It took 17 years, but Cortlandt Station in New York City is back up and running.
After the 9/11 attacks, the subway station on the corner of Church and Dey Street was compromised by the thousands of pounds of debris that rained down from the collapsing twin towers above. Last Saturday, transit officials reopened the station to the public as WTC Cortlandt Station.
Thanks to a $181.8 million renovation, the subway stop on the No.1 line enjoys shiny new white marble interiors and a powerful mosaic by the artist Ann Hamilton, which features words from the Declaration of Independence and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The platforms are wheelchair accessible, and real-time information about stops are displayed on screens throughout.
Passengers walk though the newly opened WTC Cortlandt subway station in New York, U.S., on Monday, Sept. 10, 2018. The station reopened Saturday, one of the last pieces to be rebuilt just before the anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg
According to CBS, 1,200 feet of new subway tracks had to be built on either side of the station to restore it to its former functionality. The new station will serve as a connection point between the WTC in Lower Manhattan and neighborhoods on Manhattan’s West Side.
So why did it take the city so long to reconstruct Cortlandt? The station was partially buried by tons of rubble after the attack, for one, and a larger priority was clearing and rebuilding the space where the destroyed towers were. During the construction of the new WTC complex, officials were unable to start building subway entrances until everything else was complete due to safety and logistical issues.
In 2015, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates New York’s subway system, finally got around to the project when the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey transferred control of the area, according to the New York Times. New York’s sprawling subway lines average more than five million riders a day. Read more at FORBES.
{Matzav.com}
