The larger part of the passenger traffic of the city is handled at the Great Northern Passenger station, at the foot of Hennepin and Nicollet Avs. This completely modern station was begun in 1912 and opened for traffic early in 1914 taking the place of the old “union station” built in 1884. The exterior of the building gives little idea of the commodious interior arrangements. The main waiting room is 62 by 155 feet in size with an adjoining train concourse 252 feet in length. From the concourse passengers descend by elevator or stairway to the train platforms, each platform being provided with its own separate means of entrance and doing away entirely with the crossing of tracks in the train sheds.
Baggage is handled on electric motor trucks with rubber-tired wheels from the main baggage room along a gallery to the far end of the train sheds where it is lowered to the platforms by electric elevators and landed within a few feet of the baggage cars of out-going trains. Passengers see little of the handling of baggage which is such a nuisance in many stations. A complete power station furnishes light and heat for the entire passenger terminal with power for a washed air ventilating system, vacuum cleaning plant, etc. The ticket offices are models of convenience, and centrally and conspicuously located. A large and fully equipped information booth stands in plain view. Off from the central waiting-room are men’s smoking rooms, women’s rooms, telegraph offices, telephone booths, news stands and cab stands. Upstairs, easily accessible by stairway and elevator, are lunch and dining-rooms. The cost of the station alone was approximately a million dollars. All street car lines pass or transfer to the depot and it is within a few blocks of the leading hotels.
-Hudson’s Dictionary of Minneapolis and Vicinity, 1918
