Penn Station started being taken down when I was 7 months old, so obviously I don't remember it. It is sad it was taken down but it also was a time when in NY and elsewhere there was this incredible "march to the future' kind of theme, where things from the past were looked at as obsolete and relics. The other thing to keep in mind this was at a time when people like Robert Moses (and GM) were promoting a future where the automobile as gonna create a paradise (at the 1939 World Fair and the 1965 fair GM was still promoting this view), and central train stations were treated as an obstacle to that (Moses particularly hated mass transit and trains). Back then, too, the whole idea that mass transit if it can't be run like a business shouldn't be around still existed, which in turn resulted in things like the NY City Subway going into decline, rather than realizing that mass transit is one of the lifebloods of any city. Penn Station even then was one of the busiest rail stations in the world and today is I believe the busiest, but all people saw was an old building servicing a dying railroad, and if the railroad wanted to basically sell the rights to the building, well, that is what businesses do. Grand Central before they renovated it was in pretty poor shape, I can only imagine what Penn Station looked like when it was torn down.
It amazes me that the tunnels they build back then are still in use, that they are able to keep them running given the years of heavy use, neglect and damage from Sandy. Unfortunately, there is a lot of resistance to projects like this, there are still those that somehow think rail service and mass transit aren't worth it, if they were important they could pay for themselves, or those who say "why should I pay for their trains" (hint: The NYC region, for example, is roughly 25% of the US GDP, keeping transit going here means a lot of tax revenue going into the general pot that goes to projects all over the country, benefits a lot of people), and of course the usual infighting between NJ and NY on who pays what, etc. Not surprised, as Churchill once said, Americans tend to do the right thing in the end, after they have tried everything else
