This view of the Rochester, New York station platforms may well represent the nadir of passenger rail accomodations for the city. A magnificent Claude Bragdon-designed station had been demolished just eight years previously, with the tunnel to the platform stairways fitted out with a ticket window and some benches. Period. At the time of the photo, most of the station trackage had been removed or allowed to fall into disrepair. Here an eastbound Penn Central freight approaches, overlooked by the Eastman Kodak headquarters building in the distance. Eventually a new Amtrak steel and glass box would be built in 1978, with an even newer "multi-modal tourist center" completed in 2017, but the grandeur of the original station is gone for good.
