Inside Grand Central Station, NYC

Grand Central Station is one of our favorite buildings in the city. In fact, I find it to be one of the most majestic buildings in the world, especially because of the constant life and lives who pass through it’s walls on a daily basis. The girls are growing up accustomed to running around on its marble floors. So, I wanted to share this wonderful structure with you of our trip there today, and show you a little bit of inside Grand Central Station from our point of view. I hope you enjoy it!

If you do, please comment below and also please share with us your fave building in your city.

This is the Main Concourse and what I’m sure you’ve seen in films shot in NYC.  It has an exquisitely decorated astronomical ceiling which the girls can stare at for ages. This starry ceiling is astronomically inaccurate in a complicated way. While the stars within some constellations appear correctly as they would from earth, other constellations are reversed left-to-right, as is the overall arrangement of the constellations on the ceiling. For example, Orion is correctly depicted, but the adjacent constellations Taurus and Gemini are reversed both internally and in their relation to Orion, with Taurus near Orion’s raised arm where Gemini should be.

One possible explanation is that the overall ceiling design was based on the medieval custom of depicting the sky as it would appear to God looking in at the celestial sphere from outside, but that would have reversed Orion as well. Another more widely accepted explanation is partially mistaken transcription of the sketch supplied by Columbia Astronomy professor Harold Jacoby!

The original ceiling was replaced in the late 1930s to correct falling plaster and they chose to keep the ceiling as is and not correct the errors.

And here’s an interesting tidbit: the terminal is made primarily from granite. In fact, so much granite is used, the building emits relatively high levels of radiation on a regular basis.

There they are, staring at the stars on the ceiling!

In the background, is the uber famous round clock, which everyone uses as a meeting point.

The girls love running down this ramp to the lower concourse. They used to make me run down with the stroller!

On the lower concourse where the food hall is and dishes up New York iconic foods like Junior’s Cheese Cake and Magnolia Cupcakes.

Here they are at the main entrance.