Photography by R.J. Caputo

Glory of Commerce, Grand Central Terminal,NYC (by rjcaputophotography)

 The 42^nd St. façade clock with sculpture of Mercury (messenger of the gods, god of travelers and roads, god of merchants and commerce); Hercules (performed twelve labors to be freed from bondage); and Minerva (goddess of wisdom and patron of arts and crafts) Together suggest urban rhetoric and nationalist discourse of triumph, victory, commerce, glory, exemplarity.  Beaux Arts architecture is a testimony to Grand Central as symbolic place of American commercial power and cultural capital.

Outside the station, the clock in front of the Grand Central facade facing 42nd Street contains the world’s largest example of Tiffany glass and is surrounded by sculptures carved by the John Donnelly Company. Minerva, Hercules, and Mercury were designed by French sculptor Jules-Felix Coutan. At the time of its unveiling (1914) this trio considered to be the largest sculptural group in the world. It was 48 feet (14.6 m) high, the clock in the center having a circumference of 13 feet (4 m).4

(Via. Wikipedia)

 “This portal was usually decorated and elaborated into an Arch of Triumph, erected to some naval or military victory or the glory of some personage. The city of today has no surrounding that may serve, by elaboration, as a pretext to such glorification, but none the less, the gateway must exist, and in the case of New York and other cities, it is through a tunnel which discharges the human flow in the very center of the town. Such is the Grand Central Terminal and the motive of the fascade is an attempt to offer a tribute to the glory of commerce as exemplified by tht institution.”

                              -Whitney Warren, architect for Grand Central Terminal