In April last year, 3,000 Philadelphians sentimentally gathered in the Pennsylvania Railroad's 71-year-old Broad Street Station to see the last train pull out. Though outsiders had long considered the sooty old building an eyesore, Philadelphians were fond of its ornate decorations and neo-Gothic gingerbread, liked to recall that it was once the world's biggest station. As the train left, the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra played Auld Lang Syne. Then wreckers went to work to demolish the building and the 40-ft.-high unsightly "Chinese wall" over which the trains had come into the station.
Last...