New York’s Lost Subway Entrances
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
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Chapters:
02:55 Astor Place Lost Subway Entrance
04:19 Chambers Street Lost Subway Entrance
05:48 Knickerbockers Lost Subway Entrance
07:15 New Yorker Hotels lost subway entrance
08:21 Court St. Lost Subway entrance
09:21 Pennsylvania Stations Lost Subway entrances
11:59 New York’s Lost City Hall station
13:01 Woolworth Buildings Lost Subway Entrance
IT’S HISTORY - Weekly Tales of American Urban Decay as presented by your host Ryan Socash.
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» CREDIT
Editor - Karolina Szwata,
Host - Ryan Socash
Music/Sound Design: Dave Daddario
Script - Gregory Beck
» NOTICE
Some images may be used for illustrative purposes only - always reflecting the accurate time frame and content. Events of factual error / mispronounced word/spelling mistakes - retractions will be published in this section.
There is more stations out there like the Sedwyck Ave, Anderson Ave/ Jermone Ave, Gunhill Rd lower level of the old 3rd Ave/ 9th Ave Els. The old South Ferry station and shuttle. Time Square lower level of 8th Ave IND lines.
Bring back the 8 Thrid Ave Elevated line back between Gun hill road Clearmount Webster Boston road Bronx and Batincal gardens Frordam plaza and Battery park place or chatmam Square. Half heavy metal steel structures Elevated and half concrete metal steel structures in the south Bronx. Manhattan make the concrete structures Elevated to south ferry or Chatham Square or Battery place from 125 street to Chatham Square just like the metro North railroad has the concrete structures Elevated on park Avenue Manhattan
@leecornwell5632 Never going to happen. 😮
@@leecornwell5632 , i actually rode the line and remember when they
tore it down
When I was growing up, in the 1960s and '70s (and I guess you could count the early '80s), I had family in NYC, and we would visit 2-3 times each year. My father, who was born and raised in NYC, always took us on outings, and we nearly always took the subway. I remember using some of these doors that went directly from various buildings into the subway. Dad seemed to know every single one of them that was still in service, and showing us these was, of course, part of the treat. I went to college in NYC in 1982, I went looking for those entrances, but found only a few still in service. I don't remember which ones I found still in service. I do remember finding plenty that had been permanently locked, but weren't yet sealed off or bricked over. When I asked people about them, I was told they had been locked because of crime. (I think the same was true of the subway station bathrooms by that time.)
Funfact - 59th street station was the first one to be finished and contained temporary walls of all of the proposed station designs. It was found in the mid 2000s during construction (I was there for it!) and some of them are currently displayed on the Uptown side. City Hall was one of the last to be finished iirc.
Funfact - someone got pickpocketed on the first day of opening in the City Hall station.
1:17 Station cut and cover methods, while nearby residents complained of noise and soot, didn't impede traffic at all according to IRT.
1:28 They didn't get the lease after 1904, rather before then. Commission for contract 1 (the original IRT subway line) was bid and won by John McDonald and August Belmont Jr. in 1900 for construction of the Subway and a 50 year operating lease. Belmont started IRT in 1902 and made it the operating company for Contract 1 (and subsequently Contract 2).
2:15 Heins & LaFarge, who were commissioned to design buildings (kiosks, station entrances like the old 72nd street entrance) and stations made these kiosks visually different - Entrances have a dome like top, exits have a pyramid top.
2:22 Stations had ticket choppers first. They then had booths to make things more efficient.
2:26 This is no joke, the beams and stuff in the "tunnel" were white! They took station designs parellel to the station itself.
2:31 NYC started IND but didn't make it too obvious, apparently. NYC then started to force IRT and BMT to increase their fares while keeping IND fares low, opened IND stations close to IRT and BMT stations so that way people would use IND train lines instead, and other other sneaky crap. Considering ridership lessened and IRT and BMT became strapped for cash, NYC (bought?) got their greedy hands on IRT and BMT, incorporated them and IND into Transit Authority or whatever MTA was initially called.
This is the main reason I love this channnel. I love finding out about hidden gems like this 😎
I work in an office building with direct access to the 4-5-6 lines via an entrance in the lobby. It's nice being able to go directly from subway to office without going outside.
