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EPISODE 286: Hudson Yards\xa0is America's largest private real estate development, a gleaming collection of office towers and apartments overlooking a self-contained plaza with a shopping mall and a selfie-friendly, architectural curio known as The Vessel.\xa0\n\nBy design, Hudson Yards feels international, luxurious, non-specific. Are you in New York City, Berlin, Dubai or Tokyo? And yet the mega-development sits on a spot important to the transportation history of New York City. And, in the late 20th century, this very same spot would vex and frustrate some of the city's most influential developers.\n\nThe key is that which lies beneath -- a concealed train yard owned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority. (Only the eastern portion of Hudson Yards is completed today; the western portion of the Yards is still clearly on view from a portion of the\xa0High Line.)\n\nPrepare for a story of early railroad travel, historic tunnels under the Hudson River, the changing fate of the\xa0Tenderloin\xa0neighborhood, and a list of spectacular and sometimes wacky proposals for the site -- from a new home for the\xa0New York Yankees\xa0to a key stadium for New York City's bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.\n\nPLUS:\xa0Trump Convention Center\xa0-- it almost happened!\n\nSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/boweryboys