If you’re sure that you’ve been to Penn Station in New York City, you are probably right, but we don’t mean the new station opened in 1968, but the original station which was a marvel of modern architecture. The first Penn Station was built in 1910 and served as a bustling traffic hub for years until the rise of air travel and the decline in intercity train travel.
Amidst much controversy, the structure was completely demolished in 1963, and Madison Square Garden was built on the site.
Mount Humboldt
Another amazing ski spot, the Glacier at Mount Humboldt in the Northern Andes, no longer exists. Due to climate change, there is barely any ice left on the mountain and all the skiing infrastructure and businesses have become irrelevant.
According to scientists, even in the best-case scenario, the mountain peak will become bare over the next ten years or so.
Mukurob “Finger of God”
A sandstone rock formation known as Mukurob or “Finger of God” stood in the Namib Desert near Asab, Namibia for generations. The “Finger” was 12 meters high, and 4.5 meters wide in its broadest area, and weighed roughly 450 tons. The most impressive thing about the structure was that its base, which was 3 meters long and 1.5 meters wide, was much narrower than the rock it supported.
The Mukurob was Namibia’s most famous tourist attraction and people from all around the world came to see it. Unexpectedly, the whole thing collapsed in 1998 for no discernable reason. There are theories that the fall was caused by a rainstorm that plagued the area the week before or that it was caused by an earthquake in Armenia.
Palisades Amusement Park
The Palisades Amusement Park, unlike some of the other parks we have seen, was successful for many years. The park was located along the steep cliffs on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River and opened in 1908. The Palisades offered visitors many rides and attractions, including an enormous 600X400-foot saltwater pool, which was the biggest in the world and the Cyclone, one of the biggest roller coasters around.
The park had a slump in attendance in the 1950’s and decided to start offering rock & roll shows to attract visitors. They also had the clever idea of advertising on the back of comic books. These moves made the park immensely popular and by 1967, the city of Cliffside Park decided to rezone the site for housing to stop the traffic jams and congestion in the area. The park was closed for good in 1971 and an apartment building was built on the site.
Jantzen Beach
In 1928, a 123-acre amusement park was opened on an island in the middle of the Columbia River in Portland, Oregon. Jantzen Beach was the biggest amusement park in America in those days. The park included a famous merry-go-round that was showcased at the 1904 World’s Fair, four swimming pools, a train, a funhouse and a wooden roller coaster called “Big Dipper.”
The park was immensely successful in the 1940s and managed to remain open until Labor Day 1970. These days, the less entertaining Jantzen Beach shopping mall resides there.