Old City Hall Station

Useful Information

Location:	City Hall Park, New York, NY 10038. (40.712628, -74.006821)
Open:	See online booking system. [2024]
Fee:	Tour USD 50. Membership: Adults USD 65, Seniors (62+) USD 45. [2024]
Classification:	Underground Railway
Light:	Incandescent
Dimension:
Guided tours:	D=90 min.
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	New York Transit Museum, 99 Schermerhorn St, Brooklyn, NY 11201, Tel: +1-718-694-1600. E-mail:
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

27-OCT-1904	first subway line of New York City opened to the public.
1923	turnstiles installed.
1945	station closed.

Description

Old City Hall Station is a subway station on the first subway line of New York City. It was well-designed, with vaulted ceilings, skylights, large chandeliers, and glass tiles on the walls. But its location at the city hall, hence the name, was not very much frequented. It was one of the least-used subway stations on the line, and thus it was the last which was modernized, the last which got turnstiles in 1923. Another drawback was the curved platform, which required cars with specially modified door control. The center doors could not be used, and so they stayed closed at this station. The introduction of longer trains worsened the problem, and while all other stations were lengthened, this station was closed in 1945.

The station was built and operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT). It was designed by the renowned architects George Heins and Christopher LaFarge. The vaulted ceilings were designed by master artisan Rafael Guastavino. On the tour, the technology of the first subway systems is explained. Including Alfred Beach’s Pneumatic Tube. Alfred Ely Beach was an American inventor and entrepreneur. He actually designed the earliest predecessor to the New York City Subway, the Beach Pneumatic Transit. He even built a 100 m long prototype below Broadway to demonstrate the system to the public. Unfortunately, the corrupt but influential politician Boss Tweed intended to invest in competing systems and thus prevented the new system from being authorized. About 35 minutes of the 90 minutes long tour are actually underground in the station.

The City Hall Station has been closed since 1945, but it is still used by the Lexington Avenue Local, the train is today called 6 train, to turn around. Originally, all passengers had to disembark at the final station Brooklyn Bridge. In the late 1990s this was changed, the skylights were reopened, and the station lights turned back on. And the people were allowed to stay on the train as it loops around, but the train does not stop at the station. If you do this, you should be in the 7th to 9th car, because this will offer the best view. The train is very slow due to the curve in This is actually far cheaper than the other alternative.

To visit the station, it is necessary to take one of the tours offered by the New York City Transit Museum. Unfortunately, they are only sold to Museum Members, so you have to buy a museum membership and then book the tour on the online booking system. This is quite challenging as the tours are few and sold out quickly. Also, all participants must provide a copy of a government-issued ID and sign the Visitor Release form within 48 hours after booking. We are not sure if this means the tours are only available to citizens of the U.S.A., or if they accept ids from other governments as well. But even if foreign visitors are willing to pay USD 115 for the tour, it's quite difficult to find a date, and then it's really difficult to sign the waiver from abroad. Actually, the fact that the paid money is transferred into a donation if this complicated bureaucracy fails, sounds like a sort of rip-off. If you succeed in this process, the tour starts in the park in front of the City Hall.