9,725,000 bricks.
12,750 tons of steel.
80,000 cubic yards of concrete.
Thousands of hours of man-machine labor.
THE FUTURE OF PASSENGER TRAVEL IS HERE IN THE ELECTRIC CITY!
Sunday June 23, 1929-
The Mayor of Buffalo has cut the ribbon for the grand opening of The New York Central Terminal today. The building, which was designed by Fellheimer and Wagner, is an extravagant addition to Buffalo’s growing skyline. The new Central Terminal will link passengers and cargo to other booming cities such as Chicago, New York, Boston, Toronto, Detroit and Niagara Falls. This is a pivotal point in the history of this ever-progressing city, and the Central Terminal shall be an important addition to Buffalo for years to come…
*
Dilapidated, Plywood windows
Memorial Street doesn’t have much to show for
This road, foul rotted gums
These houses, they are the broken teeth
Along the tracks, concealed in overgrowth, is a railroad tie
Insects eat at its insides
But there is a date-nail still stamped in it.
It reads “28”
I can’t imagine the promise that man felt when he stamped that “28”
If I could only tell him
“You broke your back for nothing. You sweated blood for nothing. You came home every night to a cold dinner and a sleeping wife for two years for nothing. You got that divorce over nothing.”
*
“It was beautiful, like nothing I have ever seen,” my father said to me. “The front entrance was always clogged with taxi cabs, cars, and busses. As we walked in, we passed under a great awning that read ‘The New York Central Railroad Co.’ I think it’s still there today. Walking inside was like walking into a cathedral—a giant dome ceiling with an extravagant chandelier. There was just a steady drone of chatter with people constantly rushing around you. We took the train to a maple farm in Batavia once. We spent the day there and then caught the night train back.”
“You could get anything there: a haircut, a newspaper, magazine, dinner, medicine, flowers for the girl you were going to meet, or fruit for the long train ride. The place had everything. It even had a haberdashery.” –Unknown
*
Memories, buried by abandonment
That same main entrance that made your heart beat quick
Is now a broken-in shelter for the homeless
Floors that were buzzing with travelers and operators
Are now the homes of boxes upon boxes of old, forgotten documents.
*
Sunday April 17th, 1979-
Anthony Fedele, the hopeful savoir of the abandoned Central Terminal, has announced today his abandonment of the terminal due to financial problems. Amtrak, which revived the Central Terminal for a short period of time, lost too much revenue during their occupancy of the building in the past two years. Amtrak will be relocating to a better, financially stable location in the near future.
“Yeah, they bought an old construction trailer in Depew and called it the New Central Terminal. Ha! I got a better fuckin’ name for it: Amshack.”
*
Broken Windows
No re-claim to fame
An eye sore. No no, a sore in the mouth for Miss Queen City
Why even name that street “Memorial Drive,” anyway?
To remember how promising this City was?
And what shit it is now?
The coronet is gone
The Queen, well, the Queen has been beheaded.
