I really enjoyed the Bowery brothers video. My favorite part was knowing that people actually lived in tenements in the 34th area near penn station. It was interesting to know how it must’ve been to have someone come to your door with loads of cash to buy your property just one day. Midtown is what it is today because of penn station and grand central terminal. For them to buy out the tenements and the build and dig for years.

New things that I learned was that mckin and white worked on the east and west wing of the White House, and that mckim, mead and white believed a lot in city beautiful which is adding the beautiful work of architecture buildings to a city.

Overall the video was very informative and I wish that I could’ve seen the old penn station. It was sad to see the picture of the demolition of penn station in the end

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Transit museum reflection 

A  picture of the main concourse which was jam packed everywhere. I thought it was crowded now but seeing the picture I can’t imagine being in a place where it is that crowded. I enjoyed seeing the brochure for Grand Central Terminal as well, it was interesting to read. 

        The highlight of that day for me was definitely the Transit museum. I really, really enjoyed the trains. I began to design in my head what the next trains should look like, my favorite train was the one that they had running in 1927. I  liked it because it had more two seats. I think that they should remove some poles because when you have a child in a stroller it is hard to maneuver on the trains with all the poles. 

    I tried to read every advertisement, most were very comical, and would not be allowed on the trains in 2016. Also although the costs of MTA keeps rising I understand it is for a reason because when the MTA almost went bankrupt because the car fare was 5 cents but it cost 10 cents for each rider. The one thing that I really disliked was the maps. I was getting a little annoyed because I am I’m so used to the color of the lines of the train. Over all the transit museum was a great experience and I would definitely go back.

      The first source that I sought which I requested was a picture of GCT being heavily packed, according to the panflit it states that “Thousands watch orbital space flight projected by CBS into giant screen” I learned that at a time where not a lot of people owned a TV this was fascinating. I Am surprised that Grand Central Terminal does not still have a large screen their in 2016.

      The second source depicts Grand Central Station in its construction, I enjoying seeing the clock that is outside. I wonder what happened to it.

The two questions I would ask is what happened to the giant screen in Grand Central Terminal? How come they took it out? on what grounds?

My second question would be when will they make a new train?

Grand Central Terminal, ca. 1964-1968; Metro North Collection, GCT/NYC-PAM/01; New

       York Transit Museum

Grand Central Station, 08/20/1910; Subway Construction Photograph Collection, 1995. 72.3,     

      R1S5A_7135; New York Transit Museum

Watching the video on Penn Station was gut wrenching. The reason I say that is because I seriously hate closed spaces and things that can explode, Going through Underground tunnels. I would always say to myself “how the dhsdhsfjd, did they make a tunnel underground”?? when I come to the realization that I am sometimes literally underwater It is not a good feeling because I also have a fear of drowning, however I really enjoyed the video but it was so fearful to watch, I honestly would never risk my life to make a tunnel but some people literally risked their lives just so we can have what we have today. It was very sad to watch the sand hogs working tireless and dangerously. Suffering awful deaths and the Bends which is a disease from air decompression

over all I really enjoyed this video because it answered my long pondering of the matter of how tunnels are made, it also showed the massive work and crazy idea that worked but almost didn’t. It is something that we still use today, and to think we would have made much more tunnels after that with the technology that we have today.

” Describe the reasons why Grand Central Terminal had a different outcome than Penn Station. In other words, why was Grand Central saved and not Penn Station? What forces caused the different outcomes?” I think it took the sad and painful destruction of Penn Station for people to realize they have to protect these buildings. A lot of the people did not want it to happen again, because a lot of people relied on the old penn Station and to their dismay it was taken down, and they feared the same outcome for other buildings the community loved.

Almadea Almadea

I didn’t really enjoy this video compared to the other videos that we watched in this class, I enjoyed the beginning because we got to see our first tour guide Dan, but I didn’t enjoy the second part, because as I said, it felt like I was watching ESPN. I enjoy visually seeing the Terminal and not the discussion, I felt it was more opinion based which is fine. 

