Terminal, Station, or Depot?

A couple of weeks ago I presented the story of Grand Central Terminal's 100th Anniversary. At the end of the article, I asked, what are the differences between a Terminal, Station, and Depot?

Many folk do not realize that long-distance trains stopped serving Grand Central in 1991, as a result of aggregating Amtrak to Pennsylvania Station.

Here is a sampling of some of the responses to the question posed in the Grand Central article:

It occurred to me to learn how a architect, those who design  rail structures, refer to them. And as luck would smile upon me, after much searching, I found this comment in an architectural forum:

I am not a stranger to this struggle to define railroad structures. In writing a series of articles concerning the effort to save Great Northern's Blaine (Washington) station, a fierce skirmish over whether the structure was a station or a depot ensued.

As you can see, we ended up referring to the structure as "Blaine Station."

A final item of interest. Grand Central Terminal was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 2012. A bronze plaque marking the landmark designation was formally dedicated on February 1, 2013 in conjunction with the Terminal's Centennial. Grand Central Terminal was also designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1976.