Vanderbilt Eagle and Crowd

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This photograph shows a "Vanderbilt Eagle" at the intersection of Vanderbilt Ave and East 42nd street, Grand Central Terminal, New York City. I like this photo because it shows a crowd of people below the eagle going about their daily business. I guess many of the people would never even see the eagle or know about its history.

Vanderbilt Eagles

Grand Central Terminal has two cast-iron eagle statues on display. The eagles weigh about 4,000 pounds (1,800 kg) each, and have a wingspan of about 13 feet (4.0 m).

They are two of the 11 or 12 eagle statues that ornamented the terminal's predecessor, Grand Central Station. In 1910, when the station was demolished to build Grand Central Terminal, the eagles were dispersed throughout the city and New York state.

The two eagles that sit atop the terminal were donated to the MTA around the turn of the 21st century. One had stood for years in a backyard in Bronxville, New York; in 1999, it was placed atop the Lexington Avenue entrance to Grand Central Market. The other was at a monastery in Garrison, New York (the present-day Garrison Institute), and was installed in 2004 at the terminal's southwest entrance by Vanderbilt Avenue and 42nd Street.

Eight identical eagle statues are elsewhere, including one at a private home in Kings Point, New York; one at the Space Farms Zoo and Museum in Beemerville, New Jersey; two at the Vanderbilt Museum in Long Island; one, known as the "Shandaken Eagle", in Phoenicia, New York; two at Saint Basil Academy in Garrison; and one at the Philipse Manor station in Sleepy Hollow, New York. One or two of Grand Central Station's eagles remain lost.

New York City's former Penn Station was adorned with 22 eagle sculptures, many of which were similarly dispersed across the United States after the building's demolition.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.