If you take the 6 train to the last stop at Brooklyn Bridge City Hall and stay on the train (The train crew are usually cool with it) you can ride through the abandoned City Hall station as the train does its turn around. Very Cool!!!
Also, as recent as the 90’s, there was an entrance to A&S (Now Macy’s) directly off the platform at Hoyt St. Fulton Mall Station on the 2/3 . Just get off the train, walk through the turnstile and you were in the store.
You remember the wooden escalator?
That's so cool
I got to tour the Woolworth Building a few years ago. It actually has two abandoned subway entrances once accessible through the basement elevator lobby where the bike rack is today. One is still extant and leads to the Park Place station near the World Trade Center. This has been closed since 9/11 (indeed, two bikes still chained to the bike rack have gone unclaimed since then). The entrance to the other passageway has been completely drywalled over on the Woolworth side and partially demolished for underground parking structures. It once lead to the City Hall station one block north.
12:50 It's not used by "some" trains. ALL 6 trains must loop via City Hall station to go back to the Bronx.
These lost entrances seem like hidden areas in games that contain extra items or artifacts that you need to get 100% or to proceed forward.
Fascinating history of the NYC subway that deserves a full-fledged documentary. One with interviews with residents who used these long forgotten parts of the subway. I want to know so many more details and with pictures, and even any archival film footage.
I wouldn't be surprised if people had personal film and photos of the subway. My dad carried his film and 8mm cameras with him everytime our family did a trip locally or on a road trip in California. I'm sure people did that in NYC, too.
Oh hey. Interesting topic actually. I love abandoned and forgotten stuff, especially old railways.
Being a former train operator in the MTA, so appreciative that I had an opportunity to visit these long forgotten places in history.
When the teenage mutant ninja turtles found the abandoned NYC subway station to use as their lair, in the live action movie, I remember thinking the idea of living in an abandoned subway station under a big city was just about the coolest thing in the world. Of course I was too young to appreciate that people with addictions, mental disabilities, or other problems, actually do live in such places, and it's tragic. A decade later, in the early 2000s, I was living in Milwaukee for college, and exploring abandoments there.
The (Herald Square?) pathway between 6+7th Avenue under the Manhattan Mall is pretty cool (and creepy). fallen ceilings, loose tiles, and lots of spider webs! I walked it with 3 flashlights about 10 years ago, there was an abandoned shoe store and a barber shop and a couple of other stores.
I used that in the Sixties and Seventies.... It was a quick and weather proof way to get from Penn Station to Herald Square
@@ConcertShutterbug Nice! They've since built some crazy underground walkways underground !
There's a blocked off underground tunnel @149st on the 2 and 5 train line in the Bronx, it was so pasassagers to cross over to the other side without needing to go up to the street level and deal with crossing the heavy traffic on 149th & 3rd Ave. I believe the MTA closed the tunnel in the late 80's early 90's.
Also @ 149th and grand concourse on the 2&5 line by the stairway at the front of the station there was an elevator people used to use to get to the upper level to the 4 train line in the Bronx.
Which one of those lead to the Mott Avenue Control House?
There's just something about the phrase "the tunnel was bricked closed in the 40's". that makes me want to see what's on the other side. A lot of these are still open with just a single wall blocking passage, but a few of these are more like they just made sealed time capsules and I desperately want to drill a hole in a wall and take a peak
There are videos of people taking the ride around the loop at city hall station. the problem is that cars got so long that, while they physically fit around the corner, they are uncomfortably close on the inside edge, and there's 3+ feet of void between the doors and the platform
Im obsessed with figuring out what stations have things like covered up under/overpasses, exits/entrances, or staircases, its fun if you pay attention to out of place tiles or concrete and do some research
A lot of those could be used as emergency shelters or many other things. Oh well. Great for Superman and Batman movies!
I was going to mention the original Superman movie, Lex Luther's lair. The 1st Fantastic Beasts movie used a set the looks like an abandoned subway station.
I remember walking that Gimbel’s passageway in the early 70’s. It was scary.
Seems to me all those closed and forgotten places in the subway should be reopened as historical sites. Lots of people would love to see them.
