Wall Street Subway Station (IRT)
|
Street map |
---|
Station service legend | |
---|---|
Symbol | Description |
Stops all times except late nights | |
Stops all times |
The Wall Street station is a station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. The station is located at the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. It is served by the 4 train at all times and the 5 train at all times except late nights.
The Wall Street station was constructed for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as part of the city's first subway line, which was approved in 1900. Construction of the tunnel around the Wall Street station was complicated by the shallow foundations of the nearby Trinity Church, as well as the need to avoid disrupting the street surface of Broadway. The station opened on June 12, 1905, as an extension of the original line. The station's platforms were lengthened in the late 1950s, and it was renovated in the 1970s and 2000s.
The Wall Street station contains two side platforms and two tracks, and it was built with tile and mosaic decorations. The platforms contain exits to Broadway's intersections with Wall and Rector Streets, outside Trinity Church, and into the basements of several buildings. An additional passageway extends east to an out-of-system connection with the Broad Street station and the basement of 28 Liberty Street. The original station interior is a New York City designated landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History
Construction and opening
Planning for a subway line in New York City dates to 1864. However, development of what would become the city's first subway line did not start until 1894, when the New York State Legislature passed the Rapid Transit Act. The subway plans were drawn up by a team of engineers led by William Barclay Parsons, the Rapid Transit Commission's chief engineer. The Rapid Transit Construction Company, organized by John B. McDonald and funded by August Belmont Jr., signed the initial Contract 1 with the Rapid Transit Commission in February 1900, in which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line. In 1901, the firm of Heins & LaFarge was hired to design the underground stations. Belmont incorporated the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) in April 1902 to operate the subway.
Several days after Contract 1 was signed, the Board of Rapid Transit Railroad Commissioners instructed Parsons to evaluate the feasibility of extending the subway south to South Ferry, and then to Brooklyn. On January 24, 1901, the Board adopted a route that would extend the subway from City Hall to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR)'s Flatbush Avenue terminal station (now known as Atlantic Terminal) in Brooklyn, via the Joralemon Street Tunnel under the East River. Contract 2, which gave the IRT a 35-year lease,was executed between the commission and the Rapid Transit Construction Company on September 11, 1902. Construction began at State Street in Manhattan on November 8, 1902. The section of the Contract 2 subway tunnel under the southernmost section of Broadway, between Battery Park and City Hall, was contracted to Degnon-McLean Contracting Company.
Contract 2 specified that traffic upon the streets of lower Manhattan not be disrupted. At its shallowest, the tunnel would be only 4 or 5 feet (1.2 or 1.5 m) below the bottoms of the street car conduits along Broadway. Accordingly, the contractor proposed replacing the pavement with a planked roadway and excavating beneath this temporary surface. To address concerns that leakage from the gas mains beneath the roadway and within the excavation would produce a devastating explosion, the contractor moved the pipes to above the street. Furthermore, precautionary measures had to be undertaken during the construction of the tunnel in front of Trinity Church, adjacent to the Wall Street station. The spire of the church rested upon a shallow masonry foundation built upon a deep layer of fine sand. The spire's foundation was 9 feet (2.7 m) behind the subway tunnel's exterior wall, and the bottom of the spire foundation was 9 feet (2.7 m) below street level, much shallower than the subway's 24-foot-deep (7.3 m) foundation. Accordingly, the 57-foot (17 m) tunnel nearest the spire's foundation was constructed in three sections, and steel channels were used as sheet piling around the subway excavation. After the excavation was completed, these steel channels were left in place to prevent the soil from settling. No "measurable or movement of the spire" occurred during or after construction.
By the beginning of June 1905, the station was expected to open on June 17. The Wall Street station opened on June 12, 1905, as a one-stop extension of the original subway from Fulton Street. A switch was added south of Rector Street to allow trains to terminate at the Wall Street station. The station's opening contributed to the growth of Wall Street, which had become the center of Manhattan's Financial District at the beginning of the 20th century.
1900s to 1940s
To address overcrowding, in 1909, the New York Public Service Commission proposed lengthening the platforms at stations along the original IRT subway. As part of a modification to the IRT's construction contracts made on January 18, 1910, the company was to lengthen station platforms to accommodate ten-car express and six-car local trains. In addition to $1.5 million (equivalent to $49.1 million in 2023) spent on platform lengthening, $500,000 (equivalent to $16.4 million in 2023) was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent. The northbound platform at the Wall Street station was extended 165 feet (50 m) to the south, while the southbound platform was extended 135 feet (41 m) to the north. The southbound platform extension required installing new girders and columns at Trinity Church, while the northbound platform extension abutted the basements of adjacent properties. On January 23, 1911, ten-car express trains began running on the East Side Line, and the next day, ten-car express trains began running on the West Side Line.
