The Story of the Arabia
Union Station
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"Built in 1914, Union Station opens her arms with 850,000 square feet of amazing space that originally featured 900 rooms. In her prime as a working train station, she accommodated hundreds of thousands of passengers each year. During WWII, an estimated one million travelers – many of those soldiers – passed through the Station. The North Waiting Room (now Grand Plaza) held 10,000 people and the complex included restaurants, a cigar store, barbershop, railroad offices, the nation's largest Railway Express Building (used for shipping freight and mail) as well as a powerhouse providing steam and power. So many stories of farewells, reunions and of day-to-day vibrancy still echo in her walls. Just listen . . ."
Due to Covid-19 there was virtually no one at Union Station compared to how it would have been any other day. After talking to a worker in the bakery she mentioned that the current capacity was only about 10% of what she would have seen before the corona virus on a day like that one.
The Train Room
Offered right when you enter Union Station is an app you can download on your phone for free. The app allows you to use your camera to explore the history of the old train station. There were small dots on the floor that indicated where a big event happened and all you had to do was point your camera in that direction and real life figures would come up. It used altered reality to make it feel as if you were right there with them.
Mobile Experience
