History
The viaduct was first proposed in 1916, and construction began in 1918 Work progressed rapidly despite the wartime difficulty in securing labor and material and the viaduct opened on April 16, 1919. The original viaduct took two way traffic from Park Avenue at 40th Street and carried it around the west side of Grand Central Terminal, depositing it at the corner of Forty-Fifth Street and Vanderbilt Avenue. A spur ran east along the rear of the terminal, providing parking space and an entrance to the Commodore Hotel.
Shortly after completion, it was evident that additional measures were needed to prevent a traffic tie up at the north end of the newly completed pass. New York Central engineers suggested a plan which proposed that Park Avenue be closed to all vehicular traffic at the 45th Street grade and traffic be carried around both sides of the terminal and deposited at Park Avenue and 46th Street. The plan was approved by the Board of Estimate in January 1928, and construction complete by September of that year.
Read more about this topic: Grand Central Terminal Park Avenue Viaduct
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“A poet’s object is not to tell what actually happened but what could or would happen either probably or inevitably.... For this reason poetry is something more scientific and serious than history, because poetry tends to give general truths while history gives particular facts.”
—Aristotle (384–323 B.C.)
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)