A wide variety of material has been used in the various parts of the structure.  The main building is of gray Indiana limestone; base and two large archways, rubbed pink granite; carved panels, limestone; windows and marquees, aluminum; doors, formica.

The main waiting room is 175 feet long, 18 feet wide with a 46-foot ceiling.   Floors are red terrazzo with black and yellow inlay; wainscot, rose yellow travertine; ceiling, acoustical material in blue with gold leaf decorations; benches, gray walnut inlaid with aluminum.  A feature of the room is a large window at one end glazed with variegated marble panels.

The station building is a stripped Neo-Classic structure.  It is the last major work of McKim, Mead and White.  The Beaux Arts Form of the station building emphasizes a long, symmetrical facade with a pair of arched entries.  The classical base, column and entablature form has been retained but simplified and stripped in classical detail.  Instead of traditional detail, the plain "moderne" format of the 1930's is used.  Detailing and craftsmanship is Art Deco.

The interior space of the waiting room shows the station building to best advantage; it is a high spacious room, classically ordered, and restrained in color.   Within this envelope, the designers have handled the detailing and decorative forms with imagination, using the new materials and format of the 1930's in an examplary way.  Among the significant decorative elements are the oval glass globes hung in white bronze, the metal screens, wire trim and medallions, benches, and ornate treatment of the terazzo floor.  The consistent Art Deco treatment of ornamentation with its inventive curvilinear forms gives the building its coherence and impact.

In the immense train shed, the designers were less retrained by classical forms.  The huge, skylighted space which accommodates tracks and platforms is a steel structure sheathed in concrete and masonry.  Although the exterior of the train shed is sheathed in masonry, accented with good Art Deco embellishments, the handling of the interior space is the most exciting.  The use of engineering forms with exposed steel is refined in its detailing of curved flanges and fillets.  The introduction of the Skylights--an industrial form--and the handling of multiple levels, captures some of the fascination with modern technology, speed and power that had been the Italian futurists' legacy to the 1930's.  Especially effective is the diagonal of the ramp dropping into the waiting area from the PATH level above. 

North Entrance

North Entrance

Bridge over Passaic River

Platform from PATH level to NJ Transit level

Gateway

Information Booth

Part of USGS 7.5 minute series Elizabeth Quadrangle topographic map (1967, photorevised 1981)

Photographed on 29 March 1995.  Downloaded from http://terraserver.microsoft.com