Some of the city's best kept secrets are still able to be uncovered, according to Jonah Engler. Click on this presentation to find out the amazing story behind Grand Central's Secret tunnel!

1. Forgotten New York: The Grand
Central/Roosevelt Hotel Tunnel
Even as amazing and extensive as the past lives of New York
City have proven to be, it is somewhat hard to imagine that
there could still be mysterious sites left for public history buffs
as well as tourists and curious columnists to explore within the
well-traversed confines of Manhattan.
According to Gothamist's Jan Carlson, when the right people
are asked, as she and Gothamist photographer Sai Mokhtari
recently did, even some of the city's best kept secrets are still
able to be uncovered. The current case in point is a long-
abandoned underground tunnel that once joined The Grand Central Terminal, located on the

2. corners of 42nd Street and Park Avenue, to
the Roosevelt Hotel, housed at the
intersection of Madison and 45th..
Grand Central Terminal, historically known
as Grand Central Depot when it first opened
in 1871 until the original facility was torn
down and replaced by the current building in
1913, has long been the hub of subway
transportation within the city. Its forty-four
platforms likewise connect a large number of
commuters via rail travel from the city's
outlying communities to Manhattan on a
daily basis.
The Roosevelt Hotel, initially opened in
1924 and named for Theodore, the first President Roosevelt, contains more than one thousand
hotel rooms including over fifty suites, and was the first to utilize store fronts in its sidewalk
connections.
While not highly publicized, the subterranean tunnel connecting the two sites is not exactly a
secret to those most intimately familiar with both premises. Carlson advises that when she first
attempted to locate the secret passage, she and Mokhtari were directed to a gated and locked
stairwell below the main lobby by a hotel guide. She was further advised by a Metropolitan
Transportation Authority spokesperson that the temporarily inaccessible stairway led only to the
hotel basement, and could not confirm the existence of the tunnel.

3. Reluctant to give up on the quest for the mysterious tunnel, Mokhtari returned to the hotel
several days later. Through assistance from an employee of a clothing store located on 46th
Street and a knowledgeable bellhop, theGothamist photographer was able to finally locate and
photograph remnants of the secret tunnel that once connected Grand Central Terminal to the
Roosevelt Hotel. Although the actual tunnel entrances to both buildings have been under lock
and key for several years, reportedly due to a large number of homeless persons sleeping in the
passage, Mokhtari was able to capture on film what remains of the tunnel rest rooms, as well as a
storage place for abandoned luggage and old baggage carriers.
The obsolete tunnel is definitely an exemplar of a less-publicized and by-gone era in New York,
when city residents as well as tourists could walk underground from one destination to another
without having to deal with the daily hustle and bustle on the sidewalks above. What remains to
be seen is how many more secret passageways still remain within the subterranean depths of this
largest and obviously most intriguing American city.
Jonah Engler is a financial expert who loves history and technology.