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Union Station
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Welcome to Union Station Kansas City!
Female
95 years old
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI
United States
Last Login: 10/12/2007
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Union Station's Details
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| Status: | Single | | Here for: | Networking, Friends | | Body type: | More to love! | | Zodiac Sign: | Scorpio | | Occupation: | Kansas City’s most prominent historic landmark. |
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Welcome to Union Station!
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Union Station's Blurbs |
About me:
Union Station is Kansas City's most prominent landmark, and a premier destination for entertainment and cultural activities. Built in 1914, Union Station enjoyed its glory days as one of the nation's busiest train stations, accommodating tens of thousands of passengers every year. At its peak during WWII, an estimated one million travelers passed through Union Station.
The North Waiting Room (now the Sprint Festival Plaza) could hold more than 10,000 people and the 850,000 square foot train depot featured more than 900 rooms - including restaurants, railroad offices, the nation's largest Railway Express Building (used for shipping freight and mail), a cigar store and barber shop, as well as a powerhouse that provided the Station's steam and power.
As air travel replaced rail as the primary mode of transportation, Union Station's passenger rail traffic slowed. In 1973, passenger traffic dropped to only 32,842 for the year, with only six trains a day passing through. Finally the Station closed in 1983, leaving Amtrak and the Lobster Pot restaurant to operate from an inflatable bubble inside the Grand Hall. But the building's condition forced Amtrak to leave in 1985, and the Lobster Pot to close in 1989.
For many years Union Station sat empty and neglected, escaping demolition on several occasions. It was considered to blight the downtown Kansas City skyline, and was filled with debris, rodents and water that entered from broken windows and a leaking roof.
In 1996, voters in Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri, and Johnson County in Kansas approved a one-eighth of a cent bistate sales tax to restore and redevelop Union Station and create a science museum. The bi-state tax is thought to be the first of its kind in the history of the United States and raised $118 million toward the total $250 million project. The remaining money was raised through private donations and federal funds.
Union Station reopened its doors in November 1999, fully restored to its former glory, and once again includes shops, restaurants, and now boasts Science City - an interactive children's science center; the KCP&L Traveling Exhibit Gallery - where world class exhibits like the Dead Sea Scrolls, and those from the Smithsonian Institute are hosted; the five-story Regnier Extreme Screen 3D theater, the only 3D giant screen movie theater in the region; the H&R Block City Stage live theatre, where dramas, comedies, musicals for audiences of all ages are played out during day and evening performances; and the KC Rail Experience, paying tribute to Union Station's history as a busy rail depot, where guests enjoy a hands-on journey through the exciting history of the American railroad.
And ... you can once again catch a train at Union Station. Amtrak service returned to the Station in 2002 and operates daily passenger rail service to St. Louis with destination points as far as Chicago and Los Angeles.
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Who I'd like to meet:
Any friends who love to learn!
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| Union Station's Friend Space (Top 4) |
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Union Station has 15 friends.
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