The Weight of History - Union Station, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.

Union Station, completed in 1895, was once the largest passenger rail station. With the capacity of thirty-two railroads and 100,000 passengers per day, it was one of the three main stations along with New York and San Francisco. While railway is still the dominant inland transportation in the beginning of twentieth century, St. Louis has taken the important role of connecting the east and west of United States. Especially in the days when automotive was not yet popular, Union Station played a significant role in logistic means. It was also a major departure spot of soldiers in WWII.

With the growth of automotive and interstates highway and also the popularity of civil use jet flights, the passenger railways has walked into the dust of the day. Union Station has ended its task after the last passenger train departed at 1979.

Since then, the terminal lay dormant for seven years.

As Union Station becoming a major part of the city rehabilitation project, it was redeveloped into a tourist attraction combining hotel and shopping arcade with the cost of USD$150 million. The project transformed part of the platforms into car park, and transforming other parts of the platforms into shopping arcade and hotel with additional structures. The main hall of the station is successfully restored and becomes a hotel and convention centre while reserving most of its structure and appearances.

I know nothing of the above said history when I first walk into Union Station. I was attracted by the steel roof structure in the first place. From the old style structural design, I can tell the structure must have certain ages, although I can not imagine it has been built for more than hundred years old! What surprised me more is the great structure of the main hall was still in its prime shape after hundred of years. The Romanesque style arch roof actually added a taste of delicacy to the hotel which can not be compare by any new structures.

There is a photograph shown in the Union Station Museum, which was taken while the station was brand new. I went to the same spot , taking the same picture, imagining how the unknown photographer took that picture hundred years ago. It is the weight of history, which passing through the original columns and girders, bricks and tiles to a foreign stranger likes me.

I found an exhibition in the station displays the stories and memories of many people related to the station. I couldn’t help to think of the Star Ferry Pier and Queen’s Pier that we have had lost (in Hong Kong). Just as mentioned by Roidick Chu (朱凱迪, activist) in a forum, history is only meaningful while it is told in where it happened. While the place which witness the history no longer exist, the history will become so weightlessness as feather. A weightlessness history will not able to anchor the emotion to a country and a region for generations. May be, the history of Hongkongers means to gone with the wind, at the moment when Star Ferry Pier and Queens Pier disappeared.