Beneath Manhattan’s busy streets lies a parallel world that most New Yorkers will never see. Abandoned subway stations sit frozen in time. Their platforms are empty, and their tilework slowly fades in the darkness. These ghost stations represent over a century of transit history. Each one reminds us of old decisions about which stops would survive and which would be closed.
The crown jewel is the original City Hall station. It opened on October 27, 1904, as the southern terminal of the city’s first subway line. Designed by architects George Lewis Heins and Christopher Grant LaFarge, the station was intended to be the showpiece of the new Interborough Rapid Transit system. Unlike the plain stops that came later, City Hall featured Romanesque Revival architecture. It had soaring Guastavino tile arches, brass chandeliers, and skylights that filtered natural light from City Hall Park above. Rich terra cotta and glass tilework came in cream, green, and blue.
The station’s elegance couldn’t save it. Its curved platform was too short. It could only accommodate five-car trains, which couldn’t be lengthened when the system upgraded to ten-car trains. The tight curve made the gap between the platform and the straight train cars dangerous. By its final year of operation, the station served only about 600 passengers daily. Commuters found it easier to use the nearby Brooklyn Bridge station. On December 31, 1945, City Hall closed forever.
Today, the station remains in good condition. Unlike other abandoned stops that have been vandalized or fallen into decay, City Hall has been preserved by its isolation and the security concerns of its location. The New York Transit Museum occasionally offers tours to members, though tickets are hard to get. Only about 16 tours are offered annually, at $50 per person.
For those without museum membership, there’s a workaround. The downtown 6 train still uses the City Hall loop to turn around after its final stop at Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall. Passengers who stay on the train can look through the windows as it slowly curves through the abandoned station. You can glimpse the original skylights, chandeliers, and tilework. Technically, passengers should exit at Brooklyn Bridge, but enforcement is lax. You can sit in the seventh, eighth, or ninth car for the best view.
Worth Street station tells a less glamorous but equally fascinating ghost story. Opened in 1904 as one of the original 28 IRT stations, Worth Street sat between Canal Street and Brooklyn Bridge. The station closed in September 1962, a casualty of platform extensions at Brooklyn Bridge that made the nearby stop redundant. Riders on the 6 train between Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall and Canal Street can glimpse the abandoned platform through the darkness, though it’s much harder to spot than City Hall.
Perhaps the strangest abandoned station is South 4th Street in Williamsburg. It was never used at all. Construction began in 1929 as part of the proposed “Second System” expansion, but the Great Depression and World War II killed the project. The incomplete station sat empty for decades. In 2010, it briefly became the site of the Underbelly Project. This was an illegal art installation featuring work from over 100 street artists. The group never revealed the exact location, adding to the station’s mystique.
The 18th Street station on the original IRT line closed in 1948. It was another victim of platform lengthening at nearby 14th Street-Union Square. Sharp-eyed passengers on the local 6 train can sometimes spot traces of the old platform between 14th Street and 23rd Street. But the station has been stripped of most distinguishing features.
What happened to the 91st Street station on the Broadway line follows a similar pattern. It closed in 1959 when platforms at 86th Street and 96th Street were extended. The station’s ghost can be seen from the 1 train. Its tilework still bears the “91” mosaic that once guided passengers.
Beyond completely abandoned stations, Manhattan has many unused platforms and passageways. The Woolworth Building once had a direct tunnel to the City Hall R station. Office workers could descend from the ornate lobby directly to the subway. The passage has been sealed for decades, but the original doors remain visible in the building’s basement. Similar hidden connections once linked the subway to major hotels and department stores throughout Midtown.
The Waldorf Astoria hotel on Park Avenue reportedly has a private subway platform. VIP guests, including presidents, could arrive without passing through public spaces. The existence and current status of this platform remains a secret, with the MTA neither confirming nor denying it. Urban explorers have guessed its location beneath Park Avenue, but no photographs have documented it.
Masstransiscope, located in an abandoned station at the base of the Manhattan Bridge, offers a different kind of ghost station experience. Artist Bill Brand installed 228 hand-painted panels in the defunct Myrtle Avenue station in 1980. When viewed from a passing subway train, the panels create an animated film effect. It’s a zoetrope built into abandoned infrastructure. The installation was restored in 2008 and again in 2020. This proves that abandoned stations can find new purpose as art venues.
The Transit Museum occasionally opens abandoned stations for special events. Their “Day One on the IRT” tour once visited all four closed stations on the original line. Security concerns following September 11 stopped many of these programs, but the museum continues to advocate for preservation of these underground landmarks.
Urban historians have documented over a dozen abandoned or unused stations throughout the system. Each closure tells a story about changing ridership patterns, evolving train technology, and the constant negotiation between preservation and progress. The ghost stations remain as monuments to the city’s transit history hiding in plain sight beneath the busy streets above.
