Last Day in New York City

We had a few hours left and decided to visit Grand Central Station....an iconic landmark. Joanie, Sandy, Jan and myself opted to do this, the other three went shopping.
We took the subway to Park and 42nd street.
The building outside is impressive  with a large iron eagle on one corner and a magnificent Tiffany clock with Greek sculpture over the main entrance. The clock is the largest in the world and weighs 1500tons! When you enter you can't help but look upwards in the main hall and stare at the zodiac art on the ceiling, it is a pale greenish turquoise colour and the constellations of the crab, Milky Way, Perseus, etc are etched in white.  Interestingly the constellations are backwards, the Vanderbilt insist this was done purposefully with a divine perspective rather than a human one. The ceiling is now clean but before its restoration it was grimy and dirty, with 70% of the grime being from nicotine......you would have expected it to be soot and ash from the trains.
There is one area called the Whispering Gallery, it is an acoustical anomaly in that sound travels across the chamber,  if you stand in opposite corners against the wall and whisper a greeting to someone on the other wall they will hear you. It is not known if this was planned or random.
If you look high up at the many panes windows on each end of the main hall you can see the odd person silhouetted walking across a walkway....the windows are double panes with a narrow walkway built between. This was done to allow office workers on the adjoining buildings to walk between. It is quite a sight to see! Unfortunately not for us to experience.
There is so much more to this place than trains, restaurants, markets, little shops and beautiful architecture, marble and on and on.
The station now only has commuter trains and trains to other towns in NYC state., now the cross country trains depart from  Penn  Station. I arrived at Grand Central in December 1954 as a child with my mother, brother and baby sister.......I remember being told by mum to sit still on a bench with my brother and to behave ouselves.!!!! Today I sat on one of these  same benches and behaved myself. What a great way to finish our vacation. We returned to our hotel and relaxed on the rooftop deck until our transport to the airport arrived. Judy, Marion and Joan returned as well after a successful shopping trip.
Goodbye New York, till the next time xo