Tonight I watched the American Experience: Grand Central Terminal documentary on PBS - it was very informative and the photography was beautiful in HD.

They used a method of converting wonderfully detailed old photographs of the train yard into some sort of panning 3d-diorama to very impressive effect…

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As for the history - originally the station was built by the Vanderbilt family as an above-ground steam locomotive terminal. It soon became unbearably congested, dangerous (killing people on 4th avenue regularly), and clouded upper Manhattan in smoke. Apparently the Vanderbilts didn’t really care.

Well, then there was a big fatal accident, the city villianized the Vanderbilts, and they were given an ultimatum to increase safety and switch to electric trains (a new technology) - or lose their rights to the train yard. This, and the competition from the Pennsylvania railroad’s brand new Penn Electric Train Station forced the Vanderbilts to completely overhaul Grand Central.

In response, they moved the tracks underground at unprecedented expense, which was recouped by leasing the massive amount of reclaimed topside land as prime real estate. They switched to electric trains, and contracted two outstanding architectural teams to develop the terminal itself, which is universally hailed as an amazingly thoughtful and inspired work - considered the most beautifully designed station in the world at the time.