[1] Wilgus coined the term "taking wealth from the air" from his idea to lease the area above the Park Avenue Tunnel in order to help finance the station.

In 1893 he began his association with the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad as an assistant engineer on its Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg line.

During these years he supervised the planning and construction of Buffalo Union Station, the Michigan Central Railway Tunnel and the Weehawken Terminal.

[6] In 1907 Wilgus was forced to resign from the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad after a crash involving the new electric locomotives he had helped to develop killed 20 passengers.

Anxious to defend his reputation, he carefully documented the design decisions, but the railroad's lawyers forced him to destroy his papers, fearing that they would be brought into court as evidence.

[4] He is buried with his second wife (m. 1919) Gertrude Bernadette Tobin (18 February 1873 in Twillingate, Newfoundland Colony – 1959) at Union Cemetery, Claremont, New Hampshire.