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In 1978, with train ridership rebounding as a result of rising gasoline prices and Amtrak's new Northeast-corridor service, the Interior Department agreed to turn the building over to the Department of Transportation, which wanted to turn it back into a train station. By then, however, inertia had set in. Bills to transfer control died in committee. Finally last year, Congress passed a bill, as Moynihan put it, "to return the building to its use before Congress began fumbling with it." It authorizes the Government to spend $69 million more to undo what it did. Another $9 million has been approved for roof repairs. If the rusting parking garage ever opens, each of its 1,200 spaces will have cost an estimated $62,500. But the plan, in keeping with President Reagan's free-market philosophy, depends on getting private developers to invest in the station. The Government hopes to take bids soon from those interested in filling the cavernous station with boutiques, restaurants, offices and hanging plants.
If all goes well, the station will reopen in several years. But no matter how faithful the restoration, the "grand gateway to the capital" will never recapture its past glories. "It was really something," says James ("Doc") Carter, who started as a redcap in 1942. "There were kings and queens and Presidents. When they put that Pit in the ground it was terrible, just like someone running you out of your home." —By Maureen Dowd