Recently, I visited Grand Central Terminal to see if I could find a single patch of dirt somewhere on its ceiling. Apparently, a spot was intentionally left there after a restoration project in the mid-1990s.
For anyone who hasn’t seen it, the ceiling features a huge and beautiful version of the zodiac. Unfortunately, I never took the time to appreciate its aesthetic until now.
It took me ten minutes, but after scanning the ceiling repeatedly, I was finally able to spot the dirt patch next to Cancer (the crab). Immediately, I was surprised at how dirty and dark the single rectangle was. Apparently, that’s how the whole ceiling looked like before its restoration!
That’s what happens when you let 100 years of grime build up. Most of came from nicotine and tar from cigarette smoke.
