Ten Great Things About Grand Central Terminal

July 17, 2025

It’s more than just the inspiration for this blog’s name – Grand Central Terminal is the third-busiest rail hub in the U.S., one of the most beautiful buildings in New York City, and its second-most-popular tourist attraction after Times Square (SOURCE: Grand Central Terminal). It’s also a space where advertisers can reach hundreds of thousands of affluent suburban professionals who ride Metro-North or the Long Island Rail Road every day on their commutes in from the ‘burbs, connecting here to the MTA’s 4, 5, 6, and 7 lines – along with the 42nd Street Shuttle.


It’s easy to take a place like this for granted if you rush through it twice a day – but it really is a wonder for a multitude of reasons. Here are ten fun facts about Grand Central for those who can stop rushing long enough to appreciate this modern marvel.

1. Passengers catch their trains promptly thanks to two magnificent, ultra-precise clocks.

At the center of the Main Concourse is an information booth. There, you’ll find friendly and helpful MTA employees ready to guide you on your way. You’ll also find a four-faced opal glass clock estimated to be worth $20 million. Outside the terminal’s main entrance on 42nd Street is a Tiffany clock – the world’s largest at 14 feet. Both clocks – and every other one in the terminal – are synchronized to the atomic clock at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. and are accurate to within one second every 2 billion years. (SOURCE: Grand Central Terminal).

2. Inside the Main Concourse, our Digital Dioramas reach 750,000 people daily.

More than three quarters of a million people pass through Grand Central’s main concourse daily, making it the sixth-most-visited tourist attraction in the world. On the north wall of the concourse, our Digital Diorama Network of four 101” screens reaches those 750k with static creative in 12-second spots. (SOURCES: Metro-North, Travel & Leisure).

3. Grand Central has over 90 places to eat and shop.

To start with, there’s a very convenient Apple Store overlooking the main concourse, along with fashionable retailers like Charles Tyrwhitt, lululemon, and Banana Republic. Speaking of bananas, there’s a Magnolia Bakery outpost in the basement food court where you can grab a cup of its legendary banana pudding or choose from dozens of eateries serving everything from pierogis to stroopwafels. You can also visit the Grand Central Oyster Bar, which has been shucking since the night before Grand Central opened all the way back in 1913.

Leading to Lexington Avenue is Grand Central Market, where gourmet food vendors include iconic names like Murray’s Cheese and Eli Zabar’s. Last but definitely not least, our friends at the New York Transit Museum operate a gallery and gift shop here. Did you know that every MTA subway line has merch? Even the G.

4. Grand Central commuters represent a young, affluent audience.

So who is it, anyway, hurrying across the concourse to catch their train home? Here are some fun facts about Grand Central Terminal’s Metro-North commuter audience. Sixty percent of them have a household income over $100K. 54% of them are under the age of 45. Four in ten have purchased luxury items in the past twelve months and six in ten have taken a domestic flight. This is an audience that advertisers want to engage (SOURCE: Scarborough)!

5. Grand Central Terminal has a little sister. Her name is Madison.

It used to be that Long Island Rail Road commutes ended one place in Manhattan: Penn Station. But then in 2023 the 700,000-square-foot Grand Central Madison opened deep beneath the OG Grand Central, with eight tracks directly connecting the LIRR’s Main Line to the East Side of Manhattan. This expansion stretches underneath Vanderbilt Avenue all the way from 43rd Street north to 48th Street, its concourse and mezzanine displaying several notable permanent works of art including glass mosaics by Yayoi Kusama and Kiki Smith; digital artwork include Long Island landmarks as drawn by Long Island students – as well as temporary exhibitions. And of course, OUTFRONT offers IRL exposure down here in the form of eight networked Digital Liveboards and 15 static Backlit Dioramas.

6. Grand Central Madison is home to the longest escalators in the entire city.

Photo By Metropolitan Transportation Authority from United States of America - GCM, CC BY 2.0.
Hope you’re not afraid of heights! The LIRR tracks are accessible from the Madison Concourse via a series of escalators, each 182 feet long with a vertical drop of 90 feet. This thrill ride lasts a full minute and 38 seconds. Not only are these escalators the longest in the entire city of New York, they’re reportedly the longest ever manufactured by Schindler Elevator in its 150-year history (SOURCE: Curbed).

7. Our Liveboard Networks offer comprehensive digital coverage

Your options for digital transit advertising in Grand Central Terminal include Liveboard Networks covering Grand Central’s corridors, Vanderbilt Hall, and One Vanderbilt. There’s also the Grand Central Shed Liveboard Network, which reaches 200,000 Metro-North riders daily via 86 screens as they board and deboard their trains (SOURCE: Metro-North).

8. The zodiac on the ceiling is actually painted backwards.

The 125-foot-high vaulted ceiling above the main concourse is decorated with 12 gold-leaf constellations and 2,500 stars representing the twelve signs of the zodiac. But astronomy buffs will notice something astrology aficionados may not: the constellations are painted backwards. That’s because Cornelius Vanderbilt, who founded Grand Central, wanted the viewer to see the sky from the divine perspective (SOURCE: Grand Central Terminal).

9. Advertisers have 45 minutes to engage riders with in-car advertising.

Rail passengers are a captive audience and we give brands numerous options to take advantage of that long dwell time – an average of 45 minutes each way (SOURCE: MTA). Start with our Commuter Rail Livecard Network, with over 3,000 full-motion screens across both systems. Our traditional static Interior Rail Cards are available both individually and as full Interior Brand Trains where one advertiser occupies the entire car.

10. The other end of the journey is an opportunity too.

They’ve got to get off the train somewhere – and we’ve got the other end of the commute covered too. Our Commuter Rail Liveboard Network includes more than 450 portrait-oriented screens across nearly 50 LIRR and Metro-North stations. We also offer one-, two-, and three-sheet posters and kiosks in key platform locations systemwide.

And there you have it! Ten fun facts about Grand Central Terminal. Okay, maybe not all of the facts were fun – but they’re all useful if you’re trying to connect with the audience of young, affluent, professionals who pass through here twice a day. Ready to get on board? Contact OUTFRONT today.

Author: Jay Fenster, Marketing Manager @ OUTFRONT

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