     I learned that the secret room was the deepest basement in I believe Manhattan, so I regret saying that I wanted to go there. I do not want to go there anymore, because I do not like being so underground because you can get trapped. I enjoyed seeing the “secret control room” because we got to see it already so it wasn’t a secret for us who went to the first tour with Dan. 

    Mostly everything the gentlemen stated was reiterated. I was bored. 

Transit museum reflection 

       I have not received the picture that I requested in order to obtain a citation so I will just describe the picture that I saw at the archive. It was a picture of the main concourse and it was jam packed everywhere. I thought it was crowded now but seeing the picture I can’t imagine being in a place where it is that crowded. I enjoyed seeing the brochure for Grand Central Terminal as well, it was interesting to read. 

        The highlight of that day for me was definitely the Transit museum. I really, really enjoyed the trains. I began to design in my head what the next trains should look like, my favorite train was the one that they had running in 1927. I  liked it because it had more two seaters. I think that they should remove some poles because when you have a child in a stroller it is hard to maneuver on the trains with all the poles. 

    I tried to read every advertisement, most were very comical, and would not be allowed on the trains in 2016. Also although the costs of MTA keeps rising I understand it is for a reason because when the MTA almost went bankrupt because the car fare was 5 cents but it cost 10 cents for each rider. The one thing that I really disliked was the maps. I was getting a little annoyed because I am I’m so used to the color of the lines of the train. Over all the transit museum was a great experience and I would definitely go back. 

I really enjoyed our third visit and second tour to GCT. I really enjoyed it because it provided congruent information along with our first tour with dan.  Dans tour was a more inside tour and behind the scenes tour where as our second tour guide provided us with many important information about the outside. I enjoyed three major things during our second tour.

Firstly, when we were standing in pershing square which is also Park Ave, you see so many tall buildings, However,  when you are standing on the corner of park ave and East 41st,  you look in front of you, you see an amazing building, which is not so tall, with beautiful sculptures and a 14ft clock, and when you look to your left you see another not so tall building which is the New York Public Library which are both major tourist attractions with amazing architecture history.

Secondly when we were standing in Pershing Square, When our tour guide asked how tall do you think and the clock and sculpture was, I got it so wrong, although my guess was not stated aloud it was stated in my head. When he said the clock was 14 feet and the sculptures were 30 to 40 feet I was astonished. We were then able to look at the person who sculpt it, in the middle of working on it and then we can see the comparison because standing 7 stories below it, it doesn’t look so big.

Lastly, When we walked out of Grand Central Terminal and then to the left of us was Grand Central terminal I was like “What the heck” I was so confused, because we were in GCT but when we walked out of it we walked out of another building.

William J Wilgus was an extraordinary engineer Legends. He is most famous for engineering Grand Central Terminal in 1913 which took 10 years to build. He is known to be an “Engineering Legend” He accomplished many things that had not been before. Such as before Grand Central Terminal, the Grand Centrals before. Grand Central Depot and Grand Central station were built above ground, and were made of steam. However this was very inconvenient and put harmful fumes into the air. Wilgus  collaborated with an electrical engineer named Frank Sprague and was able to build trains that ran on electricity, This also enabled it trains to be built underground because rationally you cannot have a steam train underground. It was also because of Wilgus ideas it allowed for the movement of trains to be below ground. His Brother in law May Reed was in the firm Reed and Stem a very successful architecture firm. When Wilgus returned back to New York  from the west, his Engineer status continued to build up until becoming a chief Engineer. New York City was growing along with the number of trains. Unfortunately, sometimes with America it takes a horrible accident for things to change. In 1902 two trains collided because I believe one or both of the trains could not see the signal due to the smoke, this ended with the lost of 17 lives. This made the removal of the Grand Central Station which operated above ground with steam trains to what is now Grand Central Terminal which operates below ground and with electricity. One of the smart things that William Wilgus was able to due in order to help with the finances of Grand Central Terminal was the idea of using the land and real estate above the trains and leasing them out. I can imagine now the lease amount to have a sky rise above Grand Central Terminal

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