The Downtown Hudson Tubes (formerly the Cortlandt Street Tunnel) are a pair of

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

s that carry PATH trains under the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, between

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

to the east and Jersey City, New Jersey, to the west. The tunnels run between the World Trade Center station on the New York side and the Exchange Place station on the New Jersey side. PATH operates two services through the Downtown Tubes,

Newark–World Trade Center Newark–World Trade Center is a rapid transit service operated by the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH). It is colored red on the PATH service map and trains on this service display red marker lights. This service operates from Pennsylvania Sta ...

and

Hoboken–World Trade Center Hoboken–World Trade Center is a rapid transit service operated by the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH). It is colored green on the PATH service map and trains on this service display green marker lights. This service operates from the Hoboken ...

. The former normally operates 24/7, while the latter only operates on weekdays.

Description

The Downtown Hudson Tubes use a roughly east-southeast to west-northwest path under the Hudson River, connecting

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

in the east with

Jersey City Jersey City is the second-most populous city (New Jersey), city in the U.S. state of New Jersey, after Newark, New Jersey, Newark.

in the west. Each track is located in its own tube, which enables better ventilation by the so-called piston effect. When a train passes through the tunnel it pushes out the air in front of it toward the closest ventilation shaft, and also pulls air into the rail tunnel from the closest ventilation shaft behind it. The diameter of both downtown tubes is . The underwater section of the tubes is about in total. The tubes were formed by segmental circular linings of cast-steel, bolted together at the rear of the excavating shields as the shields were driven forward. The tubes are lined with concrete below the top of the cable ducts, and are unlined above these ducts. On the Manhattan end, the tubes were connected by a

balloon loop A balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop ( North American Terminology) allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains. Bal ...

. The loop fanned out to include five tracks served by six platforms. This layout was built during the construction of the original Hudson Terminal, and a similar layout existed in two of the successive World Trade Center PATH stations that replaced it. The current World Trade Center PATH station includes four platforms, but the general track layout, with the five-track balloon loop, is otherwise similar to that of the previous World Trade Center stations. (a diagram is availabl
here
.

History

The tunnels were the second non-waterborne connection between Manhattan and New Jersey, after the Uptown Hudson Tubes. The idea for the downtown tunnels was devised by another company in 1903, the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Corporation (H&M). However,

William Gibbs McAdoo William Gibbs McAdoo Jr.McAdoo is variously differentiated from family members of the same name: * Dr. William Gibbs McAdoo (1820–1894) – sometimes called "I" or "Senior" * William Gibbs McAdoo (1863–1941) – sometimes called "II" or "Ju ...

's New York and Jersey Railroad Company, which was constructing the Uptown Tubes, was interested in the H&M tunnel. Early in the planning process, there were elaborate reports that the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

(PRR) was interested in operating its trains through the Downtown Hudson Tubes, so that the PRR's

New York Penn Station Pennsylvania Station, also known as New York Penn Station or simply Penn Station, is the main intercity railroad station in New York City and the busiest transportation facility in the Western Hemisphere, serving more than 600,000 passengers p ...

could be used solely for non-terminating trains. However, McAdoo denied these rumors, saying, "the Pennsylvania has not one dollar's interest" in such a venture. In January 1905, the Hudson Companies was incorporated for the purpose of completing the Uptown Hudson Tubes. The Hudson Companies would also build a pair of downtown tunnels between the Exchange Place station, in Jersey City, and Hudson Terminal, at the corner of Church and Cortlandt Streets in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...

. The company already had a capital of $21 million at the time of its incorporation. Work on the underwater section of the Downtown Tubes started in April 1905. That June, the New York State Board of Commissioners approved of the layout for the Downtown Tubes' Manhattan end. The Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company was incorporated in December 1906 to operate a passenger railroad system between New York and New Jersey via the Uptown and Downtown Tubes. The Downtown Tubes, located about south of the uptown pair, were well under construction by that time, as of these tubes had been constructed. Construction of the Downtown Tubes proceeded smoothly, and digging on the first of the Downtown Tubes was completed in January 1909, without anyone being killed during the process. The tubes began service on July 19, 1909, with the opening of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad's Hudson Terminal in lower Manhattan. At first, service only ran to Exchange Place, for the connection to the PRR's Exchange Place station. Service was extended from Exchange Place to

Hoboken Terminal Hoboken Terminal is a commuter-oriented intermodal passenger station in Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey. One of the New York metropolitan area's major transportation hubs, it is served by nine NJ Transit (NJT) commuter rail lines, one ...

on August 2, 1909; from Exchange Place to Grove Street in 1910; and finally from Grove Street to Park Place station in 1911. When the original World Trade Center was constructed in the 1960s, the Downtown Tubes remained in service as elevated tunnels until 1970, when a new PATH station was built. The new PATH station opened on July 6, 1971, and the Hudson Terminal was closed at that time. The downtown and uptown tubes were declared

National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark __NOTOC__ The following is a list of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks as designated by the American Society of Civil Engineers since it began the program in 1964. The designation is granted to projects, structures, and sites in the United State ...

s in 1978 by the

American Society of Civil Engineers American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

. The last remnant of Hudson Terminal was a cast-iron tube embedded in the original World Trade Center's foundation, located near Church Street. It was located above the level of the new PATH station, as well as that of the station's replacement after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

. The cast-iron tube was removed in 2008 during the construction of the new World Trade Center, a small section being donated to the

Shore Line Trolley Museum The Shore Line Trolley Museum is a trolley museum located in East Haven, Connecticut. Incorporated in 1945, it is the oldest continuously operating trolley museum in the United States. The museum includes exhibits on trolley history in the visit ...

along with one of the PATH train cars that were trapped underground when the towers collapsed. On July 7, 2006, an alleged plot to detonate explosives in the PATH's Downtown Hudson Tubes (initially said to be a plot to bomb the

Holland Tunnel The Holland Tunnel is a vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River that connects the New York City neighborhood of Hudson Square in Lower Manhattan to the east with Jersey City in New Jersey to the west. The tunnel is operated by the Port Autho ...

) was uncovered by the FBI. The plot included the detonation of a bomb that could significantly destroy and flood the tunnels, endangering all the occupants and vehicles in the tunnel at the time of the explosion. The terror planners believed that Lower Manhattan could, as a result of the explosion, be flooded due to river water surging up the remaining tunnel after the blast. Officials say that this plan was unsound due to the strength of the tunnels. Since

semi-trailer truck A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semitruck, (or semi, eighteen-wheeler, big rig, tractor-trailer or, by synecdoche, a semitrailer) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer ...

s are currently not allowed to pass through the Holland Tunnel, and it was infeasible to carry such a bomb onboard a PATH train, it was very difficult to get sufficient explosives into the tunnel to accomplish the plan. If the tunnel were to explode and allow water from the Hudson River to flood it, Lower Manhattan would be spared since the area is above sea level. Of the eight planners based in six different countries, three were arrested. The Downtown Hudson Tubes were severely damaged by

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds span ...

. To accommodate repairs, service on the Newark–World Trade Center line between Exchange Place and World Trade Center was suspended during almost all weekends in 2019 and 2020, except for holidays.

Description

History

See also

References

Further reading