Since mid-April 1980, Louisville's Union Station, the grand railroad head of 1891, has housed the Transit Authority of River City, or TARC. Since mid-April 1980, after a year-long restoration that cost approximately $2 million, this building has been the agency's home. Its story begins long before that modern rebirth: construction began in 1880, but rising costs — totaling $310,656.47 — delayed completion until 1889–91.
The Louisville and Nashville Railroad formally opened it on September 7, 1891, and at the time there was even a claim that it was the largest railroad station in the Southern United States, covering forty acres (16 hectares). Union Station superseded earlier, smaller depots in Louisville, most notably one at Tenth and Maple in 1868–1869 and an L&N station built in 1858. It was one of at least five union stations in Kentucky — alongside Lexington, Covington, Paducah and Owensboro — and one of three stations serving Louisville, together with Central Station and the Southern Railway Station.
Notice the façade and the streets where layers of railroad history converge.