Portland Union Station opened on February 14, 1896. The first design, from McKim, Mead & White in 1882, would have been the largest train station in the world. A smaller plan by Van Brunt & Howe was accepted in 1885, and construction began in 1890. It cost $300,000.
The station has bright red metal roof tiles, red pressed brick and gray sandstone trim. Its signature piece is the 150-foot Romanesque Revival clock tower. The four-sided Seth Thomas clock dates to 1898. Each face is 12 feet across, and the clock has a 14-foot pendulum and a counterweight of about 1,000 pounds that drops almost 50 feet in a week.
The clock is wound every seven days. Neon signs reading Go by Train were added to the tower in 1948. The station joined the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and Amtrak trains still stop there.