HOME | DD

Description
It's been a while since I've done one of these, this one is mainly an experiment in colour blending, as demonstrated on the marble floors, walls and ceiling to varying degrees of success.

But here we have the former PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson line) station that once stood beneath the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, one of the biggest train stations in New York and one of the most innovative, sadly now locked in a time we can never revisit.

Originally, what was the PATH terminus was in fact the Hudson Terminal, which opened in 1909 as part of the extension of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad under the river to Lower Manhattan. This was the second subway tunnel to be built beneath the river behind the H&M's original line to 23rd Street in Midtown Manhattan that had opened in 1907.

Above ground, the Hudson Terminal was a 22 story office building that incorporated both a train station and mixed use office building, the first of its kind in the world. Below ground, the station consisted of a loop that ran in via the H&M tunnels from Exchange Place on the New Jersey side. Trains would enter the south portal and run into the station that was in a near enough north/south direction before exiting back towards New Jersey via the north portal. The station itself consisted of 4 tracks formed of 2 island platforms.

The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad service to Manhattan was indeed popular, but faced a huge drop with the rise in car travel during the 1950's. It was eventually placed under bankruptcy protection as patronage dropped to its lowest levels ever, and it would remain essentially bankrupt well into the 1960's.

Hope came however with a new project conceived in 1960 known as the World Trade Center, a complex of buildings topped by two 110 story Twin Towers that would become the largest financial centre on planet earth. Originally, plans for the World Trade Center would have placed it on the East River on what is now the historic South Street Dockyard. However, a deal between director of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, Austin J. Tobin, and newly elected New Jersey Governor Richard J. Hughes, gave both the states of New York and New Jersey a mutually beneficial scheme, with the construction of the Twin Towers including a full refurbishment and overhaul of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad.

As such, the bankrupt railway was bought by the Port Authority in 1962 and rebranded as the Port Authority Trans Hudson line, or PATH.

Ground was broken at the World Trade Center in 1966, with a 213ft pit having to be dug beneath the two towers in order to reach bedrock. The digging of this pit, known later as the Bathtub, did not compromise operation of the PATH, as the original tunnels from 1909 were suspended above the huge concrete chasm on a specially built viaduct. At the same time the Twin Towers were being built, the PATH was undergoing huge change as well, with the original 1909 stock being replaced by brand new units built by the St. Louis Car Company between 1966 and 1968 known as PA1 and PA2 stock. The former Hudson Terminal station was completely refurbished from a grim and grimy carryover from the early 1900's to a fully functional modern subway station, also becoming the first subway station in the United States to be air conditioned.

The new PATH station was completed on July 6th, 1971, with a temporary exit built between what would become World Trade Center Building's 4 and 5, directly accessing Church Street. This was later changed to a large bank of nine high speed escalators 3 storeys high that would carry passengers up from the platforms to the underground Shopping Mall at the World Trade Center following its opening in 1973. There were also underground connections to the New York City Subway; A, C and E trains at World Trade Center, and N and R trains at Cortlandt Street.

The new layout now included five platforms, four platforms in regular use, whilst one was only used in the rush hour. This platform would frequently be used to stable off-duty trains during the daytime between around 8am and 5pm, before it would be put to work on rush hour services. The only other major modifications to the trackwork were the extension of the platforms to cater for ten car trains rather than six, with the loops at either end of the station made larger to accommodate the longer trains.

On February 26th, 1993, the World Trade Center came under attack from Islamic extremist Ramzi Yousif, who detonated a truck bomb beneath the North Tower in an attempt to cripple the foundations and send the building toppling into its Twin. The plan thankfully failed, though six people tragically lost their lives and over 1,000 were injured in the ensuing chaos. The PATH station suffered minimal damage, though a small section of the ceiling collapsed injuring several passengers, and the main water pipe from the Hudson to the World Trade Center used to cool the Twin Towers, as an alternative to traditional air conditioning units, was burst, flooding the tracks. The PATH would reopen a few months later after extensive repair work.