And who’s going to pay for it? Other than pure curiosity, no one is pressed to see what those stations look like. Nor should time and money be spent simply to sastify that curiosty.
@@DavidKen878You DO realize YOUR tax dollars are going to many useless government endeavors, right?
@@zoeyrochellezhombie829 🤡
There was one such entrance in the basement of the old Woolworth's on Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, Queens.
There was also a direct entrance from the IRT subway in downtown Brooklyn to the lower level the the A&S department store (now Macys). I can remember seeing train go by through the glass doors.
👍👍 it's amazing what has been abandoned in NYC or almost any large city.
It really is!
My favorite is a Duane Reade in Times Square. You leave through the basement right on to the platform!
It's kind of weird some of them are/were closed. Like, condos with subway access sounds like a no brainer. Same thing with dorms/offices, you'd think they would WANT access to the subway at all times.
Would you want the subway to have access to your elite apartment? The relationship goes both ways and I know I would definitely not want any bums in my building g from the subway.
The Chambers Street station is still open. It's so decrepit that it looks like it was closed.
Fr😅
Chambers St is much still opened...half as large as it used to be
...the station itself is also the basement of the Municipal Building, which also explains why it looks like hot dookie now
There was a direct entrance into Bloomingdale's at 59th and Lexington Avenue. Farther up , at 68th Street, there was a platform entrance into Hunter Collage. I'm not sure if that one is still extant.
Had to come in an learn what forfotten is german for
Underrated comment! 😂
My favorite NYC Subway cars are the R32, R46 and R62. I was shocked when a news video I was watching referred to the R46 as "a bucket of bolts."
I am fascinated by your videos. I was wondering if you could someday do a video on the great hotels in the city. Especially, for personal reasons, The Sherry-Netherland, which I know has an amazing history.
Great suggestion!
there was a tunnel that connected the 42nd Street station on 40th Street on the F line with the herald square station at 33rd Street.
Yes. That got closed for safety reasons after a couple of crimes in similar pedestrian tunnels.
+1 for mentioning Court St/NY Transit museum!
The tunnels of old Chinatown here in Fresno California would be a great subject.
There's so much more abandoned, completed but never used, and uncompleted infrastructure in the NYCT Subways... Its shocking how much money got spent on infrastructure which has been left to go to waste - Some so far as being intentionally destroyed such that it could never be completed, renovated, or otherwise brought into revenue service. Also shocking is how long projects take nowadays and how much they cost vs even 50 or 60, let alone 120 years ago... The costs are very literally out of control. Also - Take a 6 train downtown sometime, ideally in off hours with low passenger traffic. If you ask politely the motorman may be willing to go around the City Hall Loop at (further) reduced speed so you can get a look (so long as the train will remain in service to go back uptown). Though they can not open the doors and let anyone out (excepting for organized Transit Museum events), the trackage is classified as being in revenue service and so technically legal for passengers to remain onboard. For years after 9/11 doing this was explicitly prohibited due to security paranoia - City Hall Loop is under the steps of NYC City Hall with entrances in City Hall Park. The gap between platform and subway cars is exceptional at the middle doors of trains... Completely unsafe due to the rather sharp platform curve - For Transit Museum trips only the front door of each car is (manually) opened and a ramp lifted into place to close the (much smaller) gap.
Some of them are just redundant tbf, either having another station nearby, or being too close between two others. The Subways replaced trollies and elevated trains that stopped more frequently, but while it's useful to an extent, it slows service down a lot over all, and can create more delays.
@@Joesolo13 Yeah, I know that applies to some cases... But there's a lot of infrastructure that could at least theoretically be useful - Not merely 100 feet from the previous station - That could either be useful now or in the future. Same goes for multiple partially completed tunnels and many provisions for lines that never got built. The subways could have been pretty amazing had it not been for political BS and Robert Moses getting in the way back when expansion was relatively cheap. The subway will never be what it could have been thanks to every 100 feet costing $100m (or whatever insane number) nowadays.
You CAN have a tour of the City Hall Station… well they used to do it before Covid for $50 a ticket
There's also the old IRT 93st station, shut down when they expanded the platforms at 96st, but still visible if you head that way on the 1/2/3.
Correction: 91st Street.
