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August 1942. "New York, New York. Waiting for trains at Pennsylvania Station." Photo by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information. View full size.
To ColoZ: The U-shaped cutout in the railing may have been for a ticket-checker to stand in without getting bowled over by the crowds.
ColoZ and Marysd: several of the current staircases down to the platform level have the original banisters and iron work partially visible in this image.
What is the little semi-circular railing on the right for?
As someone who has to regularly commute through the "new" Penn Station, photos like these of the old, now-destroyed station make me sad. I love the juxtaposition in this photo; the bored commuter, the new mom, the nattily-dressed porter and the escalator riders behind them. Where the floor has worn away in the station, the glass-embedded tiles shown here still show through.
[The "glass-embedded tiles" are skylights of the kind seen on sidewalks above building basements, usually with the glass turned purple from long exposure to sunlight. -tterrace]
Young parents of today may not realize how hard it was on the backs of parents when they had to change their baby's diaper away from home. The changing tables in many of today's public bathrooms are a great help and relief to parents with back or joint problems and probably are more sanitary for the baby too (as well as random onlookers). I don't think anyone had disposable diapers then either, you had to carry it around with you. This is not one of the things we would like to go back to.
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