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City Hall (IRT Lexington Avenue Line)
Encyclopedia
City Hall, also known as City Hall Loop, was the original southern terminal station
of the first line
of the New York City Subway
, built by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company
(IRT), named the "Manhattan Main Line", and now part of the IRT Lexington Avenue Line
. Opened on October 27, 1904, this station underneath the public area in front of City Hall
was designed to be the showpiece of the new subway. The station was designed by Rafael Guastavino
. The main consulting architects on the IRT stations were George Lewis Heins and Christopher Grant LaFarge for the company Heins & LaFarge
. This station is unusually elegant in architectural style
, and is unique among the original IRT stations, employing Romanesque Revival architecture
. The platform and mezzanine feature Guastavino tile
, skylights, colored glass tilework and brass chandelier
s. Passenger service was discontinued on December 31, 1945, making it a ghost station
, although the station is still used as a turning loop for 6
and <6> trains.
Unlike the rest of the subway line, City Hall station had tall tile arches, brass fixtures, chandeliers, skylights, polychrome tile, and elegant curves that ran along the platform. It was lit by wrought iron chandeliers and the three skylights of cut amethyst glass that allowed sunshine onto parts of the platform. During World War II, the skylights were blacked out with tar for safety.
After construction was complete, this station was the chosen place for hanging commemorative plaques recognizing the achievement of building the entire New York underground train system. Built before tokens were used by the subway system, a mezzanine
area above the platform once had an ornamented oak ticket booth (which no longer exists).
More than 15,000 people were issued passes for the first series of rides from the platform. At precisely 2:35 pm, the first subway train departed from City Hall station with Mayor McClellan at the controls. The event was so heavily attended that police Commissioner McAdoo said every policeman in the city was on duty all day and far into the night.
At the time of the opening, President A. E. Orr of the Rapid Transit Board requested that all New Yorkers join in the celebration by the blowing whistles and ringing bells. At street level, in the pavement in front of City Hall, a plaque can still be seen commemorating groundbreaking for the subway in 1900.
In addition, the new, longer trains had center doors in each car, which were an unsafe distance from the platform edge. At the South Ferry and 14th Street – Union Square stations, which had a similar problem, movable platform extensions
were installed to fill the gap.
City Hall, notwithstanding its architectural grandeur, was never an important station. In its final year of use, it served only 600 passengers per day and was not open at nights (when trains continued to the loop station at South Ferry). The Brooklyn Bridge station, located a short walk away, at the opposite end of City Hall Park, was more popular, as it provided both local and express service, including trains to Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Bridge streetcar terminal and Park Row
station on the BMT elevated lines were above for easy transfers.
Given the extensive renovations that would have been required to bring the station up to modern standards, the city decided to close it instead. The final day of service was December 31, 1945.
South of the Brooklyn Bridge station, there is a switch on the downtown local track, allowing trains to leave service and enter either of two storage tracks. Trains in service turn onto a balloon loop
, continuing past the abandoned side platform
on the west side of the loop, and re-appearing in the Brooklyn Bridge station on the uptown local track. The uptown and downtown express tracks pass over the loop, continuing south.
money was sought to reopen the station as a branch of the New York Transit Museum
, which occasionally ran tours of the station as part of its popular "Day 1 of the IRT" and "Beneath City Hall" packages. In late 1998, due to perceived security risks in the area around City Hall after terrorist bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam
, the station was declared a "highly secure" area by the Giuliani administration
. Plans for the museum annex were abandoned and museum tours ceased for several years.
On the surface, all that can be seen is a concrete slab inset with glass tiles, the skylights for the platform below. This patch of concrete is in the middle of a grove of dogwood
s in front of City Hall, close to Broadway
.
For the 2004 Centennial Celebration, one of the street entrances was restored (and presently resembles a modern station entrance), and the station was opened for the duration of the celebration. Otherwise, the station is now used only as an emergency exit.
As of 2006, tours of the station are once again being conducted, by the staff of the Transit Museum. However, at present, tours are only open to registered members of the museum and require advance payment and reservations.
The station can also be seen by passengers who remain on the downtown trains as they travel around the loop to head back uptown. The loop track is classified as revenue track, and the newest announcement programs on the R142A subway cars
announce at Brooklyn Bridge: "This is the last downtown stop on this train. The next stop will be Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall on the uptown platform." A further announcement follows, warning passengers to remain inside the car at all times.
Terminal Station
Terminal Station is a 1953 film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of the love affair between an Italian man and an American woman. The film was entered into the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.-Production:...
of the first line
History of the IRT subway before 1918
The first regularly operated subway in New York City was built by the city and leased to the Interborough Rapid Transit Company for operation under Contracts 1 and 2. Until 1918, when the new "H" system that is still operated - with separate East Side and West Side lines - was placed in service, it...
of the New York City Subway
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...