Ahh I got happy when you mentioned the Woolworth building basement but you didn’t even mention the big marble pool down there. I had some fun parties in that pool.
You teach us all some amazingly rare things, but this was the most fun!
I'm so glad!
Have you done a story about the Roosevelt platform under the Waldorf Astoria Hotel?
City Hall station is used as a turnaround by the 6 train at Brooklyn Bridge City Hall station (the end of the 6 line) to cycle the trains to go uptown. There is another abandoned station between Canal St and City Hall - Worth St.
If you ever see the NYC subway map and think there's a pretty large, uninterrupted stretch of track on the B line, between Grand St and DeKalb Av; yeah there's Gold St, along with it's zoetrope-like walls, right around York St.
No mention of the first subway tunnel ever built in NYC? Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn had a subway line that ran under the street for several hundred feet. The line was operated by horse drawn train and went down to the docs north of Court Street. This was before Tesla helped build the first electric train motor. There are still sections of it that exist; while the rest was buried/filled in decades ago. 10 years ago there were still tours that would go down there.
I'm not sure if you'd be surprised to discover that the particular tunnel you're mentioning is actually older than the London "subway" system....
I suggest reading the book The Cosgrove Report - about Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth and the tunnel......
For some reason, I always remembered reading about steam locomotives being used in the tunnel from the very beginning....
@@user-dj7wv5ok2x It was built in the 1840s I think...not too many people are aware of it. I met the guy who rediscovered it in the 1980s
Good call. I’m lucky enough to have had a chance to go on a tour of that tunnel with Bob Diamond. Amazing history!
Nice bit of modern archaeology about NYC subway stations long forgotten.
Hey Ryan, my first time commenting. Love the Channel, great videos. Super informative, keep up the great content
Welcome aboard!
There is so MUCH more real estate of closed exits down there in the darkness. Know 163rd st on the C? The REAL 163rd st Exit was closed in the late 80s early 90s when the K last ran to 168th and the B ran there as well.
155th on the same line also has closed off abandoned exits as well; You can see doors leading to what used to be the 153rd St exit in the subway platforms, and the street level subway grates at the corner of 153rd and St Nicholas are where the entrances used to be, you can even make out the staircase beneath the grates!
Every subway fan should pay a visit to the transit museum. It got detailed history of the system and, real 1900s train cars that will definitely bring you back into the age
They also run those trains in December a few times on weekends.
Where is the transit museum located in Manhattan? I would love to go see it I live near Manhattan so would like to go with a friend this summer. It would be fun. Do you know if there is a website for it?
@@simabelsky3471it’s located at Brooklyn, at the intersection of Schermerborn st. and Boerum pl. search New York transit museum and u can find it’s official website ❤
@@simabelsky3471 It is in Brooklyn at the Hoyt Schermerhorn stop.
@@justin423 thank you! Appreciate you getting back to me
Thanks for another great video! Very enjoyable and informative!😊
You are so welcome!
@@ITSHISTORYkeep Whooping appreciate the Content ⌚📈💯🙏🏿
I once went into the Hotel Penn. tunnel under 7th ave. It was through the basement and they had a baggage claim window,.
Thanks a lot. I enjoy these NY series ❤
Glad you like them!
They should keep building these. That would be a huge perk.
They're probably closed off because of all the mood slime flowing through them.
Did not expect to see you here lol
And yeah, disappointed that Vigo didn't turn up for this one.
So cool!
Thanks again Professor Socash, you are a Great teacher of History, really like this lesson of the Subway in NYC, I have never been to NYC, but I have been to the state of New York went to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, well until next time be safe and be at Peace...
I love your work! Keep it up!
Thank you!
Excellent & interesting content
Yes sir another home run
😊 too cool ...
thanx , Ryan ...
very entertaining
very well done ❤
Thanks so much!
Another Great Video
Thanks again!
“thirty two street” lol
There was a LOT more to the pneumatic subway not catching on, one of them being boss tweed getting a kickback for all the surface rides and if transportation went underground he got nothing
Who here has actually seen the entrance to the Knickerbocker Hotel at Times Square Station in real life? 👋
I love these stations being time capsules. Imagine peaking through a crevice in a door to one of these abandoned hallways. City Hall Station Tour would be definitely on my bucketlist when going to New York one day as well as trying to staying in metro 6 to go around the loop.