For the remainder of the 1990's, the PATH station remained one of the most popular and vital links between New York and New Jersey, an efficient and viable alternative to hour long waits for the Holland Tunnel, or having to negotiate the horrific congestion in Manhattan's narrow streets. By 2001, patronage was on average 25,000 daily, over half the World Trade Center's total working capacity. At this time, plans were in progress to refurbish the station again, with an expected completion date being Summer 2003.

However, the PATH station, together with the rest of the World Trade Center, was completely destroyed on September 11th, 2001, when Islamic extremists flew two hijacked Boeing 767's into the Twin Towers, eventually bringing both crashing down and killing nearly 3,000 people. After the impact of American Airlines Flight 11 at 08:46am (the first impact), the station was promptly evacuated and trains inside the station were forced to depart. A train coming over from New Jersey ran empty through the station before returning back to the opposite side of the Hudson, followed by an empty train that was used to pick up the remaining PATH staff and a homeless man who had been sleeping under a bench at the station. By 09:10 the station was empty and the rest, as they say, is history.

I remember well reading an article in Trains magazine a few days after the attack with a picture of a PATH train and the burning Twin Towers behind, passengers and train crew stunned with terror at the horror unfolding in front of them. It's a poignant image that remains in my head to this day. I seem to recall the picture was titled "Last Train from the World Trade Center."

The eventual collapse of the Twin Towers crushed the station, with tracks one to three being completely destroyed. Track four was partially buried but track five was largely intact. Stabled there at the time was an empty PATH unit that was waiting the day out before operating an evening rush hour service, with cars at the southern end being crushed by debris, whilst cars at the north end were mostly unharmed. Two of these cars, a leading trailer and an intermediate trailer, were subsequently preserved, and now reside in museums in the exact same condition they were the day the towers fell.

Today, the World Trade Center PATH station has been rebuilt, firstly as a temporary station that opened in 2003, and now as a spacious Transit Hub, distinguishable by its huge spiny station building (I like to call it a giant Mohawk!).

Description
It's been a while since I've done one of these, this one is mainly an experiment in colour blending, as demonstrated on the marble floors, walls and ceiling to varying degrees of success.

But here we have the former PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson line) station that once stood beneath the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, one of the biggest train stations in New York and one of the most innovative, sadly now locked in a time we can never revisit.

Originally, what was the PATH terminus was in fact the Hudson Terminal, which opened in 1909 as part of the extension of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad under the river to Lower Manhattan. This was the second subway tunnel to be built beneath the river behind the H&M's original line to 23rd Street in Midtown Manhattan that had opened in 1907.

Above ground, the Hudson Terminal was a 22 story office building that incorporated both a train station and mixed use office building, the first of its kind in the world. Below ground, the station consisted of a loop that ran in via the H&M tunnels from Exchange Place on the New Jersey side. Trains would enter the south portal and run into the station that was in a near enough north/south direction before exiting back towards New Jersey via the north portal. The station itself consisted of 4 tracks formed of 2 island platforms.

The Hudson & Manhattan Railroad service to Manhattan was indeed popular, but faced a huge drop with the rise in car travel during the 1950's. It was eventually placed under bankruptcy protection as patronage dropped to its lowest levels ever, and it would remain essentially bankrupt well into the 1960's.

Hope came however with a new project conceived in 1960 known as the World Trade Center, a complex of buildings topped by two 110 story Twin Towers that would become the largest financial centre on planet earth. Originally, plans for the World Trade Center would have placed it on the East River on what is now the historic South Street Dockyard. However, a deal between director of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, Austin J. Tobin, and newly elected New Jersey Governor Richard J. Hughes, gave both the states of New York and New Jersey a mutually beneficial scheme, with the construction of the Twin Towers including a full refurbishment and overhaul of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad.

As such, the bankrupt railway was bought by the Port Authority in 1962 and rebranded as the Port Authority Trans Hudson line, or PATH.

