First subway Planning for a
subway line in New York City dates to 1864. The subway plans were drawn up by a team of engineers led by
William Barclay Parsons, the Rapid Transit Commission's chief engineer. It called for a subway line from
New York City Hall in
lower Manhattan to the
Upper West Side, where two branches would lead north into
the Bronx. A plan was formally adopted in 1897, in which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line. Because engineers had expected to find quicksand near the pond's site, contractors waited to construct the section between Pearl and Canal Streets; work on this segment had not even begun by early 1902. Workers found that the ground was sturdier than expected, consisting of "good, coarse gravel", The new brick sewer was circular and measured across, expanding to at
Chatham Square. The subway was nearly complete, but the
IRT Powerhouse and the system's
electrical substations were still under construction, delaying the system's opening. The Canal Street station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway from
City Hall to
145th Street on the
Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. the station was served by local trains along both the West Side (now the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line to
Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street) and East Side (now the
Lenox Avenue Line). West Side local trains had their southern terminus at City Hall during rush hours and
South Ferry at other times, and had their northern terminus at 242nd Street. East Side local trains ran from City Hall to
Lenox Avenue (145th Street). To address overcrowding, in 1909, the
New York Public Service Commission proposed lengthening the platforms at stations along the original IRT subway. As part of a modification to the IRT's construction contracts made on January 18, 1910, the company was to lengthen station platforms to accommodate ten-car express and six-car local trains. In addition to $1.5 million (equivalent to $ million in ) spent on platform lengthening, $500,000 (equivalent to $ million in ) was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent. Platforms at local stations, such as the Canal Street station, were lengthened by between . Both platforms were extended to the north and south.) in the
Dual Contracts, adopted on March 4, 1913. The BRT was authorized to construct a line under Broadway with a station at Canal Street, as well as a line under Canal Street with a station at Broadway. The development of the BRT stations resulted in increased real-estate values in the area. Also as part of the Dual Contracts, the Lexington Avenue Line opened north of
Grand Central–42nd Street in 1918, and the original line was divided into an H-shaped system. All local trains were sent via the Lexington Avenue Line, running along the
Pelham Line in
the Bronx.
Centre Street Loop As early as 1902, Parsons had devised plans for a subway line under
Centre Street in Lower Manhattan. The line would have had four tracks from the
Brooklyn Bridge north to Canal Street; from there, two tracks would split eastward to the
Manhattan Bridge, and two tracks would continue north and east to the
Williamsburg Bridge. By 1904, the route had been widened to four tracks from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Williamsburg Bridge. The
Centre Street Loop (later the Nassau Street Line) was approved on January 25, 1907, as a four-track line. The route was to connect the Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, and Williamsburg Bridge via
Centre Street,
Canal Street, and
Delancey Street, with a spur under Canal Street. Unlike previous subway contracts that the city government had issued, the BRT was responsible only for constructing the Centre Street Loop and installing equipment, not for operating the loop. The work was split into five sections; the Canal Street station was built as part of the two sections of the line that ran under Centre Street. The Degnon Construction Company was hired to build section 9-0-2, from Canal Street north to
Broome Street, while the Cranford Company was hired to build section 9-0-3, from Canal Street south to
Pearl Street. The line had to be built through the former site of Collect Pond, which still had high amounts of groundwater. Contractors drained the groundwater, causing a huge crack in a nearby courthouse building. The Centre Street Loop station, including a bridge over a planned line on Canal Street, was completed at the end of 1909. The station remained closed because the
Chambers Street station, the terminal for the Centre Street Loop, was not complete. The BRT tunnel under Centre Street was completed by 1910, except for the section under the
Manhattan Municipal Building, which contained the incomplete Chambers Street station. The tunnel remained unused for several years. In March 1913, the Public Service Commission authorized the BRT to lay tracks, install signals, and operate the loop. The Nassau Street Line platforms opened on August 4, 1913, providing service to northern Brooklyn via the Williamsburg Bridge. The BRT proposed the next year to construct a line across Canal Street and the Manhattan Bridge to connect with the
Brighton Beach Line. The BRT submitted a proposal to the Commission, dated March 2, 1911, to operate the Tri-borough system (but under Church Street instead of Greenwich Street), as well as a branch along Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 59th Street from Ninth Street north and east to the
