The Sites of EXIT STRATEGY – City Hall Subway Station
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Before we start today’s post, just a reminder that the big virtual launch of EXIT STRATEGY will be July 28th from 7 – 10PM, from the safe, socially distanced location of your choice worldwide. I’m sharing the launch party with 10 other amazing Kensington authors, so please come join us that night.
Last week on the blog, I introduced New York City Hall, the site of the hostage taking in EXIT STRATEGY. But there is a hidden treasure under the adjacent City Hall Park which is not well known even to many native New Yorkers.
By the late 19th century, New York City already had an elevated train line through the city, but the Great Blizzard of 1888—which dumped 55” of snow on the city, left them with two-story high snow drifts, and closed down train travel for over a week—demonstrated the advantages of subterranean train travel. Plans for New York City’s subway system were approved in 1894 and four years of construction on the initial line began in 1900.
When the New York City subway system opened in 1904 there were twenty-eight stations over nine miles of track between City Hall and 145th Street (compared to the current four hundred and twenty-seven stations over two hundred and thirty-six miles of track). The system was constructed as a continuous line using a cut and cover technique. Sequential streets were closed to allow for the subway tunnel to be dug by blasting, shovels, and pickaxes, then a series of trusses and beams were built to form the tunnel before the road was laid on top of it. After this, the work could be completed underground without interruption to life above. It was dangerous, backbreaking work completed by 7,700 immigrant workers, and at least sixty men died during the project.
Of the twenty-eight stations, one was built as the “crown jewel” of the system—City Hall Station. Unlike other stations which were built using standard designs and practical materials, City Hall Station was built as a work of art. Architects George Lewis Heins and Christopher Grant LaFarge designed the station around a circular piece of track with curved ceilings and entryways, and enlisted Rafael Guastavino, a Spanish engineer who perfected the use of compression thin-tiling to create arched ceilings and vaults. Additionally, the station was lit by decorative glass skylights by day and brass chandeliers at night. The ticket room, up a short flight of stairs from the platform, had an ornate oak and iron ticket booth sounded by green and yellow tiling. It was a gorgeous piece of architecture.
However, as the line expanded and railways cars modernized, the station became antiquated. Newer cars were longer, with three sets of doors instead of the previous two, and while the cars could manage the curve in the track, the platform no longer reached all the doors. Additionally, the nearby Brooklyn Bridge Station, only minutes away by foot, was a larger station with a longer platform and connections to additional lines. Thus, on December 31, 1945, City Hall Station closed.
For decades the station and platform sat empty and the track was only used to turn around southbound trains emptied at Brooklyn Bridge Station before heading north again. For most of New York City, the station faded from memory.
However, a movement started in the 1990s to obtain funding to refurbish the historic station and open it for tours. Since 2006, the New York Transit Museum has conducted extremely popular tours for their members of the station. Tickets sell out in minutes and demand remains high. For those who haven’t had the chance to attend a tour, it is now permitted by the MTA for riders of the southbound 6 and <6> trains to remain onboard during the turnaround. The route takes you right through the station and you can see the vaults and platform and ticket room up the stairs for yourselves.
Now, how does this station relate to EXIT STRATEGY? Well, that would be telling. You’ll just have to read to find out how this station plays a crucial role in the hostage situation.
Next week, I’ll be dropping by twice. First to give you a sneak peak at the beginning of EXIT STRATEGY, and then later in the week when I return to Gemma’s roots as we dive into NYC’s Little Italy. See you there!
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