Car Rentals
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New York Car Rentals and Grand Central Station
Grand Central Station is a train station in Midtown New York. It's proper name is actually Grand Central Terminal for the train station, while Grand Central Station refers to the subway station nearby. It was built by the New York Central Railroad, and it has grown to the largest train station in the world for the number of platforms. There are 44 platforms with 67 tracks along them! If you would like to give driving your New York car rental a rest and relax on the train, this is a historic place to start your journey. There are trains to Westchester, Putnam, and Duchess counties in New York, as well as Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut.
The Main Concourse of Grand Central is absolutely beautiful and a must-see with a New York car rental. It is usually filled with many people rushing to get to where they need to be. When you walk up to the station you will notice the clock in front. It is the world's largest example of Tiffany glass, surrounded by sculptures carved by the company of Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury. In 1914, French sculpture Jules-Alexis Coutan created the largest sculptural group in the world at the time. It was 48 feet high, and the clock's circumference of 13 feet.
Inside, the information booth is located at the center of the Concourse. It is easily recognized by the large clock over it. Each face of the clock is estimated to be worth between ten and twenty million dollars each! The ceiling was painted in 1912 by a French artist. A restoration in 1999 revealed the painting, which had been covered by decades of grime. People thought it was from the coal and diesel smoke, but tests showed that it was actually tar and nicotine. A small part of the tar still remains above Michael Jordan's Steak House so people know what it once looked like. The ceiling is quite interesting in itself. The sky was painted backwards and all of the stars are slightly displaced. The Vanderbilts, the family that had the painting painted, were embarrassed by the ceiling and told people that it was the view of the heaven's from God's vantage point in the sky. One theory is that the painter used a medieval manuscript that saw the sky as it looked from outside the celestial sphere, not inside our universe. The architecture here is great to look at. It is worth a trip to Grand Central with your New York car rental.
Grand Central is also a great place to visit even if you don't want to leave your New York car rental behind. There are restaurants, fast food outlets, a food market, over forty retail stores, and an annex of the New York Transit Museum. Tours of the station are available. There are walking tours of the station with a guide to help you find your way around. Or, you can book a private tour for yourself and your group. This is a one-hour tour of the building that traces its history from the first Grand Central Depot in the 1800s to the building today.
Grand Central Terminal is a great place to visit when you are in New York with a New York car rental. If you would like to take a trip or just want to explore the station, visit their website at http://www.grandcentralterminal.com/pages/default.aspx for more information, including information about how to get here and parking for your New York car rental.