It is easy to just stay on the 6 train. No one makes sure you get off. They used to do tours but now days they are very rare and run through the transit museum. It is a major security issue doing tours there now.
@@tmptjohn88 where is the transit museum? That would be so cool to visit!
Absolutely fascinating I've always been curious about the NYC subway systems history it's construction the engineering the tunnels the grand scale and scope of a metropolitan transit subway system
more than a few everyone only remembers 59'st , try to a video on the subterranean small businesses that used to
be in the subway not just the food venders , their were a few dry cleaners and haberdasher's ( small clothing stores ) and if you check out the nyc classic the french connection you'll see the old penny gum machines and the penny weight scales , and the small hamburger joints and orange juliuses shops and lets not forget the classic the taking of Pelham 123
These topics you cover are where I "live", if I can come up with something coherent I'll send it in. The episode where you were walking around the Polish island was a nice experience to watch
i vaguely remember seeing one of those closed entrances.
Look up Groveport, Ohio do use for the canals to service the boats. That’s why it was a port and the original founders used to have a house on Main Street still has the original brick Road still has the original house and I used to live there right now it’s Groveport city but used to be Groveport Village And it was Groveport Township and it’s been upgraded to Groveport city so if you want to have a place in Ohio that is kind of old but is now city but used to be a town around the start of Covid now it’s a city and it used to be all cold and all that and it has rubber going through original station
I hope they preserve the old city hall station. Architecture student's could benefit by studying it's design.
The MTA sell tickets to it's members to visit and tour the station every year, so they preserve the hell out of it. Also you can view it by staying on the train while it loops back to the uptown side and view it from the window
The Court St photo is not NYC. I believe it's Boston.
That is correct.
Correct-the Court St. station in NYC always had high-level platforms. The Court St. station in Boston was rebuilt into what is now Government Center on the Green Line.
it is Boston, and from 1904 when the line opened
@@muttonkingit was never rebuilt, it was completely abandoned in 1916 when the line was moved to its current configuration. it still exists, just extremely hard to se
5:45 NYC loved using "V" instead of "U" just for the looks back in the early 1900's. SVBWAY, PVBLIC LIBRARY, etc. I like it.
That's not why
And, of course, it wasn't just NYC; the "Subway Terminal Building" in Los Angeles has the exact same lettering style.
@@Not_You_2 Spread the knowledge! Why did they use V instead of U for a period of time?
@@kizashikaze9066historically elsewhere atleast, a V is easier to carve than a U
@@AdmiralJT That is very true, and NYC, at the time (1900s, late 1800s) took inspiration all over Europe and I'm guessing this was one of those bits of inspiration,
There is also in Brooklyn a abandonment tunnel, downtown Brooklyn on Atlantic Avenue from Flatbush Avenue down to water east river part of the Long Island railroad system. That’s pretty interesting too. Ryon, but keep up the good work love history especially in the new York tri-state area love your channel.
Are you talking about Bob Diamonds tunnel ?
Not sure what it’s called
Google the late Bob Diamond and the Atlantic avenue tunnel
@@pedropuckerstein4670 ok I will I think I remember him
suposed to still have a train in it?
HELL'S Kitchen, dude. Come on.
Holy hell! Now I have to check Hotels extra careful if I ever visit NY. Wouldn't want basketball Americans to appear out of the blue in my hotel. Scary place!
How about on the 4-5-6 59st uptown side south end of the station was the entrance to Alexander's department store.
I remember that! When was that closed off?
We thoroughly enjoy your channel. You have a great delivery & presence. The topics are always informative & entertaining. Thank you for providing them.
So nice of you!
Now if only the subways could become safe and clean again.
I worked at One Penn Plaza back in the early 90's. There was an elevator entrance to the building from Penn Station. The building was maintenance man told me about the entrance. Saved my at least 10 minutes in my commute.
Ryan you're the best
Reminds me of the 79 movie rebel of the road. 🥂😉
I see most of these abandoned tunnels and passages whenever I do any walks with the track inspectors on various lines. Quite a few of the abandoned stations still get utilized as hubs of all kinds of equipment for different departments.
