THE OLD SOUTH FERRY FIRST REOPENING: POST 9/11 (9-15-02)

REPOSTED WITH CORRECTIONS
In a little more than a year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that destroyed the Cortlandt St. station on the number 1 line on the IRT and caused service to be diverted to New Lots Ave. afterwards, the line was rebuilt and, with the exception of the Cortlandt St. station, service to South Ferry was able to resume. Seen here in the video aboard the first train to stop at South Ferry on Midnight Sunday Sept. 15, 2002, the 2304 (1104) Van Cortlandt. It would make the 0000 (12 Mid.) out of South Ferry. Upon arriving at Chambers St. on the northbound local track, an announcement was made by the Subways Control Center that service was resuming to South Ferry. Later in the day, a train would stop at South Ferry with then-Gov. George Pataki and other elected officials. That train would be considered the "official" first train at South Ferry. The old South Ferry would continue to serve Lower Manhattan for almost 7 more years while a newer, more modern terminal was being constructed nearby that would accommodate two-ten car trains. The old South Ferry would close in March of 2009 once the New South Ferry station officially opened. It was decommissioned and never expected to see service again, that is, until Superstorm Sandy hit the New York area on October 29, 2012, flooding the New South Ferry terminal with millions of gallons of sea water, destroying the electrical equipment and causing millions of dollars worth of damage to the station. Unlike the newer station, the old South Ferry can only accommodate the first five cars of a train and it is built on a curve. This makes it necessary for "gap fillers" to be used when the trains berth at the station.