ABSTRACT
From the Statue of Liberty to the Empire State Building, from Times Square to Central Park, New York City has no shortage of iconic landmarks. But if you’re visiting the Big Apple and looking for a dose of that trademark New York hustle and bustle, you’re not going to find a busier tourist attraction than Grand Central Terminal (popularly referred to as Grand Central Station). On any given day, more than 700,000 people visit or travel through Grand Central. Tourists flock to see the famous four-sided clock atop the main information booth (which is valued at $10 to $20 million), the vast mural of the constellations on the ceiling, or the forty-eight-foot-high sculpture of the Roman gods Minerva, Hermes, and Mercury gracing the building’s facade. Even though the train station is chock full of famous sites to see, most tourists simply come to witness the mad dash of commuters scurrying through Grand Central like mice on a kitchen floor. More than 120,000 commuters dart across the main concourse every day, rushing to or from one of the station’s forty-four train platforms (more platforms than any other train station in the world). Grand Central is so famous for the breakneck speed at which travelers hustle across its concourse that the words “Grand Central Station” are often used as a metaphor for anything that moves at a frenzied pace. This got me to thinking, What would happen if Improv Everywhere visited the world’s busiest train station, the building that is the heartbeat of New York City, and made it freeze in place?
