The station opened on February 25, 1908, as part of the
Hudson and Manhattan Railroad extension between New Jersey and
33rd Street. It received a renovation in 1986, during which the station was closed completely from June 2–September 1, along with the
14th Street station. The station has long seen heavy traffic not only from passengers going to Jersey City and Hoboken, but also by Manhattan residents traveling from Greenwich Village to Midtown. The nearest
subway station,
Christopher Street-Stonewall, is two blocks away. The already busy station received even more passengers after the
September 11, 2001 attacks, which resulted in the destruction of the
World Trade Center PATH station. With Christopher Street becoming the closest PATH station to New Jersey, it started experiencing serious overcrowding. In 2002, Christopher Street station was used by an average of 7,400 people per day, or about 2.701 million per year. This was more than twice as many as the 1.314 million passengers that used the station during 2001. The
Port Authority had to make it an exit-only station during the morning rush hour. In 2002, the Port Authority announced plans to build a second entrance at Christopher and Bedford Street (a block and a half east of the current entrance), to ease overcrowding at the station. The project would have included a mezzanine, == Station layout ==