When you walk through Grand Central Terminal and look up to the east or west, you see these huge windows. Really huge - they're about four stories tall. And you're awestruck at how big they are, and how the light comes through them just so, and how you can actually see buildings on the other side. It's marvelous, really, something to marvel at.
But if you're very very lucky, you know someone who can take you up and inside those windows. Because they aren't just big windows, they're double windows, with catwalks inside. And there are five separate catwalks in each of the two big windows, like five hallways traversing them, with glass floors and an intricate old mechanical system for opening the windows. They do, the windows open!
It's not for the faint of heart, or the acrophobic, but it is awesomely cool to get that bird's eye view of the commuters scurrying about in their unchoreographed yet oh so precise dance.
22 July 2010
Hidden in Plain Sight
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15 comments:
How small is your rear that it can fit between two panes of glass?
That is so darn cool!
Oh, I'd love to have a chance to get up there! (I'm sort of the opposite of acrophobic--I love heights. Apparently acrophile, though, means "one who loves mountains." I do love mountains, and all, but that wasn't what I had in mind.)
I also love those elaborate mechanisms. Über cool!
And how did you get to be so lucky to get in/up there?
Wow! I never guessed you could go in there! Awesome.
Totally, totally awesome.
You have just supplied me with a factoid that I can share with my family in a short while. Hoping to get to NYC for some good old fashioned tourista fun.
I am well and truly impressed!
Wow, how cool. i had no idea. I used to love walking off the platform and into that room when I was a kid. I still love it. I remember the giant billboard with the waterfall that looked like it was moving.
Way cool.
Dang, I was there and everything and I never noticed that!
So. Cool.
When I was in college, I spent a summer working in New York, and I made a friend who knew how to get into the catwalk behind the windows. I remember how amazing it was to be in this hidden place. Years later, I moved to Paris and went to the Musee d'Orsay, which has the same kind of catwalk/window construction and you can look down into the guts of the museum. That's pretty magical, too, but nothing tops the view into the heart of Grand Central Station. Thanks for taking me back...
New York is full of wonders.
I used to be able to get up there --wasn't hard. since 9/11 the doors are locked.
it was fun!
take me, take me!
oh, BTW, will be in NYC next week, not sure what my schedule is, but maybe we can find time to do lunch?
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