Grand Central Terminal Turns 110 Years Old

NEW YORK CITY — Grand Central Terminal is looking pretty, well, grand for its latest birthday.

MTA officials Thursday celebrated the iconic station’s opening, which happened 110 years ago.

The terminal isn’t exactly unchanged since it first opened Feb. 2, 1913, but one important aspect remains constant, said Richard Davey, president of the New York City Transit Authority.

“It remains, I think, the icon of transit and public transportation in the United States,” he said.

“When I’m 110, I hope to look as good.”

The enormous Beaux Arts building was originally called Grand Central Station, after the city’s rail operator — the New York Central Railroad.

As Catherine Rinaldi, the president of Metro-North, recounted, every detail about the station down to its acorn lightbulbs tells a story about New York’s history. She said the station fell into decline during the 1960s, prompting Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and others to successfully advocate against its demolition.

Today, the station stands as “the temple of mass transit in New York, the temple of mass transit in the country,” Rinaldi said.

The commemoration followed the recent opening of Grand Central Madison, a new station within and underneath the famous terminal that fulfills the long-time goal of providing a rail connection between the East Side of Manhattan and Long Island.

Grand Central Madison so far is running trains to Queens. Rinaldi said an opening date for full Long Island Rail Road service will be announced soon.

The $11 billion new station’s opening wasn’t without a hiccup.

An artwork installation in the station misspelled famed artist Georgia O’Keeffe’s last name by not including an “F,” Bloomberg first reported.

“We clearly F-ed this one up and it’s being fixed,” an MTA spokesperson said, according to the New York Post.