Where Manhattan and Brooklyn meet, not far from Broadway, is City Hall: the oldest city hall in the United States of America. But things get particularly interesting under Town Hall Square, where thousands of New Yorkers walk every day: one of the Big Apple’s most beautiful secret jewels is located deep underground: the abandoned City Hall Station.
The majestic station differs more than clearly from the rest of the stops on the New York subway lines, which are known for their high-grade sophistication. There is nothing to be seen of the otherwise omnipresent rust, unadorned metal and graffiti in the City Hall Station: instead, there are huge chandeliers, stone buttresses, and copper fittings.
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It is no coincidence that when you look at the City Hall Station you are reminded of Spanish architecture: the architect who designed the station was the Catalan Rafael Guastavino. He made the historical, sacred architectural style of his homeland famous all over the USA. Guastavino’s most famous building is the imposing Grand Central Station, one of the landmarks of New York City. Guastavino’s goal was to bring an aesthetic that was otherwise only reserved for the upper class and the elite, among the people and into everyday architecture.
The figurehead of the New York subway
City Hall Station was to become the parade platform and flagship of the New York subway. In fact, there were so many New Yorkers at the opening ceremony in 1904 that the station had to be guarded by police around the clock. The curator, who had organized an exhibition in the New York Transit Museum about Guastavino’s buildings, told the US broadcaster CBS in an interviewthat the station was then called the “Mona Lisa” of the subway. As the starting station of the so-called Manhattan Main Line, the station should represent the emerging position of the city of New York within the USA.
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But even in the overcrowded New York of that time, no one expected how many immigrants and pilgrims from Europe would be drawn to the east coast metropolis Migration Policy Institutes Around 1900 about 3.5 million people lived in NYC, in 1920 it was already over 5 million and in 1940 well over 7 million people. It soon became clear that the underground trains, and thus also the underground stations, had to be generously lengthened in order to cope with the growing masses of people in local transport. Due to the curved and elaborate construction of the City Hall train station, however, it quickly became clear that the subway, of all things, could not be extended. It was therefore decided to take the station completely out of service.
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Closed due to threat of terrorism
In 1945 the entrances to City Hall Station closed. Since then it has become quiet around the station. Many New Yorkers don’t even know about its existence. The most important station in the immediate vicinity is the Brooklyn Bridge station, the last stop on the busy line 6. If you just stay in the subway after this station on the way to the starting station, you rattle past the lonely City Hall station. This is one of two ways to see City Hall Station: The other is the aforementioned New York Transit Museum: In the late 1990s, the Transport Museum planned to establish the station as an external branch of the museum. But then came the terrorist attacks in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998.
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Due to its central position in the government district, the City Hall Station was suddenly seen as a major security risk in America, which was threatened by attacks, and access was completely prohibited for several years. Since 2006 there has been the possibility of a tour again: but only if you are a registered member of the Transit Museums-Community is reserved in good time and pays for it. At the moment all tours are fully booked, but according to the museum’s website you can apply for a place again from August 2018. A ticket costs the equivalent of around 44 euros per person. If you want to enter the City Hall Station, you have to put in some organizational effort and take money into your hand. Fortunately, there is still the free option of driving past, even if this option only gives a glimpse of the enchanted train station.
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