[ad_1]
When the twin towers fell on September 11, 2001, they crashed into the Cortlandt subway stop on Line 1. The station was buried under debris, its sturdy beams bent like paper clips.
For nearly 17 years, the station has remained unused – missing many at the New York Underground map – even as a new sprawling complex of the World Trade Center appeared on the surface.
Finally, the station will reopen Saturday.
The unveiling is a crucial moment for New York – the last major piece in the city's quest to rebuild what was lost just before the anniversary of the attack. But the fact that it has taken so long is a blatant reminder of the dysfunctional transport agencies in the region.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subway, only began to build the new station in 2015, after the New York and New Jersey Port Authority took control of the site after have completed other parts of the area.
"It's long overdue," said Mitchell L. Moss, director of the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at New York University. "Rebuilding the metro at the same time as rebuilding the site above was a major challenge."
The station, called "WTC Cortlandt" to reflect its connection to the site, cost $ 181.8 million and has mosaic of the artist Ann Hamilton using words of the declaration of independence. One by one, a new World Trade Center has settled there, including 1 World Trade Center, which dominates an area formerly in ruins. There are other new buildings, a memorial and a museum, and the soaring Oculus, whose wings are perched at the top of the World Trade Center's transport hub, which has been criticized for its opulence.
Lower Manhattan bounced back and prospered, beating business, residences, restaurants, and stores, the type of urban energy that seemed unimaginable in the weeks and months that followed the death and destruction that took place over many years. hours. The return of the subway station underlines the rebirth.
Train # 1 bypassed the station for years. On September 11, part of the route collapsed under the avalanche of debris.
Shortly after the attack, John Ferrelli, the head of the subway infrastructure, assessed the damage: "We had basically dozens of floors on a huge building that fell 600 feet on our roof. It was like a battery driver.
Metro leaders will host an event Saturday to celebrate the opening before the public enters at noon. This is a good news rare at a time when the subway is in crisis, with seemingly constant delays over a year after Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said the system was in good condition. ;emergency. Cuomo should not be part of the program, according to a press release provided by Mr.T.A.
Benjamin Kabak, a transit advocate who runs a popular website on the subway, said it was good that the project was over, even though it took too much time.
"This is not exactly one of their major achievements," said Mr. Kabak, referring to the M.T.A. "They had a lot of back and forth with the port authority."
The new station is wheelchair accessible, with three elevators and fewer columns to make it easier to cross. It will have electronic signs with real-time train information, like other new stations.
The station will help connect the World Trade Center to neighborhoods along Manhattan's West Side Line 1, said Moss.
"This resort," he said, "will help everyone in Lower Manhattan prosper.
Source link