Ground was broken at the World Trade Center in 1966, with a 213ft pit having to be dug beneath the two towers in order to reach bedrock. The digging of this pit, known later as the Bathtub, did not compromise operation of the PATH, as the original tunnels from 1909 were suspended above the huge concrete chasm on a specially built viaduct. At the same time the Twin Towers were being built, the PATH was undergoing huge change as well, with the original 1909 stock being replaced by brand new units built by the St. Louis Car Company between 1966 and 1968 known as PA1 and PA2 stock. The former Hudson Terminal station was completely refurbished from a grim and grimy carryover from the early 1900's to a fully functional modern subway station, also becoming the first subway station in the United States to be air conditioned.

The new PATH station was completed on July 6th, 1971, with a temporary exit built between what would become World Trade Center Building's 4 and 5, directly accessing Church Street. This was later changed to a large bank of nine high speed escalators 3 storeys high that would carry passengers up from the platforms to the underground Shopping Mall at the World Trade Center following its opening in 1973. There were also underground connections to the New York City Subway; A, C and E trains at World Trade Center, and N and R trains at Cortlandt Street.

The new layout now included five platforms, four platforms in regular use, whilst one was only used in the rush hour. This platform would frequently be used to stable off-duty trains during the daytime between around 8am and 5pm, before it would be put to work on rush hour services. The only other major modifications to the trackwork were the extension of the platforms to cater for ten car trains rather than six, with the loops at either end of the station made larger to accommodate the longer trains.

On February 26th, 1993, the World Trade Center came under attack from Islamic extremist Ramzi Yousif, who detonated a truck bomb beneath the North Tower in an attempt to cripple the foundations and send the building toppling into its Twin. The plan thankfully failed, though six people tragically lost their lives and over 1,000 were injured in the ensuing chaos. The PATH station suffered minimal damage, though a small section of the ceiling collapsed injuring several passengers, and the main water pipe from the Hudson to the World Trade Center used to cool the Twin Towers, as an alternative to traditional air conditioning units, was burst, flooding the tracks. The PATH would reopen a few months later after extensive repair work.

For the remainder of the 1990's, the PATH station remained one of the most popular and vital links between New York and New Jersey, an efficient and viable alternative to hour long waits for the Holland Tunnel, or having to negotiate the horrific congestion in Manhattan's narrow streets. By 2001, patronage was on average 25,000 daily, over half the World Trade Center's total working capacity. At this time, plans were in progress to refurbish the station again, with an expected completion date being Summer 2003.

However, the PATH station, together with the rest of the World Trade Center, was completely destroyed on September 11th, 2001, when Islamic extremists flew two hijacked Boeing 767's into the Twin Towers, eventually bringing both crashing down and killing nearly 3,000 people. After the impact of American Airlines Flight 11 at 08:46am (the first impact), the station was promptly evacuated and trains inside the station were forced to depart. A train coming over from New Jersey ran empty through the station before returning back to the opposite side of the Hudson, followed by an empty train that was used to pick up the remaining PATH staff and a homeless man who had been sleeping under a bench at the station. By 09:10 the station was empty and the rest, as they say, is history.

I remember well reading an article in Trains magazine a few days after the attack with a picture of a PATH train and the burning Twin Towers behind, passengers and train crew stunned with terror at the horror unfolding in front of them. It's a poignant image that remains in my head to this day. I seem to recall the picture was titled "Last Train from the World Trade Center."

The eventual collapse of the Twin Towers crushed the station, with tracks one to three being completely destroyed. Track four was partially buried but track five was largely intact. Stabled there at the time was an empty PATH unit that was waiting the day out before operating an evening rush hour service, with cars at the southern end being crushed by debris, whilst cars at the north end were mostly unharmed. Two of these cars, a leading trailer and an intermediate trailer, were subsequently preserved, and now reside in museums in the exact same condition they were the day the towers fell.

Today, the World Trade Center PATH station has been rebuilt, firstly as a temporary station that opened in 2003, and now as a spacious Transit Hub, distinguishable by its huge spiny station building (I like to call it a giant Mohawk!).