There’s a Secret Tunnel in New York Celebrities and Presidents Use to Escape
Did you know there's a secret tunnel in New York celebrities and past presidents have used to avoid getting mobbed by the public?
Track 61 sits under the Waldorf Hotel in New York City. There's said to be an unmarked brass door that leads to the underground station. It's rumored to still be used as a secret escape after never being properly abandoned, according to Atlasoscura.com. There's even an antique train car once used by Franklin D. Roosevelt that remains in the hidden tunnel today.
"That entire train station was built for one customer only - Franklin D. Roosevelt," Daniel Brucker Docent in Chief of Grand Central Terminal Tours told a camera crew allowed into the secret tunnel.
Roosevelt came to New York City in his own private train, sitting in a limousine that would be driven off that train car and onto the platform. The car was then lifted right into the Waldorf’s garage by a special elevator.
Roosevelt is also rumored to have entered and exited via the station in order to hide his worsening case of polio.
Camera crews found an old stretcher kept inside the train in case Roosevelt needed it. The entire platform, tracks, and elevator are still there today.
George W. Bush
Rumor has it, George W. Bush also used the tunnel for a quick getaway while he took meetings at the Waldorf, including the U.N. General Assembly meeting with Colin Powell, and Condoleezza Rice in 2003.
Given the amount of secrecy involved, all are hard to confirm.
Track 61
Track 61 is a twelve-track storage yard that was built during the construction of Grand Central Terminal in the 1910s, according to Wikipedia. It was demolished in 1930 to make way for the Waldorf Hotel.
It was opened to the public only once in 1946 for an exhibition of American Locomotive Company's new diesel locomotive. Andy Warhol used it in 1965 a party, according to The Gothamist.