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About the Cover ImageChance Encounter II, Grand Central%u2022 Bill Jacklin, 2006Chance Encounter II, Grand Central (2006) depicts the spectacular main concourse of New York City%u2019s railroad transportation hub, Grand Central Station. Artist Bill Jacklin captures the kinetic intensity of the nation%u2019s largest city as well as the serenity evoked by the sunlit cavernous space. Built in the Beaux-Arts style and opened in 1913, Grand Central is today a National Historic Landmark and one of the most visited locations in the city. Now primarily a commuter hub, with travelers arriving on trains from suburban New York and Connecticut, for most of the twentieth century it served as the primary rail station for all passengers traveling to and from New York City. Before commercial air travel became commonplace%u2014not until the 1970s%u2014Grand Central was the city%u2019s gateway to the country. Its literally %u201cgrand%u201d main concourse, as beautifully rendered by Jacklin, represents the energy, mobility, and intermingling of different people that have created such a strong theme in the history of the United States. Jacklin%u2019s painting makes a historical reference: the light streaming through the windows onto the crowd below self-consciously mimics Hal Morey%u2019s classic early 1930s photographs of the hall. The painting gives us Grand Central Station as a crossroads, juxtaposing the individual and the crowd, urbanity and open space, and in this way offers a fitting beginning for this edition of America%u2019s History. Chance Encounter II, Grand Central, 2006 (oil on canvas)/Jacklin, Bill (b.1943)/Private Collection/Bridgeman Images%u00a9 Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Do not distribute.