Queensboro Bridge. The Canal Street subway was to merge with the Broadway Line instead of continuing to the Hudson River. At the time, the Public Service Commission did not plan to build a track connection between the Canal Street and Broadway lines, saying that such a connection would cause severe train congestion. The BRT wanted to connect the lines, citing the fact that it would be difficult for passengers to transfer at the Canal Street station or to reroute trains in case of emergency. this connection was estimated to cost an additional $1 million. In October 1913, the Public Service Commission ordered the BRT's parent company, the New York Municipal Corporation, to pay the Underpinning and Foundation Company about $12,000 for work related to the construction of the connection between the Canal Street and Broadway lines. At the time, the Underpinning and Foundation Company was constructing the section of the Broadway Line from Howard Street north to Bleecker Street; the New York Municipal Corporation ultimately had to pay the contractor an additional $412,000 for the connection. The commission was soliciting bids for a tunnel that diverged from the Broadway mainline, extending east under Canal Street to the Manhattan Bridge, by February 1914. Due to the swampy character of the area, caused by the presence of the former Collect Pond, the commission considered building the line using either the cut-and-cover method or using deep-bore tunneling. The Underpinning and Foundation Company submitted a low bid of $1.822 million for a cut-and-cover tunnel in May 1914, and the company was selected to build the station two months later. Work on the Manhattan Bridge line proceeded slowly, in part because of the high
water table of the area, which required the contractor to pump out millions of gallons of groundwater every day. Although the old canal along Canal Street had been infilled, the ground still contained significant amounts of water;
The Sun wrote that "the solution of the problem is in a way as great as those" that the builders of the
Panama Canal had faced. About of water had to be pumped out every minute of the day at all times, equating to about every twenty-four hours. and it was 80 percent finished by that October. The Manhattan Bridge line platforms opened on September 4, 1917, as part of the first section of the Broadway Line from Canal Street to
14th Street–Union Square.
Broadway mainline The
New York Public Service Commission also adopted plans for what was known as the Broadway–Lexington Avenue route (later the Broadway mainline) on December 31, 1907. Two segments of the Broadway Line around Canal Street were placed under contract early in 1912. Two months later, the contract for Section 2A, which stretched between Canal and Howard Streets and included the Canal Street station, was awarded to the O'Rourke Engineering Construction Company. Section 2A was twelve percent completed by early 1913. Work on section 2 was further advanced, being 60 percent done by June of that year. The design of the Broadway mainline's station was changed midway through construction when the track connection to the Manhattan Bridge line was added. The same month, the Public Service Commission began accepting bids for the installation of finishes at seven stations on the Broadway Line from
Rector Street to 14th Street, including Canal Street. and was 35 percent completed with the finishes by October 1916.
1910s to 1930s Leaks and platform extensions The Manhattan Bridge line station had begun to leak noticeably by April 1918, in large part because of the high amount of groundwater in the area. The leaks became so severe that up to per minute leaked into the station. In late 1918, the Underpinning and Foundation Company was hired to
grout the station for $20,000 to stop the leaks. To allow workers to repair the station, the BRT operated a shuttle service from Canal Street to
Pacific Street on a single track during late nights. The work was completed by April 1919, As a side effect of the grouting work, the settlement of the IRT station was corrected. That December, the commission approved a $3 million project to lengthen platforms at 14 local stations along the original IRT line, including Canal Street and seven other stations on the Lexington Avenue Line. Platform lengths at these stations would be increased from . The commission postponed the platform-lengthening project in September 1923, at which point the cost had risen to $5.6 million. The mainline Broadway Line station's platforms originally could only fit six cars. In 1926, the
New York City Board of Transportation received bids for the lengthening of platforms at nine stations on the Broadway Line, including the mainline station at Canal Street, to accommodate eight-car trains. Edwards & Flood submitted a low bid of $101,775 for the project. The BMT platform-lengthening project was completed in 1927, bringing the length of the platforms to . The commission ordered the BMT to install additional signs at the Canal Street BMT stations in mid-1930. Meanwhile, the commission again considered lengthening the IRT platforms at Canal Street in December 1927. The platforms would be extended southward, in the direction of the
Worth Street station, where the platforms would not be lengthened. At the end of the month, the Transit Commission requested that the IRT create plans to lengthen the platforms at Canal Street and three other Lexington Avenue Line stations to . The
New York City Board of Transportation drew up plans for the project, The commission approved the plans in mid-1929; the Canal Street station's platforms were to be extended to the south. The IRT refused, claiming that the city government was responsible for the work, and obtained a federal injunction to prevent the commission from forcing the IRT to lengthen the platforms. In late 1930, the commission requested that the
New York Supreme Court force the IRT to lengthen platforms at the Canal Street and Spring Street stations.
