It's Like Grand Central In Here!

“Singing trees. Green birds. The snappy new day is here. You might wake up and play with your dog, Pete. You might build a chair of sticks, or chew some gum. You might do nothing at all. But while you are sitting there, there is a place in New York City that is the busiest, fastest, biggest place there is. It is a train station. This place is called Grand Central. One day you might (you must) go there."

-Next Stop, Grand Central by Maira Kalman

Grand Central is the largest train station in the world by number of platforms (44) with 67 tracks among them. 125,000 commuters pass through it each day.

The Clock in the Main Concourse, probably the most recognizable icon of Grand Central. Each of the four clock faces is made of opal and both Sotheby's and Christie's have estimated the clock's value to be between $10 and $20 million.

Lying on the polished marble floor and gazing up at the sparkly, robin-egg's blue, astronomical ceiling in the Main Concourse. The sky is actually painted backwards.

En route to the Whispering Gallery: Charlie and Vivi stood in one corner and I stood in the opposite corner. We faced the wall and whispered and each time, supposedly because our voices followed the dome of the curved ceiling, it sounded like we were standing right next to each other instead of in opposite corners.

Lunchtime at the most famous restaurant in Grand Central, The Oyster Bar, which opened the same year that Grand Central did--1913.

Picking out dessert at Grand Central Market

Books:

• Down in the Subway by Miriam Cohen
• My Subway Ride by Paul DuBois Jacobs
• Next Stop Grand Central by Maira Kalman
• Subway Ride by Heather Lynn Miller
• Subway by Christoph Niemann
• Subway by Anastasia Suen

Grand Central Terminal, 15 Vanderbilt Avenue, East 42^nd Street between Vanderbilt and Park Avenues, Midtown Manhattan, New York City; (212) 514-370; www.grandcentralterminal.com; Open daily from 5:30 AM to 2:00 AM.

Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant, Grand Central Station—Lower Concourse, New York, New York 10001; (212) 490-6650; www.oysterbarny.com.

Other Fun Places to Visit at Grand Central:

New York Transit Museum Gallery Annex & Store at Grand Central Terminal, Located just off the Main Concourse in the Shuttle Passage; (212) 878-0106.

Pylones, Grand Central Terminal, Shuttle Passage; (212) 867-0969; www.pylones-usa.com (has all sorts of things that you certainly don’t need, but will have to have once you see them: brightly painted maracas and jump ropes chicken tape dispensers, mermaid bottle openers, Lego calculators, and ladybug staplers).