Since opening in 1881, Union Station served people of every kind, as trips through it marked visits with relatives or friends, departures for military service, new lives in Denver, and connections onward to final destinations. The building was a busy hub where conductors, switchmen, and engineers operated trains with military-style proficiency, while demanding and hazardous railroad work required strict schedules, passenger safety, and personal caution around dangerous machinery. Hundreds more worked in its offices, and the station even had its own emergency hospital, police force, jail, library, and barber shop. For decades after passenger rail travel declined in the 1950s, people still gathered there to eat and drink in its bars and restaurants or to admire elaborate model train displays set in intricate Colorado scenes. Workers who spent their careers there kept faith in its return, and in 2014 a new era began with Union Station's revival at the center of a downtown transformation.

Photo: Cosmos Mariner

Photo: Cosmos Mariner

Photo: Anonymous

Photo: Anonymous

Photo: Anonymous

Photo: Cosmos Mariner

Denver, Colorado · USA