@travelwithnoon: There's a secret train platform under the Waldorf Astoria, and the story goes that it existed for one reason: to hide the President's wheelchair. Only half of that is true. Track 61 is a railroad siding dug in the 1910s to feed Grand Central's power plant, with a freight elevator sized for an armored car. The Astors' hotel lost its Fifth Avenue home to the Empire State Building and moved to Park Avenue in 1931, right on top of it. On October 21, 1944, Franklin Roosevelt rode 51 miles through New York in an open car in the rain to prove to voters he wasn't dying, spoke at the Waldorf that night, and the Secret Service schedule had him leaving at 10:05 by elevator down to the siding and a train home. It's the only use anyone has ever documented. For decades an old blue rail car sat on the next track over and was called FDR's armored car. When it was hauled away in 2019, it turned out to be a tool car with hooks on the walls. He died less than six months after that night. The Waldorf reopened in 2025, and Track 61 is still down there, off limits, but you can glimpse it from a Metro-North train leaving Grand Central. Share this with the person who thinks they know every secret in New York. Follow for the untold stories behind the world's most iconic places, and save this for your next New York trip. #WaldorfAstoria #Track61 #NYCHistory #HiddenHistory #TravelHistory

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Wednesday 19 August 2026 20:36:30 GMT