Port Authority Bus Terminal

The Port Authority Bus Terminal is a major transit hub at 625 Eighth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and the busiest bus terminal in the world by volume of traffic, handling around 8,000 buses and 225,000 passengers on an average weekday. It opened on December 15, 1950, designed by Walter McQuade with Vincent Marchesani as assistant architect in the International Style, as a four story building measuring 200 by 800 feet and standing 65 feet tall, with a 500 space rooftop parking lot, 50 retail stores, 40 ground level bus slips and a 300 seat newsreel theater. A northern annex added in 1979 increased capacity by half and introduced a facade of 27 steel X shaped trusses that has since been named among the world's ugliest buildings in some rankings. The terminal today operates 223 departure gates and 1,250 parking spaces alongside its retail and commercial space.