Penn Station, then.
Lots of reading getting done here. One book I read last week was Jill Jonnes’ Conquering Gotham, about the construction of Penn Station (ugh these titles; can’t we just call it “The Building of Penn Station”?). The book makes a good read for the NYC enthusiast; part of the pleasure is deepening one’s knowledge of the place. All living is a form of truce with ignorance; I spent two summers working in Penn Station without even knowing why it’s called Penn Station. Now I have in my head a fairly good set of stories about the place, including the (fabulous) engineering story of getting tunnels built through Hudson River silt (human beings are utterly ingenious), the (fabulous) architectural design of Charles McKim (and the bizarre behavior of his partner Stanford White who was murdered by a jealous husband while the station was being built). Most impressive to me was the portrait of the president of the Pennsylvania Rail Road, Alexander Cassatt, who appears to have been a combination of competence so unusual it must be called brilliance, and nobility of means and purpose, perfectly embodied by the building he left behind. Cassatt’s confrontations with Tammany leaders, competing robber barons (including Vanderbilt, Morgan, Frick, Gould, et al.), and major politicians (including his friend Roosevelt) form interesting studies in the relative effectiveness of good and evil tactics (Cassatt did not always win, of course).
But he did in the end achieve a Roman deed, connecting New York City to points West by a railroad, and building the world’s greatest terminal in its greatest city.
Of course this story would have been told ten times over to all NYC schoolchildren, were it not for the fact that the monument Cassatt left us we destroyed. It lives only in photographs. The iconic image of our own violent destruction of our own culture – the broken statues and columns of Penn Station strewn about the Meadowlands as landfill – is apparently so iconic the photographer makes sure you can’t find it on the web. The story is here.
It is always useful to contrast what rich Americans did not long ago – for greed and profit, of course, but they had other motives as well – Penn Station is an example – and what rich Americans do now. The economic impulse has really gotten the better of all the other motivations. Time to stop requiring Econ 101 for these rich kiddies and make them learn Latin again, eh?
Penn Station now. If rich people aren't going to provide beauty, culture, and grandeur to society, do we really need them anymore?
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