Not coincidently, the Scientific American “New York” issue coincided with the construction of the new (third) Grand Central for the New York Central Railroad, and Pennsylvania Station for the Pennsylvania Railroad. The latter was the first – and as it turned out only – railroad to move its New York City terminus from New Jersey to New York, crossing the Hudson River. The rapid growth of New York had overwhelmed the capacity of the rail infrastructure, and all of the companies that served the area were upgrading their facilities.
The general exterior picture of Grand Central above – a rendering because the headhouse was not yet built in 1908 – looks more or less like was was eventually built. The headhouse is in the center facing 42nd Street, and the more plain train shed is on the left. The rendering of the interior is far less accurate:
The mezzanines are missing, the wall between the concourse and the train shed is shown as a huge arched window, and there are stairs instead of ramps. The architecture went through iterations: a design by Reed & Stem, a design by Warren & Wetmore, and then a collaboration between the two firms. I believe that 1908 would have been about the beginning of the collaboration. The basic layout as described in the caption is correct because the engineering design for the trains did not change after 1904 or so.
The huge new underground train yard was constructed in a series of north-south-oriented strips. Each strip was excavated, the lower-level tracks and platforms constructed, roofed over, the upper level tracks and platforms constructed, roofed over, and then the streets constructed. Here’s a photo of that in progress:
And another, larger view, showing the old yard on the right and the new on the left. The three domes in the center background are the old (second) Grand Central headhouse, not yet demolished.
Electrification, which was the trigger for building the new station, was completed before the station work began. Here’s the first NYCRR electric locomotive leaving past the victorian curtain wall of the old station’s train shed:
And here’s the electrification system of the New Haven Railroad, the NYCRR’s tenant at Grand Central:
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