Penn Station Lives

Forty years ago, Penn Station was notoriously demolished, an act the New York Times dubbed a "monumental act of vandalism." John Turkeli, "a railroad historian and urban archaeologist," leads a free monthly tour exploring the remnants of the McKim, Mead & White structure. Highlights include "one of the original 5,700-pound Tennessee-marble stone eagles that once perched on ledges above the station's grand entrances" and "a 1948 bronze plaque that had been affixed to the original station walls...honoring baggage-department employees who died in World War II." Tourists saddened by the loss can take solace in the fact that Penn Station's destruction did lead "to the creation of the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1965."