Thursday was a big day for the future Moynihan Station, as ground was broken to transform the landmark Farley Post Office in Midtown into a new transit hub.
It's part of Governor Andrew Cuomo's $1.6 billion plan to move Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road operations at Penn Station across Eighth Avenue, which will eventually be known as Moynihan Station.
The future hub is named after late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who died in 2003. The senator first floated the idea of turning the post office into a transit complex in the 1990s.
The governor says this is a tribute to Moynihan's vision.
"After all the sophistication and philosophy that the senator brings to the topics he addressed, it comes to the bottom line: get good things done. Today, we have gotten a good thing done," Cuomo said. "And I'm sure the Senator is looking down and he's smiling."
A concourse linking both sites was unveiled earlier this summer.
The project will eventually turn the Farley Building's hall into a waiting area for Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road riders.
Dubbed Moynihan Train Hall, it's slated to open by early 2021.