Penn Station Documentary - PBS

[ljudice]

In case you missed it, the PBS Penn Station documentary is online:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/penn/

It is very well done, though it will make you angry especially if you're a New Yorker...

[Chris333]

Shows what I know. I thought it was still there 

[rswinnerton]

Sub terrainian Penn Station is, but they tore down the fancy bits to build Madison Square Garden turning it from an elegant Empire State gateway to a series of 'people tubes'

[ljudice]

Old:

[Ali Kenneth]

I managed to catch it a couple of weeks ago on one of the documentary channels in the UK and could not believe they tore it down. The only equivalent in the UK i can think of was the Doric arch at Euston but there are plan to rebuild that as they know where most of the stone went!

[davefoxx]

Just watched it.  A very well done documentary.  I knew that the monstrosity that is Madison Square Garden replaced it up top and that Penn Station was relegated to a subterranean place where you didn't feel comfortable awaiting your train.  Certainly not the grandeur that once welcomed visitors to New York.

With some very good luck, however, there could be a happy ending to the Penn Station story.  There are plans by the State of New York to open the neighboring U.S. Post Office building, which is now owned by the state and sits largely vacant, as the replacement for the current Penn Station.  The benefits would include architecture that evoke memories of the original structure of Penn Station.  The U.S. Post Office building was only built a few years later and designed by the same architects.

DFF