NY Times: When the twin towers fell on Sept 11, 2001, they came crashing down on the Cortlandt Street subway stop on the No. 1 line. The station was buried under debris, its sturdy beams bent like paper clips.
For nearly 17 years, the station has sat unused – achingly missing from the New York City subway map – even as a new sprawling World Trade Center complex has sprouted aboveground.
At long last, the station reopened at noon Saturday (Sept 8) with transit officials, politicians and eager riders gathering to welcome it back. Sleek, bright and airy, it bears little resemblance to its old, dank self. Row after row of words of freedom and inspiration run down the walls.
“Even though we fell, we were able to get back up,” said Andre Collazo, 64, a graphics technician from the Bronx. “It’s important in the sense that we’re strong, we’re resilient.”
The unveiling is a pivotal moment for New York – the last major piece in the city’s quest to rebuild what was lost, just before the anniversary of the attack. But the fact that it took so long is a glaring reminder of the dysfunction among the region’s transit agencies.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the subway system, only began to build the new station in 2015 after the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey handed over control of the site after finishing other parts of the area.
“It’s long overdue,” said Mitchell Moss, director of the Rudin Centre for Transportation Policy and Management at New York University. “It was a major challenge to rebuild the subway at the same time you’re rebuilding the site above it.”
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