GREAT WATCH.... Love both NYC and Chicago history, have been to both many times, don't get may but I like Chicago a bit better. I really wish the city leaders of both would get their heads out of there A$$ and take pride in the cities they are responsible for.
I was at a convention at Hotel Penn in 2013. The place was a complete DUMP (aside from the lobby). When I heard it was getting demolished, I was relieved. As of 2024 it's a vacant lot. A huge improvement.
Great video btw
A ny'er... if fares were five cents today, most people still wouldn't pay the fare.😂
I truly love and appreciate your work...please continue doing what you do...extremely well!
The Nostrand ave underpass in Brooklyn has history as well.. though a bit dark.
Wow, thank you!
In the original Exorcist Movie,the priest has a vision of his mother walk up then back down at a Subway Station.What was that Subway station Entry?
Littke know fact, the first robbery occurred on it's first day of operation...😊
What are these enterances? A secret entry to the intercontinental express subway, a way to time travel or does it put you in a trance
I tried to find the email to send an idea but couldnt locate. so I just wanted to offer the subject of the luxury liner and the pride of our country, the SS United States, which is slowly deteriorating on the Delaware river in Philadelphia. Hopefully one day she will be saved.
Damn. I've used the Chambers Street Station I think.
04:14 nice beaver.
So what you're saying, is Harold Finch and the Team could really have found a place to operate out of. The Machine will be pleased, lol...
Funny you made than comment, in fact my wife and I are watching "Person of Interest" for about the 3rd or 4th time, Great Series...
Let's not forget Commando Jesus! ;-)
!(: COOL, THANKS ;)!
hi ryan. how 'bout a vid about strange doors? not Jim, but forgotten or hidden doors that were discovered or held surprises like disused infrastructure or passages to forgotten places or hidden rooms. no modern stuff now;)
I have an idea for an episode! Can you make one about the burning south Bronx? I’d love to know why it was allowed to burn with families being displaced
Jewish landlords who realized that it's easier to collect insurance payouts than keep the building up and continue to deal with "deadbeat"/"undesirable" tenants (in their eyes)
How come the connection to the IRT 7th avenue line in Brooklyn from the old Abraham and Strauss (now Macy's) department store was omitted?!
Yes- from Hoyt St. I remember using that passageway with my mom when I was a kid.
why'd new york have to change? i feel like it must have been such an insanely beautiful place during the 40's/50's. the architecture is amazing
A lot of complex reasons, but the root problem is corruption.
@@IdgaradLyracant well if it makes you feel any better, australia ain't no different. our politicians are slowly ruining this country
@@jordanoneill82 nah they ruined it here ages ago mate fuck aus
The architecture is NOT 'amazing'
@@zoeyrochellezhombie829 think as you wish.... try living in outback australia where buildings are made of hand hewn wood and rocks.
The South Ferry station would be interesting to see how it changed post-911 and any other superseded stations.
Being from Staten Island but living in Largo, FL, i like seeing things from before i moved off the island in 1985...
Hey Hey neighbor! Was born on SI and now live in St, Pete.
@@mastahc0w ND and the Stapleton. I am 70 now and like these since i can't walk pot stroke.
(sighs)
it was replaced with a new station but had to reopen in 2012 after Sandy destroyed the new station
how about a series on the DETROIOT UNTIED RAILWAY?
I love New York ❤
A lot of south americans love brazil york too!
You should do a story about the abandoned Arch Street Subway in Philadelphia
he did: ua-cam.com/video/xcP2daBaa9w/v-deo.html&ab_channel=IT%27SHISTORY
How can they just brick off tunnels and open areas??? Dont they have to regularly inspect them to make sure there are no structural issues for the roads or buildings above?
"Closed to the public" doesn't necessarily mean completely bricked off. Most likely, these spaces still can be entered via other entrances. E.g., the underground entrances to buildings probably simply became part of their basement area and can be accessed from within those buildings. Similarly, the City Hall station is closed to the public (except for special events), but its track is still being used during daily operations in order to reposition empty trains. So, it should be subject to at least the same level of attention and maintenance as any other subway tunnel.