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On the morning of January 8, 1902, a southbound commuter train traveling through a smoky, congested tunnel in New York City’s Grand Central Depot slammed into the rear of another train, instantly killing seventeen people, and injuring thirty-eight. Screams filled the darkened tunnel as firemen arrived on the scene to search for survivors. The tragedy in New York that day, and a self-taught engineer’s innovative response to the crisis that ensued, ultimately gave birth to one of America’s greatest architectural and technological monuments: Grand Central Terminal. This AMERICAN EXPERIENCE recounts the dramatic story of the famous landmark’s construction. When Grand Central Terminal opened on February 12, 1913, the press heralded it as the greatest railway terminal in the world. By 1947 over sixty-five million people—the equivalent of forty percent of the population of the United States—had traveled through the station. Today it remains one of New York and America’s most famous spaces, and a living monument to the nation’s great railway age.

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