as museum space. The train concourse was another significant portion of the terminal, though no longer extant. It held all sixteen of Reiss's industrial murals, along with other significant art and design features.
The Cincinnati Union Terminal Company was created in 1927 to build a union station to replace five local stations used by seven railroads. Construction, which lasted from 1928 to 1933, included the creation of viaducts, mail and express buildings, and utility structures: a power plant, water treatment facility, and roundhouse. Six of the railroads terminated at the station, which they jointly owned, while the Baltimore and Ohio operated through services.
Initially underused, the terminal saw traffic grow through World War II, then decline over the following four decades. Several attractions were mounted over the years to supplement declining revenues. Train service fully stopped in 1972, and Amtrak moved service to a smaller station nearby. The terminal was largely dormant from 1972 to 1980; during this time, its platforms and train concourse were demolished. In 1980, the Land of Oz shopping mall was constructed inside the station; it operated until 1985. In the late 1980s, two Cincinnati museums merged and renovated the terminal, which reopened in 1990 as the Cincinnati Museum Center. Amtrak returned to the terminal in 1991, resuming its role as an intercity train station. A two-year, $228 million renovation restored the building, completed in 2018.
The station is served by Amtrak's "Cardinal" line, operating every other day, three times per week. The service runs between Chicago and New York City; trains to Chicago arrive at 1:31 a.m. and trains to New York arrive at 3:17 a.m., each departing 10 minutes later.
Ridership is among the lowest of Amtrak stations in Ohio and among the lowest for any station serving a metropolitan area of at least two million people. Union Terminal saw 11,862 boardings and alightings in 2016, 11,144 in 2017, 8,315 in 2018, and 8,641 in 2019. Ohio's total ridership for 2019 was 132,000 people.
The terminal is connected to Route 49 of Metro, the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority's bus system, which also connects to downtown Cincinnati, North Fairmount, and English Woods.
The terminal opened with service from seven railroads: the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad; Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway; Louisville and Nashville Railroad; Norfolk and Western Railway; Pennsylvania Railroad; and the Southern Railway.
Amtrak maintained two services here until moving to the Cincinnati River Road station in 1972, where Amtrak services remained until returning to Union Terminal in 1991.
The facility, grounds, and parking lot are owned by the City of Cincinnati, while the tracks and platforms are owned by the freight railroad company CSX Transportation. The city leases the building primarily for Amtrak use and the Cincinnati Museum Center, a collection of five entities:
The terminal also houses the Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center, several foodservice operations, and event space.
All areas of the museum center are wheelchair-accessible. The Amtrak station is also accessible and ADA compliant. The main information desk is used for ticketing, and has daily schedules, museum maps, and coat checking, and has information on special events and the building's lost and found items. The Museum of Natural History operates two gift shops: one adjacent to the rotunda and a children's gift shop in the museum wing. The History Library operates a separate shop adjacent to the rotunda.
There are three dining rooms on the main concourse, two on the lower level, a retail shop, and other rotating operations. The main level operation Cup and Pint serves pizzas, coffee, and draft beer, while Nourish 513 serves sandwiches, salads, and fast food. The Rookwood tea room is operating as a Graeter's ice cream location.
In 2014, the museum center and the Google Cultural Institute created a virtual tour of the museum using Google Street View, with about 65 works of art and their descriptive labels viewable.
The station building was designed by the firm Fellheimer & Wagner, and is considered the firm's magnum opus. Fellheimer was known for designing train stations; he was lead architect for Grand Central Terminal (1903-1913). The large and busy firm gave the project design to Roland A. Wank, a younger employee.
Wank's original plan was traditional and featured Gothic architecture: large arches, vaulted ceilings, and conventional benches in long rows. In 1930, while initial construction took place, the terminal company persuaded the architects to hire Paul Philippe Cret as a design consultant. In 1931-32, Cret altered the design aesthetic: thereafter, the terminal and its supporting buildings used modern architecture (later known as Art Deco), even in places not visible or open to the public. The revised designs were approved as cheaper than the intricate Gothic designs, and more cheerful and stimulating with their colorful interiors than previous designs.
The terminal complex opened in 1933 with 22 buildings, , and of track. 130 acres were occupied by the terminal and its surrounding grounds, while 157 acres were occupied by supporting railroad facilities. The station building in total has .
Cincinnati Union Terminal had a capacity of 216 trains per day, 108 in and 108 out, carrying 17,000 passengers. Three concentric lanes of traffic were included in the design of the building, carrying traffic through enclosed ramps to a space beneath the main rotunda of the building, with ramps again for departure. One lane was for cars and taxis, one for buses, and one (never used) for streetcars. Similar to Buffalo Central Terminal, Union Terminal used a system of ramps for passengers to access the platforms below the concourse.
The building's architecture and design received mostly positive acclaim, though even in 1933 it was seen as possibly the last grand intercity train station built. Carroll Meeks described the passenger's route from the tracks up to the concourse and back down again to vehicle ramps as relatively complicated and arduous.
The space to the east of the station consists of a terrace and fountain to the west and parking lots around a narrow lawn to the east.
The terminal lawn originally measured , and gently carries broad driveways upward to the terminal. The lawn was originally Lincoln Park, a lush city park. It was remodeled during the terminal's construction to have simpler decorative landscaping, though it retained the name of Lincoln Park. The relandscaping included elms and sycamore tree borders, with flower beds in the central strip. The central strip is still intact, but the portions to its north and south became parking lots in 1980.
