TEACHER'S GUIDE: COMPREHENSION
Use this activity with your students after they watch the program Grand Central.
For each of the following statements, write T if it is true; if it is false, rewrite it so that it is true.
The business tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt, who built the first Grand Central, made his fortune in the oil business.
Vanderbilt built Grand Central to service the trains of the New York subway system.
When Grand Central was completed, it stood in the center of the most developed part of New York City.
The trains that serviced Grand Central in the late 1800s were powered by steam.
Before the fatal 1902 rail accident, the public had few safety concerns about the trains entering New York City.
Following the 1902 accident, New York banned steam locomotives from Manhattan.
William Wilgus designed a new terminal in which commuter trains would run parallel to the long-distance trains that serviced Grand Central.
To help finance the new terminal, the New York Central Railroad leased the space above the underground tracks to private developers.
New York City split the cost of building the new Grand Central with Vanderbilt's railroad company.
Grand Central was shut down between August 1903 and September 1906 while the new station was built.
Though some blamed William Wilgus for the fatal 1907 rail accident, the New York Central strongly defended him.
The New York Central hired the brilliant but arrogant architect Whitney Warren to help design the new terminal building because of dissatisfaction with the existing plan.
The original design for the terminal proposed by the firm of Reed and Stem was completely replaced.
The new terminal was widely praised for its appearance when it opened in 1913.
Grand Central looks very different today than it did in 1913.
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