, built by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company
Interborough Rapid Transit Company
The Interborough Rapid Transit Company was the private operator of the original underground New York City Subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT was purchased by the City in June 1940...
(IRT), named the "Manhattan Main Line", and now part of the IRT Lexington Avenue Line
IRT Lexington Avenue Line
The Lexington Avenue Line is one of the lines of the IRT division of the New York City Subway, stretching from Downtown Brooklyn or Lower Manhattan north to 125th Street in East Harlem. The portion in Lower and Midtown Manhattan was part of the first subway line in New York...
. Opened on October 27, 1904, this station underneath the public area in front of City Hall
New York City Hall
New York City Hall is located at the center of City Hall Park in the Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA, between Broadway, Park Row, and Chambers Street. The building is the oldest City Hall in the United States that still houses its original governmental functions, such as...
was designed to be the showpiece of the new subway. The station was designed by Rafael Guastavino
Rafael Guastavino
Rafael Guastavino Moreno was a Valencian architect and builder, creator of the Guastavino tile, a "Tile Arch System" patented in the US in 1885. It is a technique for constructing robust, self-supporting arches and architectural vaults using interlocking terracotta tiles and layers of mortar...
. The main consulting architects on the IRT stations were George Lewis Heins and Christopher Grant LaFarge for the company Heins & LaFarge
Heins & LaFarge
The New York-based architectural firm of Heins & LaFarge, composed of Philadelphia-born architect George Lewis Heins and Christopher Grant LaFarge - the eldest son of the artist John LaFarge, famous especially for his stained glass panels - were responsible most notably for the original...
. This station is unusually elegant in architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
, and is unique among the original IRT stations, employing Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...
. The platform and mezzanine feature Guastavino tile
Guastavino tile
Guastavino tile is the "Tile Arch System" patented in the US in 1885 by Valencian architect and builder Rafael Guastavino...
, skylights, colored glass tilework and brass chandelier
Chandelier
A chandelier is a branched decorative ceiling-mounted light fixture with two or more arms bearing lights. Chandeliers are often ornate, containing dozens of lamps and complex arrays of glass or crystal prisms to illuminate a room with refracted light...
s. Passenger service was discontinued on December 31, 1945, making it a ghost station
Ghost station
Ghost stations is the usual English translation for the German word Geisterbahnhöfe. This term was used to describe certain stations on Berlin's U-Bahn and S-Bahn metro networks that were closed during the period of Berlin's division during the Cold War...
, although the station is still used as a turning loop for 6
6 (New York City Subway service)
The 6 Lexington Avenue and Pelham Local and Lexington Avenue Local and Pelham Express are two rapid transit services of the New York City Subway. The 6 local has a circle shape while the ' express has a diamond shape...
and <6> trains.
Construction
The official start of construction took place on 24 March 1900 at the front steps of City Hall, at a ceremony officiated by then Mayor Robert Van Wyck.Unlike the rest of the subway line, City Hall station had tall tile arches, brass fixtures, chandeliers, skylights, polychrome tile, and elegant curves that ran along the platform. It was lit by wrought iron chandeliers and the three skylights of cut amethyst glass that allowed sunshine onto parts of the platform. During World War II, the skylights were blacked out with tar for safety.
After construction was complete, this station was the chosen place for hanging commemorative plaques recognizing the achievement of building the entire New York underground train system. Built before tokens were used by the subway system, a mezzanine
Mezzanine (architecture)
In architecture, a mezzanine or entresol is an intermediate floor between main floors of a building, and therefore typically not counted among the overall floors of a building. Often, a mezzanine is low-ceilinged and projects in the form of a balcony. The term is also used for the lowest balcony in...
area above the platform once had an ornamented oak ticket booth (which no longer exists).
Opening day
The subway opened to the public October 28, 1904, after opening ceremonies the day before attended by Mayor George McClellan.More than 15,000 people were issued passes for the first series of rides from the platform. At precisely 2:35 pm, the first subway train departed from City Hall station with Mayor McClellan at the controls. The event was so heavily attended that police Commissioner McAdoo said every policeman in the city was on duty all day and far into the night.
At the time of the opening, President A. E. Orr of the Rapid Transit Board requested that all New Yorkers join in the celebration by the blowing whistles and ringing bells. At street level, in the pavement in front of City Hall, a plaque can still be seen commemorating groundbreaking for the subway in 1900.
Closure
In the years after the line's construction, increased subway ridership led to longer trains, and thus longer platforms, in the 1940s and early 1950s. City Hall station, built on a tight curve, would have been difficult to lengthen, and it was also quite close to the far busier Brooklyn Bridge station.In addition, the new, longer trains had center doors in each car, which were an unsafe distance from the platform edge. At the South Ferry and 14th Street – Union Square stations, which had a similar problem, movable platform extensions
Gap filler
Platform gap fillers on the metro systems like the New York City Subway or on train stations in Hong Kong are movable platform extensions at stations where the curvature of the platform creates a significant gap between the platform and subway car door...
were installed to fill the gap.
