THE GRAND PORTICO

completion of the street car tracks immediately in front of the station makes it readily accessible to all parts of the city on a 5-cent fare by either of the two lines operating in the city.

When the architects of Union Station submitted their plans they had in mind a terminal which would be in keeping with the future of the nation's capital city. As the station was to be the nation's vestibule or gateway, it should of necessity be built in harmony with the character of the other Government buildings. in Washington, bearing in mind that a more beautiful Washington was the aim of the future. With this end in view the architectural motives were drawn from the triumphal arches of Rome.

The entire ground area of the Washington Terminal Company property is estimated at about one hundred and sixty acres. This territory embraces the main station building, three signal towers, powerhouse, express building, locomotive and repair shop, coach yards and the sixty miles of track which con

3

verge into the thirty-three separate tracks which enter the station.

The main building is six hundred and twenty feet long and from sixtyfive to one hundred and twenty-five feet in height, and is constructed of white granite. The three main entrance arches from the street are fifty feet in height and thirty feet in width, and are larger in every way than their Roman prototypes.

These central doorways lead into a vaulted open-air vestibule extending across the entire front of the building, and from thence directly into the main waiting-room. At right angles on the east and west sides of the main building are end pavilions covered by two forty-foot arched carriage entrances, the one on the east leading to a suite of apartments for the use of the President of the United States and the nation's honored guests, while the one on the west leads to a general carriage porch near the ticket and baggage lobby. The central and side vestibules are connected, forming a continuous covered porch along the front and sides of the building.

MAIN ENTRANCE

The general waiting-room is one of the finest in the world. It is two hundred and twenty feet long, one hundred and thirty feet wide and covered by a Roman barrel vault, ninety feet high, decorated with sunken coffers or panels. The light during the day is transmitted through a semicircular window at the east end, seventy-five feet in diameter, and by five semicircular windows, thirty feet in diameter, on the north side and three on the south side. In the ticket lobby the light is admitted through the roof. At night the light is obtained by electric reflection from powerful arc lights hidden in the upper alcoves over the vestibules on the north and south sides, the light being thrown against the great expanse of ceiling and reflected throughout the room, producing a very soft effect, while the lights themselves are concealed. This lighting scheme is effected by a series of inverted arc lamps with corrugated mirror reflectors, which throw the light to the ceiling, from whence it is reflected to the floor. To soften the bluish-white glare of the arc lights a light yellow-tinted cathedral glass

INFORMATION BUREAU

screen is placed over the lamps and reflectors. At the east end of this immense hall are

grouped the dining-room, lunchroom and women's waiting-room. The main dining-room is decorated in rich colors and is handsomely furnished, having the appearance of belonging to a high-class modern hotel. The lunchroom has the usual counters, besides small tables. The service in both dining-room and lunchroom is excellent in every detail and moderate prices are charged for the choicest food.

The ladies' retiring-room is in keeping with the rest of the building in magnificent but plain appoint

ments.

At the west end and on opposite sides of a lobby fifty feet wide are the ticket offices and baggage-rooms. There are five large ticket windows and every provision is made to handle large crowds with the utmost dispatch. Across from the ticket windows is the baggage checking room, enabling passengers to attend to their baggage with the least inconvenience. To the left of the entrance to the ticket lobby are the men's toilet,

THE PRESIDENT'S ROOM

WOMEN'S WAITING-ROOM

barber shop, smoking-room and telephone and telegraph booths. To the right of the ticket lobby is the information bureau.

7

worked by electricity, and is absolutely clear and understandable to a passenger and can be read many feet away.

The train yard opposite the concourse is seven hundred and sixty feet wide, corresponding with the length of the concourse. The tracks are covered by umbrella sheds and consequently there is never an accumulation of smoke, steam or gases to annoy the passengers. The northern railroads use the tracks of the high level, occupying four hundred and eighty feet of the entire width from the west. In the remaining two hundred and eighty feet on the east side the tracks are depressed and are used by the southern railway connections by the way of the tunnel under 1st Street, the plaza and the station.

The great concourse or lobby exceeds anything ever built for a similar purpose. It is seven hundred and sixty feet long by one hundred and thirty feet wide and covered by an arched ceiling in a single span, decorated with panels, a part of which transmits the light.

So large is the area of the concourse that it is said the entire standing army of the United States can be accommodated therein at one time. The concourse is separated from the umbrella sheds and tracks by an artistic iron fence with gates opposite each platform. These gates are supplied with automatic devices, showing the name of the railroad, number and name of the train, its time of departure and all the principal cities reached by it. It is

TAXICABS AT UNION STATION

TICKET OFFICES

The electro-pneumatic interlocking system is installed for the safe operation of trains on the tracks within the jurisdiction of the terminal. Of the three interlocking plants or towers the largest or main tower is at K Street and Delaware Avenue. In this tower are operated 162 levers. In the New York Avenue tower, the next in size, are fifty-eight working levers and in the Massachusetts Avenue tower are twenty working levers. There are 108 working switch levers in all, operating seventythree signal switches, five derails, eighty-six ends of double slip-switches with movable point frogs. There are 106 signal levers, operating 251 three-position signals and 157 two