Early history The
Dual Contracts, which were signed on March 19, 1913, were contracts for the construction and/or rehabilitation and operation of rapid transit lines in the
City of New York. The contracts were "dual" in that they were signed between the city and two separate private companies (the
Interborough Rapid Transit Company and the
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company), all working together to make the construction of the Dual Contracts possible. The Dual Contracts promised the construction of several lines in Brooklyn. As part of Contract 3, the IRT agreed to build a branch of the original subway line south down Seventh Avenue, Varick Street, and West Broadway to serve the West Side of Manhattan. The construction of this line, in conjunction with the construction of the
Lexington Avenue Line, would change the operations of the IRT system. Instead of having trains go via Broadway, turning onto 42nd Street, before finally turning onto Park Avenue, there would be two trunk lines connected by the
42nd Street Shuttle. The system would be changed from looking like a "Z" system on a map to an "H" system. One trunk would run via the new Lexington Avenue Line down Park Avenue, and the other trunk would run via the new Seventh Avenue Line up Broadway. In order for the line to continue down Varick Street and West Broadway, these streets needed to be widened, and two new streets were built, the Seventh Avenue Extension and the Varick Street Extension. It was predicted that the subway extension would lead to the growth of the Lower West Side, and to neighborhoods such as
Chelsea and
Greenwich Village. During construction of the station, under Dey Street, the hull of a colonial ship was uncovered. Cortlandt Street opened as part of an extension of the line from
34th Street–Penn Station to
South Ferry on July 1, 1918. Initially, the station was served by a shuttle running from
Times Square to South Ferry. The new "H" system was implemented on August 1, 1918, joining the two halves of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and sending all West Side trains south from Times Square. An immediate result of the switch was the need to transfer using the 42nd Street Shuttle in order to retrace the original layout. The completion of the "H" system doubled the capacity of the IRT system. It had a standard two
side platform layout with two tracks. There were mosaic decorations by
Squire J. Vickers or Herbert Dole depicting ships along each platform's wall.
20th century The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940. On August 9, 1964, the
New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) announced the letting of a $7.6 million contract to lengthen platforms at stations from
Rector Street to
34th Street–Penn Station on the line, including Cortlandt Street, and stations from
Central Park North–110th Street to
145th Street on the Lenox Avenue Line to allow express trains to be lengthened from nine-car trains to ten-car trains, and to lengthen locals from eight-car trains to ten-car trains. With the completion of this project, the NYCTA project to lengthen IRT stations to accommodate ten-car trains would be complete. Work on the platform extension project took place in 1965 and 1966. During the project, old tiling and mosaics were removed and replaced with the 1970s-style varnished, tan-colored brick tiles. One of the mosaics was preserved in the
New York Transit Museum. In 1965, Cortlandt Street west of Church Street was demolished to create the superblock of the
World Trade Center. The station, with entrances at Vesey Street and inside the World Trade Center concourse, was separated from the remaining block of Cortlandt Street. Trains bypassed the station in the aftermath of the February 26, 1993,
World Trade Center bombing. Soon after, 1 trains were back to
Chambers Street. In 2001, just prior to the September 11 attacks, the Cortlandt Street station saw 19,446 riders per day.
September 11, 2001, attacks The station and the surrounding subway tunnels were severely damaged in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks following the
collapse of Two World Trade Center, resulting in the closure of the line south of
Chambers Street. The steel I-beams of the station were crumpled and the station roof collapsed, as the tunnel had been located underground, relatively close to ground level. The original tunnel had measured wide and high, with columns between the two tracks spaced at intervals of . Soon after the attacks, two options were considered: either the existing line would be repaired, or the tunnel would be diverted westward just to the north of the World Trade Center site before heading to a new terminal at South Ferry. The first option was chosen, and to quickly restore service to
Rector Street and
South Ferry stations to the south, workers demolished the remainder of the station and built walls where the platforms used to be. Eventually, it was decided that the Cortlandt Street station was to be rebuilt as part of the greater World Trade Center reconstruction project; since the station was such a vital one in the area, a permanent closure was infeasible. The Port Authority's chief engineer and others tried to convince him to temporarily shut down the line while the new transportation hub at the
World Trade Center was under construction. The Governor's decision to keep the line open increased the cost of the project because the subway structure had to be underpinned. The new tunnel measured wide to accommodate the future reconstruction of the Cortlandt Street station; The northern entrance at Vesey Street was under a staircase to
the plaza above. After the attacks, the staircase still stood and became known as the
Survivors' Staircase. The stairs were moved into the
National September 11 Museum in July 2008.
Reconstruction and delays PANYNJ cleanup In 2007, the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), in the Environmental Impact Statement for the World Trade Center PATH terminal, expected the Cortlandt Street station to reopen in 2009. The Port Authority was set to complete underpinning and excavation under the tunnel structure by the second quarter of 2010, and start basic construction of the Cortlandt Street station during the 3rd quarter. Station finishes were set to start during the second quarter of 2011, to 2011, When the site was filled back in, the developers of the new
World Trade Center rebuilt Cortlandt Street across the site as one of the primary roads, resulting in the rebuilt Cortlandt Street station again serving its namesake. and in February 2015, the PANYNJ and the MTA agreed to finish the station. The part of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line on which the Cortlandt Street station is located, south of
Chambers Street, was intermittently closed between May 2015 and 2018. This allowed construction at the station, which included station finishes, tiles and lighting, to resume.
MTA rebuild 1 trains at the station, as seen from the southbound platform The MTA gained control of the Cortlandt Street station's reconstruction project in 2015. The PANYNJ agreed to grant the MTA "full access" to the Cortlandt Street station in June 2017 once the temporary World Trade Center PATH entrance was demolished and the station's foundation was poured. The renovation included new
Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant entrances with
elevators, A $1 million text-based marble mural by
Ann Hamilton was installed in the station. In April 2018, several news sources affirmed the possible reopening date of October 2018. By June, the station wiring was complete, architectural finishes and turnstiles were being installed, and elevators and escalators were being installed. The reconstruction of the station ultimately cost $181 million, up from earlier projections of $158 million and $101 million. A new name, "WTC Cortlandt", was chosen for the station because of its location under the World Trade Center, in addition to paying homage to its historic name of Cortlandt Street. However, work on the station had yet to be complete. , the MTA still had to complete the art on the northbound platform's wall, replace temporary ceilings, floodproof the station, and complete the north end of the station. The MTA projected that the work would be substantially complete by the end of December 2018. , the station's reconstruction was 95% complete but some work remained to be done. == Station layout ==