Estación Central is Santiago's main railway station and one of the finest iron-framed buildings in South America, its great arched roof designed by Gustave Eiffel and installed in 1897. The exterior is a handsome neo-Renaissance building; the interior is all engineering — a vast hall of Victorian ironwork under a soaring glazed roof.
The station serves long-distance trains to Chillán and the south, and the surrounding neighbourhood (also called Estación Central) is a dense commercial district centred on the enormous Estación Central market (a covered market occupying the former goods yards). The area is bustling and working-class, a good contrast to the more polished barrios. The station itself is worth seeing for the architecture even if you are not catching a train.