IM SO NYC The Waldorf-Astoria has historically epitomized New York City glamour with much ease, but beneath the surface of this Art-Deco luxury hotel lies…an abandoned train track?! This fun fact is fairly well-known in urban exploration circles and was included in our Top 10 Secrets of Grand Central, but we thought it was worth its own shout out. Though not exactly a train station of its own, the Waldorf-Astoria was built atop one of Grand Central Terminal’s many early platform lots through a lease of air rights. The now barren subterranean space once served as a means to transport the hotel’s more famous guests discreetly, like General Pershing who first used the platform in 1938. The famous (yet unconfirmed) story about the Waldorf-Astoria platform features Franklin Delano Roosevelt. In some accounts, he used this platform to transfer himself into an employed custom-made train cart. The vehicle would commute him straight to the hotel and was armored for the traveler’s protection. In another version, his armored train on Metro-North would disconnect and drive onto the platform and into the freight elevator. In yet another, there was an automobile on the train, which then went onto the elevator. Nonetheless, Joseph Brennan of Abandoned Subways has been unable to substantiate even one visit that utilized the platform, including Roosevelt’s foreign policy address at the Waldorf. One use that we hope is true is that the platform also served as an underground party space for Andy Warhol in 1965, according to William D. Middleton in Grand Central: The World’s Greates Railway Terminal.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 11:11:17 +0000