Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt Statue
▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ South facade of Grand Central Terminal at the level of the Park Ave. viaduct, Manhattan, NYC, NY. HDR + full spectrum color high definition photos merged… ✎ Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794 –1877), also known informally as "Commodore Vanderbilt", was an American business magnate and philanthropist who built his wealth -- $100 million at the time of his death -- in railroads and shipping. He is best known for building the New York Central Railroad. The 8½ ft. bronze statue was sculpted by Ernst Plassmann and dedicated in 1869. The statue was designed for an architectural setting, and meant to be seen only from the front. When dedicated in 1869, the sculpture was the centerpiece of a 150-foot-long, 31-foot-high pediment on Vanderbilt's Hudson River Railroad Freight Depot, just south of Canal Street. Bronze reliefs to either side showed sailboats, steamboats and railroads: the transportation industries in which Vanderbilt made his millions. The rest of the pediment was lost (hard to imagine misplacing something that large) at some point, though, and the statue is all that remains. The four-ton statue is half a century older than the 1913 Beaux-Arts Grand Central Terminal building behind it. |
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