The west end of the lawn has an ornamental terrace with steps, hedges, and a central fountain. The terrace also features two groups of four pylons, supporting concealed flood lights. Behind the terrace, a driveway curves around the half oval to the building's entranceway. Dalton Avenue runs through a tunnel beneath the plaza. The fountain cascades water down a set of scalloped tiers into a pool below. It was constructed of concrete and green terrazzo, and was designed by Fellheimer & Wagner.
The grounds also feature a large Art Deco sign, not original to the building. For a time, the sign read "Cincinnati Museum Center", though during the extensive renovation in 2018, it was replaced with the current sign, reading "Cincinnati Union Terminal".
The main facade's central arch was inspired by Helsinki Central Station in Helsinki, Finland, which Fellheimer visited in 1927. The terminal was also reported as resembling Kyiv-Pasazhyrskyi railway station in Kiev, Ukraine.
The relatively unornamented facade has two bas-relief carvings by Maxfield Keck on buttresses at the north and south ends of the arch. The north carving represents transportation, while the south represents commerce.
The building has a steel frame, masonry curtain walls, and concrete floors and roof slabs.
The entire east facade and the outer walls of the entrance drives are faced with a light, fine-grained Indiana limestone, with a low granite base. The low walls and pylons in front of the building are made of the same limestone. Fossils of sea lilies, bryozoans, brachiopods, snails, and other organisms can be seen in the stone. The entranceway under the marquise features Morton Gneiss, a Cold Spring dark rainbow granite. Morton Gneiss was popular in American Art Deco architecture at the time. The fountain utilizes pink porphyritic granite. The side and rear walls of the building utilize light buff brick. The dome was originally covered with terra cotta, though it was replaced with aluminum sheathing in 1945. The entrance arcades are lined with cream-colored terra cotta.
The terminal was built along with several auxiliary buildings, on the north side of the station, also designed in the Art Deco style. They were designed by Edgar D. Tyler, a staff architect for Fellheimer & Wagner, as well as a former student of Paul Cret.
The mail handling building and express terminals were on the east side of the terminal property, easily accessible to the city's downtown, and directly to the west and north of the Dalton Avenue U.S. Post Office, completed around 1933 and still standing.
The mail building, , was a steel-frame, flat-roofed enclosure for chutes and conveyor belts. The building was also connected to the post office through conveyor belts, delivering city mail separate from transfer mail; the post office in turn delivered outgoing mail split between northern and southern railways. The mail building had two platforms each with two conveyors and serving two tracks, one platform for southbound mail and one for northbound mail.
The express terminal was long, ranging from wide. The building was two stories tall, steel-framed, with brick walls and concrete floors and roofs. The second floor was used for offices and storage. It also included platforms with canopies.
The terminal complex also included a roundhouse, washing platform, cinder pit, fire-lighting stations, coaling station, two electric substations, a power plant, and a water treatment plant. The roundhouse had 20 indoor stalls, 17 outdoor spaces, and a turntable with a diameter. The power plant had a 250-foot chimney and a set of three boilers. The plant's basement housed a water treatment plant, which used zeolite to purify city water, softening the water.
Contrasting with the exterior's simple color scheme, the building's interior is characterized by bright, warm colors, intensified with natural light in daytime and with illumination at night. These colors and lighting contrast with the interior's simple form and detail. Most of the interior metal work is made of aluminum, including doors, signs, ticket grills, and light fixtures.
The floor was consistently patterned in the rotunda, through the checking lobby, and into and through the train concourse. The pattern was terrazzo divided by brass strips into bands and panels in shades of gray and rose. The contrasting flooring was laid out in way that guided traffic to and from the main entrance and platforms.
All interior spaces were designed without visible heating or cooling units. Hot air would be vented into the train concourse behind light fixtures. The ramps were also heated, to prevent drafts of cold air from entering the concourse. The rotunda's vestibules were also heated, and the central space was indirectly heated: the space between the inner plaster dome and outer cement dome was heated, as well as the space between the east facade's two panes of glass. This would surround the rotunda with warm air, insulating it from the cold.
The rotunda's semi-circular central information desk and ticket kiosk originally served as a newsstand and tobacco shop, and was originally the only structure in the rotunda. It features a decorative sphere and a digital clock, possibly the first digital clock installed in a public space. The clock is no longer functioning.
The northern curved wall housed 18 ticket windows, while the southern curved wall had a soda fountain, telegraph counter, drug store, and the entrance to the terminal's two dining rooms. The east wall included four shops, a travel bureau, the Rookwood Tea Room, and a small theater. The shops were for men's apparel, women's apparel, books, and toys. The toy shop had star and moon light fixtures that reflected colors from the ceiling onto the toys, which were depicted in patterns on the shop's floor.
The rotunda features a seemingly unlikely whispering gallery. The east wall's arch around its windows features decorated flues, elements typical in Art Deco design. The flues act as sound channels, allowing people 30 meters apart at the base of each arch, by symmetrical drinking fountains, to hold a private conversation with ease.
The Rotunda features the largest semi-dome in the western hemisphere, measuring wide and high (about ten stories in height). It was considered the largest in the world until 1973, when the Sydney Opera House was built.