times since the counter was installed.
Other Pennsylvania Station Statuary.
See also S. Berliner, III's Railroad page, et seq., his
Long Island Rail Road page, et seq.
GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL EAGLES
He is also well-known as, firstly, the unofficial historian of the Pennsylvania Station eagles and as, secondly, the unofficial historian of the Grand Central Terminal eagles.
He also is the author of: "Long Island Rail Road Steam Locomotive Pictorial.
Mr. Morrison has written a book about the great cast-iron Grand Central Terminal eagles:
$4.95 plus $2.00 shipping and handling
32 pages - 40 color photographs
Dave gives the history of the predecessor Madison Square Station and its successor two Grand Central Terminals and documents the ten (10) known surviving eagles which graced the 1898 rebuild to the second station (the first GCT), which were removed in the 1910 demolition that made way for the current structure:
What I (SB,III) find most interesting is that all ten are still in New York State, with Tarrytown, Garrison/Harmon*, Cold Spring, and Bronxville along the Hudson River; remember that the New York Central RR has always run up along the Hudson River. Mount Vernon is on Long Island Sound across from Kings Point on Long Island and Centerport is further out on the North Shore of Long Island. The Centerport eagles are at the entrance to the Vanderbilt Museum, which was formerly the estate of William K(issam). Vanderbilt, Jr., and are marked with a plaque reading*:
Here are the Vanderbilt Museum eagles; as one drives up to the Museum on Little Neck Road from Fort Salonga Road (Route 25A, "Northern Boulevard") and turns right into the Museum grounds through a magnificent gate, there they are (viewed looking eastward):
These photographs had to be artificially processed to overcome total shadow on
jet-black statues
(I should have used a fill flash).
(16 Mar 06)
Lastly, this is a side view of the north eagle:
(16 Mar 06)
(16 Mar 06)
The Winterthur Museum in Delaware displays a wooden eagle claimed to have come
"from the first New York Central Station in Manhattan" (per Dave's Grand Central
book); this might date to the 1871-1898 building, but it is apparently not documented.
Fourteen (14) are known to have survived (per Dave M.):
Two are located on the Seventh Avenue side of the new sad excuse for a station
building and one is at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art at 41
Cooper Square in downtown Manhattan.
Another stands in lonely splendor at the LIRR's north station plaza in Hicksville (Long
Island), New York; the bulk of it's beak had been broken off and it was restored by
the Hicksville Historical Society (unfortunately, however well intentioned, it is a really
horrible job; the color and shape are all wrong and the poor bird looks positively
deformed!):
The inscription (in what appears to be high school Latin, and where a "V" is a
"U") is translated as:
What we SHOULD do is take up a collection to pay the Historical
Society to have that excrescence knocked off and replaced professionally with an
exact cast from another survivor! I'll chip in; any takers?
In its OPINION LETTERS of the Friday, March 1, 2002 issue, Long Island's NEWSDAY
published a letter from Dave Morrison, entitled "The Eagle Needs Fixing",
that read (in part):
" - - - It is refreshing to know that there are people who recognize and admire art
that is on display for public viewing.
My particular interest in the article was that the mosaic tile artwork inside the
Hicksville railroad station waiting room was discussed at length and no mention was
made of the Penn Station eagle sculpture that is almost immediately outside in the
station plaza.
That piece of art was sculptured by Adolph Weinman for placement on the old
Pennsylvania Station building. In the mid-1960s the building was demolished,
but the eagle was saved through the efforts of the late Hicksville High School teacher
Samuel A. Goldberg and installed at the Hicksville Station.
It is wonderful that the eagle is still present, but sad that it is in need of repair.
The eagle's beak was damaged over the years. Professional restoration is
needed now to restore the eagle's original beauty.
Since the Long Island educational community (Hicksville High School) was responsible
for obtaining and placing the eagle, why can't the same community (Nassau
Community College or the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University) take the lead
to establish a project to restore this great piece of public art at Hicksville Station?"
Hear, hear!
Two of the Penn Station eagles are on the grounds of the U. S. Merchant Marine
Academy at Kings Point (Long Island), New York; one is becoming seriously
deteriorated.
Four are located on the Market Street Bridge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
One is on the grounds of the Valley Forge Military Academy in Valley Forge,
Pennsylvania.
One is on the grounds of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.
One is in Vinalhaven, Maine.
And one is at the Smithsonian Institution's National Zoological Park in Washington, DC.
A famous picture of one of them, dumped ignominously in the Jersey Meadows, has
been published many times; of course, I can't find it just now! There is,
however, a great picture of several of them, on the ground, waiting for shipment from
the demolition site, on page 17 in
Lorraine B. Diehl's book, "The Late, Great
Pennsylvania StationPENNSYLVANIA STATION EAGLES
(26 Sep 01 photos by and © Copyright S. Berliner, III - 2001 - All rights reserved.
I'll have to reshoot these.)
Then, there are smaller eagles which graced Penn Station statuary groups, as noted
below.
Other Pennsylvania Station Statuary (per Dave M.):
The only completely-assembled statuary group is in Kansas City, Missouri. It is
a tribute to the Eagle Scouts and is located in a park. Rumor has it that it is
destined to be placed at the Kansas City Union Station when the restoration is
complete.
The full statuary group that was in Ringwood State Park, NJ, for many years has been taken by New Jersey Transit to a bus terminal in Newark, where it is being evaluated for restoration. The two (smaller) eagles that are part of that statuary group will remain in Ringwood.
A figure of "Night" is in the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
A top half of a "Day" was recently discovered at a stone recycling plant in the Bronx.
The whereabouts of other portions of the "Day" and "Night" figures, as well as four of the smaller eagles which abutted them, are unknown.
The latest word (Mar 99) is that the "new" (third) Penn Station (to be built in the great McKim, Meade, and White James J. Farley Postal Building, will have a good bit of the available PRR eagles and statuary incorporated into it. Let us pray!
23 Sep 01 - Atop the west face of the old Post Office Building on Ninth Avenue, above what would be 32nd Street, I spotted a beautiful eagle; I'll have to see if there's one atop the east face (which will become the entrance to Penn Station).
Pennsy fans, see my Pennsylvania Railroad Page
The old Latin motto of the Magyar (Hungarian) side of my family is:
which means:
"Nothing is as magnanimous nor as magnificent as the eagle"
No wonder I like eagles!
More to follow (including photos)!
Courtesy Page provided by
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
© Copyright S. Berliner, III -
1999, 2001, 2002,
2006
- All rights reserved.
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RAILROAD EAGLE MISCELLANY
There are also other railroad eagles which will be documented here, hopefully soon.
[I figure an eagle can afford to be magnanimous!]
THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!
S. Berliner, III
Consultant in Ultrasonic Processing
"changing materials with high-intensity sound"
Technical and Historical Writer, Oral Historian
Popularizer of Science and Technology
Rail, Auto, Air, Ordnance, and Model Enthusiast
Light-weight Linguist, Lay Minister, and Putative Philosopher