27 November: Pennsylvania Station

New York's Pennsylvania Station, the world's largest railway terminal, opened on this date in 1910.

1. Roughly 550,000 cubic feet of stone, 27,000 tons of steel, and 15 million bricks were used during construction of the original station.
2. The original station was built by the Pennsylvania Railroad, hence the name. It took nine years to build from 1901-1910 and featured an ornate marble and granite station house and train shed inspired by the Gare d'Orsay in Paris (the world's first electrified rail terminal). 500 buildings were demolished to make way for it and 6,000 people were forced to move - no relocation expenses were paid to them. The last building to be demolished was a pub - so the construction workers had somewhere to get a drink.
3. The original station covered two city blocks and 8 acres of land, making it, at the time it opened, the largest indoor public space in the world.
4. The station building wasn't the biggest challenge for the Pennsylvania Railroad. That was the infrastructure of the lines coming in to it. Trains were travelling underneath the Hudson River for the first time (previously, the final part of the journey from New Jersey was on a ferry across the River Hudson). So tunnels had to be bored underneath the river.
5. It was the first train station to allocate separate concourses for arriving and departing passengers.
6. The original station was designed by the architecture firm McKim, Mead and White, and incorporated grand Doric columns, arching glass and steel framework and a 150 foot high arched ceiling. When it opened, it was hailed as a great monument to transportation. Not surprising, then, that when it was demolished in 1963 and replaced with Penn Plaza and Madison Square Garden there was a lot of criticism. "A city gets what it wants, is willing to pay for, and ultimately deserves," wrote a critic in the New York Times. "One entered the city like a God. One scuttles in now like a rat," wrote architectural historian Vincent Scully.
7. Now, Penn Station sees 1,200 trains a day and over 600,000 people on the average working day. That's more people than arrive daily at John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia, and Newark airports combined. It is the busiest passenger transportation facility in the United States.
8. Penn Station has 21 tracks fed by seven tunnels.
9. Penn Station is in the midtown area of Manhattan, close to Herald Square, the Empire State Building, Koreatown, and the Macy's department store. Entirely underground, it sits beneath Madison Square Garden, between Seventh Avenue and Eighth Avenue and between 31st and 34th Streets.
10. It has an abandoned underground passageway to 34th Street – Herald Square subway station, known as "Gimbels Passageway." After decades of safety concerns, this passageway was closed in the 1990s.

What happens when superheroes get together for Christmas! My latest novel.

A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

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