Port Authority Bus Terminal

625 8th Avenue | also 300 West 42nd Street, 641 8th Avenue | Hell's Kitchen | built 1950

Open on the map4 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1950

   The Port Authority opens a consolidated bus terminal on Eighth Avenue

   The Port Authority opens a new bus terminal at Eighth Avenue and 41st Street in 1950, consolidating eight bus depots that had been scattered across Midtown into one gleaming facility with escalators, shops, and 31 ticket windows. A promotional newsreel calls the terminal one of the "milestones of the century."

   Source: Ephemeral New York

2. 1978

   The terminal expands south with new X-shaped steel trusses

   In the late 1970s, the Port Authority expands the terminal south to 42nd Street and adds the distinctive X-shaped steel trusses that still mark its exterior. The redesigned building quickly draws scorn, later landing on a 2008 published list of the city's ugliest buildings.

   Source: Ephemeral New York

3. 1982

   George Segal installs "The Commuters" sculpture at the terminal

   Sculptor George Segal installs "The Commuters," a bronze triptych of three weary bus riders, on the terminal's Ninth Avenue side in 1982. Segal calls the commuters he depicts "long-suffering people" and means the work to honor riders who pass through the terminal on their way to and from New Jersey every day.

   Source: Ephemeral New York

4. 1993

   Muralist Wyland paints whales along the terminal's 41st Street underpass

   In 1993, marine muralist Wyland paints a 400-foot mural of humpback whales, blue whales, and other sea life along the terminal's dim 41st Street underpass, used by Greyhound and New Jersey Transit buses. The mural is part of the artist's nationwide "Whaling Walls" series, though its underpass setting leaves it largely unnoticed by passersby.

   Source: Ephemeral New York

Further reading

• Gray Line WorldwideWikipedia
• Meet the shiny new Port Authority Bus TerminalEphemeral New York
• The commuters in the Port Authority bus stationEphemeral New York
• The Port Authority as you’ve never seen it beforeEphemeral New York
• A left behind subway sign at 42nd StreetEphemeral New York
• The Whales of the Port Authority Bus TerminalEphemeral New York
• A bird’s-eye view of Pennsylvania StationEphemeral New York

Nearby

• McGraw-Hill Building330 West 42nd Street | 12 entries
• The Orion350 West 42nd Street | 3 entries
• Holy Cross Church331 West 42nd Street | 4 entries
• Holy Cross Church329 West 42nd Street | 4 entries
• Eleven Times Square640 8th Avenue | 13 entries
• Empire Theatre (AMC Empire 25)250 West 42nd Street | 6 entries

All 46 buildings with stories in Hell's Kitchen