The 30th Street Station

Two years and 97 pages after my honors thesis on trains and wayfinding can't keep me away from exploring a new station.

The 30th Street Station is a relatively new station, built in the Thirties during the "Monumental" period, as Meeks puts it. It is hard to tell stations built during this time from other public buildings. Indeed, there's not much difference between this building and the one across the street from it, which I suspect is the Post Office.

The architects, however, did keep the clock. You know, without it, you might just miss that train!



The inside is pretty significant because of the roof span. In fact, I think I read somewhere that the roof was built to support a helipad.



Below is a monument to its railroad employees who were killed in World War II.



The station has some really nice details.

Below are some stiles that support a stair railing.



Isn't this a charming handrail support?



Bill suspects that the perforations in the light fixture are for heating and ventilation.



This is the arcade. I'd prefer to see umbrella-ed tables in Roma, but at least the building is being used as it was intended.



By the way, because the station is codeshared with Continental Airline's service at Newark International Airport, it has its own airport call letters, ZFV. (Thank you, Wikipedia, for that tidbit!)