Overcrowding issues After the BRT stations at Canal Street opened, the complex became a major transfer hub for the BRT lines, but the different platforms were only connected via a narrow passageway. Overcrowding was exacerbated by the fact that the station was the only place where Centre Street Line passengers could transfer to a BRT train to
Midtown Manhattan; the convoluted layout of staircases and passageways; and the lack of directional signs. By 1918, local civic groups were advocating for the opening of the BRT's Canarsie Line (which had a transfer to the Broadway Line at Union Square) to alleviate congestion at Canal Street; the Public Service Commission was obligated to open that line as part of the Dual Contracts. The Broadway Board of Trade called the station "a menace to life and limb". In response, in February 1918, the Public Service Commission announced in February 1918 that it would build two exit stairways and have some Centre Street Loop trains skip the Canal Street station. The BRT also employed staff members on the platforms at all times to direct traffic. In June 1920, the BRT began requiring passengers to exit the station if they wished to transfer between the Nassau Street and Broadway lines during rush hours. Passengers were issued transfer tickets from the Nassau Street Line to the Broadway Line in the morning and vice versa in the afternoon. To further alleviate crowding, the Transit Commission requested in mid-1922 that plans be drawn up for a new entrance at the southwest corner of Centre and Walker Streets. In addition, the Broadway Association asked that a station be built on the Broadway Line between Canal Street and City Hall due to the unusually long distance between the two stops. By 1924, BMT officials said that, if anyone were to be killed because of congestion at Canal Street, mayor
John Francis Hylan would be to blame. The next year, the BMT agreed to complete the Canarsie Line to reduce overcrowding at Canal Street. Canarsie Line trains finally began running directly to Brooklyn in 1928, by which the BMT was issuing 38,000 transfers per day at Canal Street during rush hours. The addition of direct Brooklyn service on the Canarsie Line reduced overcrowding at the Canal Street station, and the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. The New York City Board of Transportation issued a $1.992 million contract in April 1947 to extend the southbound IRT platforms at Canal Street and Worth Street to fit ten-car trains. The work was finished the next year. The next April, work began on a $3,509,000 project (equivalent to $ million in ) to lengthen platforms at seven of these stations to accommodate ten-car trains. The northbound platforms at Canal Street, Spring Street, Bleecker Street, and Astor Place were lengthened from ; the platform extensions at these stations opened on February 19, 1962. In the late 1960s, New York City Transit extended both sets of Broadway Line platforms to accommodate ten-car trains. The NYCTA also covered the elaborate mosaic tile walls with white cinderblock tiles at 16 local stations on the Broadway and
Fourth Avenue lines, including both the Broadway mainline and Manhattan Bridge line platforms at Canal Street. The station agents' booths at Canal Street and Centre Street, and at Canal Street and Broadway, were closed in 1976 to save money. These booths were reopened part-time in 1978. On January 16, 1978, the transfer between the Lexington Avenue Line and the BMT platforms was placed inside fare control. The free transfer was intended to encourage increased ridership. Previously, the BMT stations were all connected with each other, but people transferring between the BMT and IRT had to pay a second fare.
1990s to present With the exception of three months in 1990, train service to the Manhattan Bridge line's platforms was suspended from 1988 to 2001 while the
Manhattan Bridge's southern pair of subway tracks was rebuilt. The platforms remained open for passengers transferring between the other routes, since they were the only connections between the other platforms in the complex. Service between Manhattan and Brooklyn was redirected to the mainline platforms and used the
Montague Street Tunnel. The three-month period was supposed to have allowed train service while work on the bridge was not being done, but on December 27, 1990, the discovery of missing steel plates and corrosion that threatened the bridge's integrity halted this service. During the 1990s, garbage accumulated on the unused spur tracks, and the ceiling and tiles developed water damage. In 1997, a temporary art exhibit known as the
Canal Street Canal by
Alexander Brodsky was installed on the northbound track, after Brodsky won an
MTA Arts for Transit design competition. It consisted of a large waterproof tub filled with water, with
Venetian canal boats floating inside. In April 1993, the
New York State Legislature agreed to give the MTA $9.6 billion for capital improvements. Some of the funds would be used to renovate nearly one hundred New York City Subway stations, including the entire Canal Street complex. Work on the renovation began in May 1994, at which point it was supposed to cost $44 million. To minimize disruption to the surrounding neighborhood, workers only conducted excavations at night. The work included modifications to staircases, re-tiling for the walls, new tiling on the floors, upgrading the station's lights and the public address system, installing new lighting, and installing two elevators. The project was originally supposed to be complete in December 1997. The MTA hosted tours of the station during the renovation, selling tickets to members of the public who wished to see the work in detail. During the renovation, in October 1995, workers accidentally drilled into the foundation of a neighboring building named Fu Long Plaza, causing that building to tilt. Water main breaks also delayed the project. By mid-1999, the completion of the station's renovation had been postponed nearly three years, to November 2000. ==Station layout==