Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 33, 2006

Grand Central Station was a passenger railroad terminal in downtown Chicago, Illinois, from 1890 to 1969. Grand Central Station was designed by architect Solon Spencer Beman for the Wisconsin Central Railway, and was completed by the Chicago and Northern Pacific Railroad. The station was built with the intention of eventually becoming the eastern terminus for the transcontinental Northern Pacific Railway which was leasing the Wisconsin Central at the time of construction, and seeking access to the railway hub of Chicago. However, the Northern Pacific bankruptcy of 1893 ended the plan. Grand Central Station was eventually purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which used the station as the Chicago terminus for its passenger rail service, including its glamorous Capitol Limited to Washington, D.C.. Major tenant railroads included the Soo Line Railroad (successor to the Wisconsin Central) the Chicago Great Western Railway and the Pere Marquette Railroad. The station was eventually shuttered in 1969 and torn down in 1971.