18. The Myth of the Redstone Rocket Inside Grand Central Terminal

Redstone Rocket inside Grand Central
Image via Wikimedia Commons, Chrysler Corporation, and US Army

If you’ve ever heard that the 1957 Redstone rocket was so tall it bore a hole in the concourse ceiling, don’t believe it. There was a Redstone rocket, but it would have been too short to make a hole. The concourse is 125 feet high, and even sites that attempt to debunk the Redstone hole story get this fact wrong.

The sister of the Redstone rocket still exists so can be measured, which according to this story about where it now sits in Warren, New Hampshire, is 70 feet. This Wiki of astronautics has the original Redstone at 69.32 feet. In 1957 The New York Times reported that the Grand Central rocket was 63 feet and the height was in the headline for the article. Read more about it here.