In 1910, the IRT reported that a passageway would be constructed to the basement of the planned Equitable Office Building, on the east side of Broadway, just north of the Wall Street station. That office building was proposed in 1908 on the site of the Equitable Life Building, which ultimately burned down in 1912. An agreement was signed between the IRT, the Equitable Building Corporation, and the city in January 1915, providing for a passageway from the building's basement to the northern ends of both platforms. Construction of the passageways started in October 1915. The entrance to the Equitable Building, as well as others to 7 Wall Street and 65 Broadway, opened in 1917. One block south of the Equitable Building, the Irving Trust Company started developing a skyscraper at 1 Wall Street, at the southwest corner of Broadway and Wall Street, in 1930. That March, Irving Trust signed an agreement with the IRT to build three new entrances to the Wall Street station on Broadway and another entrance in 1 Wall Street's basement. Two entrances to the northbound platform opened in March 1931, after 1 Wall Street was completed. One entrance led to the building's basement, while another led to New Street through a passageway in the building.
1940s to 1980s
The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. The New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) announced plans in 1956 to add fluorescent lights above the edges of the station's platforms. The lights were installed the next year. In late 1959, contracts were awarded to extend the platforms at Bowling Green, Wall Street, Canal Street, Spring Street, Bleecker Street, Astor Place, Grand Central–42nd Street, 86th Street, and 125th Street to 525 feet (160 m). In April 1960, work began on a $3,509,000 project (equivalent to $36.1 million in 2023) to lengthen platforms at seven of these stations to accommodate ten-car trains. To accommodate the project, the Trinity Building entrance at 111 Broadway was closed from July 1960 to July 1962. The entire platform-lengthening project was substantially completed by November 1965.
In 1979, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the space within the boundaries of the original station, excluding expansions made after 1904, as a city landmark. The station was designated along with eleven others on the original IRT. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the station was renovated; much of the original wall surface on the northbound platform was covered by glossy dark blue tiles about 0.5 inches (13 mm) thick. The renovation preserved the station name plaques and mosaics. The Wall Street station's renovation was the first of six projects under the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s Adopt-a-Station program. Fundraising efforts were led by the Downtown Lower Manhattan Association, which enlisted support from the Chase Manhattan Bank and American Express, two companies whose buildings were directly served by the station.
1990s to present
On January 6, 1994, Automated Fare Collection turnstiles went into service at this station and at the Whitehall Street station. In 1995, as a result of service reductions, the MTA was considering permanently closing one of the two Wall Street stations, as well as two other stations citywide, due to their proximity to each other. Either the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line station or the IRT Lexington Avenue Line station would have been closed. Following the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Wall Street station was closed for nine days.
The original interiors were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. The next year, the MTA provided funding for a renovation of the station as part of its 2005–2009 capital program. The MTA commenced a project to renovate the station and restore its original appearance in 2006. During this renovation, the blue tiles were removed, and the original tiles were restored. Some of the panels and beams on the ceiling were installed improperly, causing trains to scrape against them.
Station layout
Ground | Street level | Exit/entrance |
Platform level |
Side platform | |
Northbound | ← toward Woodlawn (Fulton Street) ← toward Eastchester–Dyre Avenue or Nereid Avenue (Fulton Street) | |
Southbound | toward Crown Heights–Utica Avenue (New Lots Avenue late nights) (Bowling Green) → toward Flatbush Avenue–Brooklyn College weekdays, Bowling Green evenings/weekends (Bowling Green) → | |
Side platform | ||
Underpasses | Transfer between platforms, passageway to Broad Street |
Wall Street has two tracks and two side platforms. The 4 train stops here at all times, while the 5 train stops here at all times except late nights. The station is between Fulton Street to the north and Bowling Green to the south. The platforms were originally 350 feet (110 m) long, like at other Contract 2 stations, but were lengthened during the 1959 expansion of the station. The northbound platform was extended southward and became 523 feet (159 m) long, while the southbound platform was extended northward and became 583 feet (178 m) long. There are two underpasses between the platforms, one each at the northern and southern ends of the southbound platform, which lead respectively to a passageway and to the center of the northbound platform.