Downtown Hudson Tubes

Route map: Bing

Downtown Hudson Tubes
1909 illustration of flying junction of Uptown Hudson Tubes in Jersey City which connect to Downtown tubes to the south
Overview
Location Hudson River
Coordinates 40°42′54″N 74°01′28″W / 40.7151°N 74.0244°W
System PATH
Start World Trade Center
End Exchange Place
Operation
Opened July 19, 1909
Traffic Railroad
Character Rapid transit
Technical
Design engineer Charles M. Jacobs
Construction 1906-1909
Length 5,650 ft (1,720 m)[1]
Track gauge 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 12 in)
Electrified Third rail
Lowest elevation 97 ft (30 m) below sea level[1]
Tunnel clearance 15.25 ft (4.65 m)[1]
Downtown Hudson Tubes

The Downtown Hudson Tubes are a pair of tunnels that carry PATH trains under the Hudson River between New York City and Jersey City in the United States. In lower Manhattan the trains travel to and from the World Trade Center station. In Jersey City the trains stop at the Exchange Place station. The tunnels were the second non-waterborne connection between Manhattan and New Jersey and were completed shortly after the uptown Hudson tubes.

The original tubes were built intermittently between 1874 and 1906.[1] Regular passenger service began on February 26, 1908. Construction of the downtown tubes began in 1906 and was completed in 1909.[2] They began service at the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad's Hudson Terminal in lower Manhattan starting on July 19, 1909.[3]

When the original World Trade Center was constructed in the 1960s, the Hudson Tubes remained in service as elevated tunnels until 1970, when a new PATH station was built.[4] The downtown and uptown tubes were declared National Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks in 1978 by the American Society of Civil Engineers.[5] Some remnants of the tunnels under the original World Trade Center were removed during 2007 and 2008.[6]

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Fitzherbert, Anthony (June 1964). ""The Public Be Pleased": William G. McAdoo and the Hudson Tubes". Electric Railroaders Association, nycsubway.org. Retrieved 2010-01-18.
  2. Cudahy, Brian J. (2002). Rails Under the Mighty Hudson (2nd ed.). New York: Fordham University Press. p. 18. ISBN 0823221903. OCLC 48376141.
  3. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. "PATH:History". Retrieved 2010-01-19.
  4. Carroll, Maurice (December 30, 1968). "A Section of the Hudson Tubes is Turned into Elevated Tunnel". The New York Times.
  5. "History and Heritage of Civil Engineering: Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Tunnel". American Society of Civil Engineers. Retrieved 2009-03-13.
  6. Dunlap, David W. (October 26, 2008). "Another Ghost From Ground Zero’s Past Fades Away". The New York Times.

Further reading