From the Chrysler Building’s shadow you walk up Lexington, under the Graybar Passage’s chandeliered arches, into the Main Concourse’s marble-clad, celestial-ceilinged bustle. Light pours in. Crowds or no, you feel the freedom of tremendous space in this Beaux-Arts poem in stone. This granite edifice, too grand to hide mere pixies among its sculpted acorns and oak leaves, instead hosts mighty Mercury, Hercules, and Minerva, personifying the accomplishment of speed, strength, and intellect that is the world’s largest train station.
This is a shore formed of steel and stone where waves of new travelers roll in every minute. Every sort of character passes through. In the whispering gallery you may meet anyone coming up from the Oyster Bar: Roger Thornhill, Nick and Nora, Holden Caulfield, Clark Kent.
Buy a ticket for your dream train. Fancy the Sunset Limited, Zephyr, or Niagara Rainbow? Check the departures board and your watch against the Opal Clock. Find the ramp to your platform and embark.