New York City reopens subway station destroyed during Sept. 11 terrorist attack

The Cortlandt Street subway station in New York was destroyed in the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, 17 years ago.

(New York Transit Authority)

A New York subway station finally reopened, 17 years after being closed when terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center during the September 11th terrorist attack.

The station on Cortlandt Street on line # 1 passed under the World Trade Center.

The new stop, which was opened Saturday, will now be known as WTC Cortlandt in the site's honor, according to reports.

The station took so long to reopen because the port authority kept it shut while it was busy working on the rest of the reconstruction of the World Trade Center complex, the New York Post reported.

The resort cost $ 181.8 million and features a mosaic of artist Ann Hamilton, including a text from the 1776 independence statement, the New York Times reported.

"It's long overdue," said Mitchell 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."

Benjamin Kabak, a transit advocate who runs a popular website on the subway, told the newspaper that it was good that the project was completed, even if it took too much time.

"This is not exactly one of their major achievements," said Kabak, referring to the MTA. "They had a lot of back and forth with the port authority."

The ceiling had to be completely renovated after parts of the World Trade Center had gone through, and 1,200 feet of track had to be rebuilt on either side of the station, WCBS-TV reported.

"This will allow people to get on, and they can get to the Upper West Side, they can connect to number two and number three to take the express to the Upper West Side – a connectivity level, "New York Transit Authority Development Director Janno Lieber told the station.