City Hall, notwithstanding its architectural grandeur, was never an important station. In its final year of use, it served only 600 passengers per day and was not open at nights (when trains continued to the loop station at South Ferry). The Brooklyn Bridge station, located a short walk away, at the opposite end of City Hall Park, was more popular, as it provided both local and express service, including trains to Brooklyn. The Brooklyn Bridge streetcar terminal and Park Row
Park Row (BMT station)
Park Row was a major elevated railway terminal constructed over the New York end of the Brooklyn Bridge, across from New York City Hall in Manhattan that served as the terminal for BMT services operating over the Brooklyn Bridge from the BMT Fulton Street Line, BMT Myrtle Avenue Line and their...
station on the BMT elevated lines were above for easy transfers.
Given the extensive renovations that would have been required to bring the station up to modern standards, the city decided to close it instead. The final day of service was December 31, 1945.
Track configuration
North of City Hall station, the IRT Lexington Avenue Line carries four tracks. As seen in the diagram, left to right, these are the downtown local track, the downtown express track, the uptown express track, and the uptown local track.South of the Brooklyn Bridge station, there is a switch on the downtown local track, allowing trains to leave service and enter either of two storage tracks. Trains in service turn onto a balloon loop
Balloon loop
A balloon loop or turning loop allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or even stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains, such as coal trains....
, continuing past the abandoned side platform
Side platform
A Side platform is a platform positioned to the side of a pair of tracks at a railway station, a tram stop or a transitway. A pair of side platforms are often provided on a dual track line with a single side platform being sufficient for a single track line...
on the west side of the loop, and re-appearing in the Brooklyn Bridge station on the uptown local track. The uptown and downtown express tracks pass over the loop, continuing south.
Current status
In April 1995, federal grantFederal grant
In the United States, federal grants are economic aid issued by the United States government out of the general federal revenue. A federal grant is an award of financial assistance from a federal agency to a recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law of...
money was sought to reopen the station as a branch of the New York Transit Museum
New York Transit Museum
The New York Transit Museum is a museum which displays historical artifacts of the New York City Subway, bus, commuter rail, and bridge and tunnel systems; it is located in a decommissioned Court Street subway station in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of New York City...
, which occasionally ran tours of the station as part of its popular "Day 1 of the IRT" and "Beneath City Hall" packages. In late 1998, due to perceived security risks in the area around City Hall after terrorist bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam
1998 United States embassy bombings
The 1998 United States embassy bombings were a series of attacks that occurred on August 7, 1998, in which hundreds of people were killed in simultaneous truck bomb explosions at the United States embassies in the East African capitals of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. The date of the...
, the station was declared a "highly secure" area by the Giuliani administration
Mayoralty of Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani served as the 107th Mayor of New York City from January 1, 1994 until December 31, 2001.-Crime control:...
. Plans for the museum annex were abandoned and museum tours ceased for several years.
On the surface, all that can be seen is a concrete slab inset with glass tiles, the skylights for the platform below. This patch of concrete is in the middle of a grove of dogwood
Dogwood
The genus Cornus is a group of about 30-60 species of woody plants in the family Cornaceae, commonly known as dogwoods. Most dogwoods are deciduous trees or shrubs, but a few species are nearly herbaceous perennial subshrubs, and a few of the woody species are evergreen...
s in front of City Hall, close to Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
.
For the 2004 Centennial Celebration, one of the street entrances was restored (and presently resembles a modern station entrance), and the station was opened for the duration of the celebration. Otherwise, the station is now used only as an emergency exit.
As of 2006, tours of the station are once again being conducted, by the staff of the Transit Museum. However, at present, tours are only open to registered members of the museum and require advance payment and reservations.
The station can also be seen by passengers who remain on the downtown trains as they travel around the loop to head back uptown. The loop track is classified as revenue track, and the newest announcement programs on the R142A subway cars
R142A (New York City Subway car)
The R142A, along with the R142 is the newest generation of cars for the A Division of the New York City Subway.-Background:The R142A is built by Kawasaki and has many of the same features as the R142, built by Bombardier. The main order of 400 R142A cars are numbered 7211-7610; the 120 option cars...
announce at Brooklyn Bridge: "This is the last downtown stop on this train. The next stop will be Brooklyn Bridge – City Hall on the uptown platform." A further announcement follows, warning passengers to remain inside the car at all times.
Further reading
- Lee Stokey. Subway Ceramics : A History and Iconography. 1994. ISBN 978-0963548610
External links
- Abandoned Stations — City Hall (IRT)
- The IRT First Stations — City Hall
- Forgotten NY — Original 28 – NYC's First 28 Subway Stations