Book ID: CBB001210083

Grand Central's Engineer: William J. Wilgus and the Planning of Modern Manhattan (2012)

unapi

Schlichting, Kurt C. (Author)


Johns Hopkins University Press


Publication Date: 2012
Physical Details: 276 pp.; ill.; maps
Language: English

Few people have had as profound an impact on the history of New York City as William J. Wilgus. As chief engineer of the New York Central Railroad, Wilgus conceived the Grand Central Terminal, the city's magnificent monument to America's Railway Age. Kurt C. Schlichting here examines the remarkable career of this innovator, revealing how his tireless work moving people and goods over and under Manhattan Island's surrounding waterways forever changed New York's bustling transportation system. After his herculean efforts on behalf of Grand Central, the most complicated construction project in New York's history, Wilgus turned to solving the city's transportation quandary: Manhattan---the financial, commercial, and cultural hub of the United States in the twentieth century---was separated from the mainland by two major rivers to the west and east, a deep-water estuary to the south, and the Harlem River to the north. Wilgus believed that railroads and mass transportation provided the answer to New York City's complicated geography. His ingenious ideas included a freight subway linking rail facilities in New Jersey with manufacturers and shippers in Manhattan, a freight and passenger tunnel connecting Staten Island and Brooklyn, and a belt railway interconnecting sixteen private railroads serving the metropolitan area.

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Reviewed By

Review Craig F. Ash (Fall/Winter 2012) Review of "Grand Central's Engineer: William J. Wilgus and the Planning of Modern Manhattan". Railroad History (pp. 93-94). unapi

Review Richter, Amy G. (2013) Review of "Grand Central's Engineer: William J. Wilgus and the Planning of Modern Manhattan". Technology and Culture (pp. 670-672). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001210083/

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Authors & Contributors
Grant, H. Roger
Guillermo Guajardo Soto
Lothes, Scott
Schexnayder, Cliff J.
Logel, Jon Scott
Holzhueter, John O.
Concepts
Land transportation
Railroads
Urban planning
Technology and culture
Civil engineering
Technology
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
20th century
Gilded Age (1870s-1900)
21st century
Places
United States
New York City (New York, U.S.)
Hoosac Tunnel
St. Louis (Missouri, U.S.)
Missouri (U.S.)
Mexico City (Mexico)
Institutions
Pennsylvania Railroad
New York Central Railway
Center for Railroad Photography and Art
United States Military Academy
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